PODCAST:
June 23, 2026 ~ WJR’s Director of Community Affairs and News Marie Osborne details how Detroit became “The Arsenal of Democracy.”
DETROIT, MICH. ~ In honor of America’s 250th anniversary, 760 WJR is looking back at the contributions that the state of Michigan has made to the fabric of the country.
As World War II brought demand for weaponry, Detroit became known for more than just automobile production. During a Fireside Chat in 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt coined the term, “The Arsenal of Democracy,” in a call to arm the Allied powers, and Detroit became a star in the role, as the city started producing B-24 Liberator bombers every hour at Ford’s Willow Run plant by 1944.
“Chrysler produced tanks. General Motors built guns and aircraft,” Osborne said on All Talk. “What had been chrome and steel for highways became weapons for liberation.”
While the men went off to the battlefield, more than 400,000 women in Metro Detroit joined factories to bolster manufacturing.
In the end, General Dwight D. Eisenhower credited Detroit’s production and industry in helping the Allies take home the victory.
