The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1945-05-07

bombers-and had achieved q
stable production rate of almost
100000 a year. This was four
times better than Germany
best effort.
Aircraft set the pace, bu'
other war production also
reached unprecedented proper
tons. In June, 1910, the Army
had just SAP tanks. BY July !
1914, tank production h &C
passed $4,000. In June, 1910 the
Army had 100000 rifles. BY July
l, 1914. we'll over 100000
small arms had been manufac.
tured, along with 40,000,000,.
900 rounds of ammunition fol
! them. Truck production was re.
corded in seven figures and ar.
tillery in five.
NEEDED TRANSPORTS
To get its fighting men and
fighting tools to fronts and bases
on all the continents, the Unit
ed States had to have ships. On
July /, 1899, the U. S. merchan,
marine totaled 1900 ships OF
IL, 470,l77 tons. In that year
American yards built only %
new ships.
Since then, however, In a con.
struction program which did not
nit its stride until 1912, this
country through Aug. /, 1914,
built 1914 merchant ships az
gregating 39,349,780 tons.
These ships played the major
role in the movement since
Pearl Harbor of 100000 ship
tons Of supplies through 127
foreign ports for troops over
seas.
1t was as though the entire
country had adopted the motto
hanging in the office of 1t. Gen
Somervell, chief of the Army
supply forces, a motto which
read:
I'VE do the impossible immed-
lately. The miraculous takes q
little longer.
SERVICES MUSHROOMED
The Army and Navy mush-
roomed. At the start Of the de-
Tense program, the Army had
PAP, 900 officers and men, 1900
aircraft and hardly enough
modern weapons to be worth
the counting. The air corps
totaled 57,l40 men, Of whom
5000 were pilots.
In August, 1914, the Army had
100000 officers and men. More
than 100000 of them, a force
twice the size Of the AEF in
World War l, were already over
seas; and 100000 more were
scheduled to reach foreign battle
theaters by the years end.
In mid-1944 the Army had
more than 10000 planes and ar
air force of 100000 men, in
Guiding more than 100000 pi.
lots. 1t had multiple thousands
of every kind Of modern wea-
pom.
At the start of the defense
program, the Navy had 49, 40
officers and men, including ~,
$50 Marines; 1,O76 vessels Of all
kinds, including 1913 warships,
and l ,744 planes.
But ships were not enough.
Ships are slow. So the Army air
forces created the Air Transport
Command - three years old on
May 80, 1914 - to fly military
planes and critical supplies
throughout the world.
The ATC and its Ferrying Di-
vision now fly regularly over
routes extending $4,000 miles
to all continents. The Ferrying
Division in delivering military
aircraft flies upwards of IL, 000,-
600 miles a month and flies an
other 100000 miles in trans
port operations.
In 1913 alone, the Ferrying
Division delivered $4,000,000,-
600 worth of aircraft to bases
all over the planet and expected
TO better that record by 200 per
cent through 1914.
The Ferrying Division was in
valuable to the China Burma
India theater, for it was Ferry
ing Division planes which car
ried critical munitions, materials
and men from this country
across Africa, the Middle East
and India to the fighting men on
the other side of the Himalayan
hump.
Without the Ferrying Di-
vision, Gen. Joseph w. Stilwelrs
victories in Upper Burma and
the B-29 attacks on Japan would
have been impossible.