U.S. Military Industrial Management Film " Sub-Contracting for Defense " Wwii 86694 (1941)

Synopsis

Made for public viewing by the War Department, later known as the Depart of Defense, this film narrated by Hugh James focuses on "Subcontracting for Defense". It shows the early mobilization of American industrial capacity that occurred prior to and during WWII. The film was one of a series of "Defense Reports on Film" made by the Office of Production Management and appears to have been made prior to entry in WWII, as the USA's economy gained steam as the "arsenal of democracy" -- shipping supplies and defense material to Britain as well as equipping it's own military. At the time, the government was calling on small factories and manufacturers to join in the effort. (Initially most of the defense contracts were going to larger corporations however by 1942 the Smaller War Plants Corporation was created in order to aide small manufactures in pursuit of military contracts.) This film was produced for the Defense Contract Service of the Office of Production Management. It was produced by Arch A. Mercey (:21). The film begins in a steel factory (:39) with white hot metal coming out of furnaces which will be used to make the commodities of war such as guns, tanks, ships, planes, etc. (:39). Modern warfare had become industry versus industry and victory depended on whoever had the largest industrial capacity (1:09). There was a need to boost the industry effort as Germany’s army was receiving more weapons from conquered areas than the USA was able to send to beleaguered Britain…

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Details

Running time

8 minutes

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage