General Motors and all of its divisions, including Chevrolet, played a major role in the defense of America during World War II. The story of the company’s involvement in building the “Arsenal of Freedom”—the mountain of war materials that assured victory for the Allied Powers — is more amazing when you realize how suddenly war goods production began, how well planned the effort was and how much it contributed to winning the war in such a short span of time.
Chevrolet and other GM divisions never dreamed that they would, one day, be the largest maker of military goods in the world. During World War I, GM was an important manufacturer of aircraft engines for the U.S. Army. However, the corporation’s total WWI military business was only $35 million. That compares to $12 billion of military production just before and during World War II.
Auto production didn’t stop during WWI, noted GM Chairman Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., in his book My Years with General Motors. “It was possible to regard our (WWI) military work as a kind of temporary sideline,” wrote the man who was chairman of the board at GM from 1937 to 1956. After WWI, military contracts dried up quickly and GM got very little military business for about 10 years. Then, in the short time between early 1941 and late 1945, things changed dramatically.
Passenger car production in the United States ground to a halt. From February 1942 until September 1945, GM did not build a single passenger car in the U.S.
