May 8 is the 80th anniversary of World War II’s VE-Day

By Don Sherman
Van Buren Township
In 1992, I had the opportunity to interview several Belleville and Ypsilanti men and women regarding their contributions to the design, construction, and operation of the Willow Run plant for manufacturing B-24 Liberator bombers.
To celebrate the 80th anniversary of Allied victory in World War II — May 8, 1945 — key dates, facts, and figures from the story I wrote for Air&Space magazine are shared here. (Copies of the August/September 1992 issue of that publication are available on eBay). While it seems unlikely today, the Allied forces were Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the U.S., and China. The enemy, known as the Axis powers, consisted of Germany, Italy, and Japan.
1931 — Henry Ford purchased 300 acres of Wayne County land adjoining Willow Run creek. In addition to his farming efforts, he established Camp Willow Run in support of the young sons of disabled or deceased WWI military veterans. These kids worked the fields for $2 per day and earned from selling the fruits and vegetables they raised.
1940 — At the beginning of hostilities in Europe, President Franklin Roosevelt called for the production of 50,000 airplanes per year, 20 times more than his 1939 request. Ford responded with an offer to build an incredible 1,000 planes of one design per day based on its expertise in manufacturing cars and Tri-motor aircraft. A government contract was subsequently issued for Ford to build 4000 Pratt&Whitney aircraft engines.
January 1941 — Henry Ford and his manufacturing chief Charles Sorenson visited Consolidated Aircraft in California to study their B-24 bomber manufacturing practices. Their conclusion: by automotive standards, Consolidated’s procedures were 35 years out of date. After toiling overnight in his hotel room, Sorenson forecast that a $200-million factory staffed by 100,000 workers could accelerate the goal of one plane per day to a finished plane per hour.
March — After the government issued the Ford Motor Company a $3.4-million contract, 300 men wielding saws, axes, and bulldozers attacked the 100-acre Willow Run woodlot where the bomber plant would be constructed. Felled trees were cut into lumber using a steam-powered sawmill with its blade running red hot.
Hundreds of Ford design experts travelled to California to ascertain what tools and dies would be needed. Nearly 1,000 men and women worked around the clock to design critical tooling. They also reduced the B-24 design to 69 major subassemblies. By their astute reckoning, each bomber would consist of more than a million parts held together with 400,000 rivets.
April 18 — Ground was broken for the new plant. Two weeks later, steel beams arrived to support this factory’s roof.
June 16 — Nine days before its concrete floor was poured, Ford’s B-24 plant was dedicated.
October 22 — Major Jimmy Doolittle landed at the new Willow Run Airport which consisted of one-mile-square runways.
November — Production commenced.
December 4 — Three days before Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack, the airport’s paving was completed.
1942 — Ford’s plant featured an efficient flow of materials onto receiving docks and into storage cribs before entering manufacturing and assembly areas. Conveyors moved small parts and overhead cranes shifted weighty components.
An innovative 70-foot-long fixture supported the center wing assembly (carrying the landing gear and four engines) for machining. This tooling performed nearly 100 operations in hours versus the 19 days and 10,000 man-hours required by Consolidated. A second labor saving technique was replacing 15,000 spot welds per plane with rivets.
Charles Lindbergh called Willow Run, “a Grand Canyon of the mechanized world.” The factory provided 2.5-million square feet of floor space inside one 1280 x 3200-foot building.
The first finished plane rolled forth in August; 56 B24s were completed in 1942.
1943 — Production accelerated to 31 planes in January, then 190 in June. Employment climbed to 42,331 personnel, including 15,000 women. Females were essential because all eligible men were recruited for the war effort.
1944 — Willow Run became the nation’s largest B-24 producer. In March, Ford’s factory built 453 bombers in 468 hours.
Workers came from 48 states plus Hawaii, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Latin America. Many shared living quarters with one tenant sleeping while the other worked. Trucks hauled in prefab housing that was stacked flat then expeditiously erected. Workers also lived in tents, shacks, Quonset huts, and converted gas stations. The new Willow Village surpassed Ypsilanti’s 15,000 population.
Operating hours at the Orange Lantern bar were 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.; beer cost 10-cents a glass.
29,000 workers produced 93-million pounds of airframe, half the output by Germany, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union and nearly equaling Japan’s production. Over two years Ford’s price for a B-24 fell from $238,000 to $137,000.
Total Willow Run production was 8,685 planes including 1,894 kits shipped to other factories for assembly.
April 30, 1945 — Anticipating Germany’s loss in the final Battle of Berlin, Adolf Hitler committed suicide.
May 8 — Upon Germany’s unconditional surrender, the Allies celebrated Victory in Europe.
August 15 — After atomic bombs were dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered and a second WWII celebration broke out.
November 10 — Don Sherman, this story’s author, was born in Iowa. He was named after his uncle Donald Eugene who served five years as an Army officer and was awarded a Bronze Star for his meritorious European service.
1946 — Kaiser-Fraser began assembling automobiles at Willow Run. Following a 1953 fire at its Livonia factory, GM relocated its automatic transmission manufacturing to this location.
2000 — The Orange Lantern bar closed.
2010 — As part of GM’s bankruptcy, the Willow Run transmission plant closed.
2014 — Except for 175,000 sq. ft. preserved for Yankee Air Museum use, the Willow Run plant was demolished.
May 2024 — The Yankee Air Museum was renamed Michigan Flight Museum.
2025—Ten businesses still operate at Willow Run, the largest of which is Kalitta Air’s cargo and charter operations.