1. Detroit “Arsenal of Democracy” World War II

2. A joyous Detroit crowd celebrates VJ Day Aug. 14, 1945, marking the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II. Detroit's role in the war, when the auto factories turned out tanks and warplanes, earned it a place in history as the Arsenal of Democracy.

3. Detroit's automobile plants, retooled for the war effort, built everything from tanks to bombs to guns. In just the first 18 months after Pearl Harbor, 350,000 people came to Detroit to work in defense plants. Automakers and their suppliers produced $30 billion worth of military equipment from 1942 to 1945. This image was taken a Chrysler Motor Car Company tank plant in April 1941.

4. These Word War II tanks were assembled at the Chrysler tank arsenal in then-rural Warren in April 1941 and would soon become a part of Gen. George Patton's own "blitzkrieg." The bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, threw the U.S. into the war, spurring a huge increase in aircraft production, as well as tanks and military vehicles. The government banned civilian auto production. By June 1942, 66 percent of Detroit's machine tools were being used for military goods.

5. Annie Wells, dressed in clothes suitable for welding work, has her face shield ready to be pulled into position as she demonstrates the first stage of welding in an industrial clinic program to educate female students in general machine shop war work Dec. 17, 1942. Women entered the work force in huge numbers during the war.

6. Georgette Rinaldi registers Jane Jacob and Bert Neidig for civilian defense during the fall of 1941.

7. Tigers rookie Hal Newhouser and retired great Charlie Gehringer, seen in the military, meet in the locker room at Briggs Stadium on Aug. 27, 1941. Newhouser had intended to join the service to fight for his country during World War II and was to take his oath on the Briggs Stadium mound before a game. However, a heart murmur was detected during his physical, so he remained with the Tigers.

8. Sylvia Pevin operates a crane at her place of employment on East Hancock in Detroit on Nov. 3, 1942. Many men were off to war, and women picked up jobs where workers were in short supply.

9. The salvage and recycling effort increased during World War II. Here, tin cans by the thousands are hauled to a salvage company in Detroit.

10. Students from the Andrew Jackson School in Detroit pile up their salvage efforts for clothing, rubber, iron and paper for the war effort in May 1942.

11. Collected automobiles hang in a yard at the B.J. Pollard Cinder and Coal Company in Detroit in October 1942 during World War II. Mr. Pollard was deciding whether he would junk them for scrap.

12. Ned's Auto Supply piles scrap rubber at the Clay plant of the Standard Oil Company on July 14, 1942.

13. John L. Rancu, an employee at the gas station on Woodward Avenue at Stimson, collects and hangs rubber products to be recycled for the salvage effort during World War II on July 30, 1942.

14. Wilbert C. Garred, assistant custodian of the Federal Building in Detroit, inspects old metal padlocks to be turned in for scrap during the war effort Oct. 6, 1942.

15. St. Clair schoolchildren collected scrap to beat Adolf Hitler during the World War II salvage effort in October 1942.

16. Detroit's salvage effort continued throughout the war. Here, James Braill, John Dresbach, Tom Dresbacha and John Brazill collect paper to recycle in December 1944.

17. The Truman committee, which investigated all phases of the national war effort, visited Detroit on April 13, 1942, to inspect the Ford bomber plant. From left are Sen. Ralph O. Brewster, of Maine; Sen. Harold H. Burton, of Ohio; Sen. Harry S. Truman, of Missouri, chairman; Sen. Joseph H. Ball, of Minnesota; Sen. Mon C. Wallgren, of Washington; Hugh A. Fulton, general committee counsel (in background with glasses); Paul Brown, son of Sen. Prentiss M. Brown, of Michigan; Sen. Brown; Sen. James M. Mead, of New York, and Sen. Harley M. Kilgore, of West Virginia.

18. Ruth Markovich and Anna Plagens were female drivers for the U.S. Army in November 1942. The women checked the oil on their Jeep and did their own minor repairs while on convoy.

19. Women Army ordinance workers drive federal war trucks in Michigan in August 1942.

20. The first B24 Liberator bomber rolled off the assembly line on Oct. 1, 1942. Behind the plane, parts of the unfinished factory are visible. Henry Ford's production chief, Charles Sorenson, visited an existing B24 plant in San Diego in 1941, and designed plans for an auto-style assembly line for the aircraft. It was an idea that ultimately worked, with the Willow Run plant producing a bomber per hour by August 1944.

21. Interior fittings, plumbing and wiring were added to Liberator B24 bombers at a twin assembly line at the Ford Motor Company's Willow Run plant on Feb. 24, 1943.

22. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the Army flier, greets Gladys Brison and other women in Detroit on Jan. 22, 1943. The B24 contained 100,000 parts, as opposed to the 15,000 needed in a 1940 automobile, and the manpower needs was tremendous. Men were enlisting in the armed forces to fight overseas, and workers were in short supply, so women joined the work force in large numbers.

23. Mary Herrando and Grace Small rivet into the side a bomber at the Willow Run bomber plant on Jan. 30, 1943

24. Women, such as machinist Janet Kinsman of Detroit, shown here March 11, 1943, became an important part of the Willow Run work force. The war office sped up the hiring of women by ordering Ford to hire 12,000 at Willow Run. By October 1943, there were 140,000 women in the defense industry. Willow Run hired 117 in one week. They received the same wage rates as men, from 95 cents to $1.60 an hour.

25. The washroom at Willow Run's West Lodge offered facilities for washing and ironing clothes. The women came from varied backgrounds; some were teachers, waitresses and housewives. They worked on the line doing riveting, light assembly or as inspectors or trainers.

26. A hangar at Willow Run was turned into a barracks for Army personnel brought in to fly out the newly built bombers. Off-duty soldiers can be seen sprawled on some of the 1,300 cots.

27. A full crew of cooks prepared meals for the cafeteria at the Ford Motor Company Willow Run bomber plant on Jan. 15, 1943.

28. Ford Motor national defense housing at the Willow Run plant is seen during the winter of 1943.

29. Ford Motor national defense housing is seen at the Willow Run plant during the winter of 1943. To overcome the manpower shortage, some parts and sub-assemblies were shipped to other plants. Many employees were housed at Willow Run in huge government-built temporary dorm-style housing for 14,000 workers. Others lived in tents, garages and trailers. Lots that had sold before the boom for $1.25 to $6.25 were going for more than $100. Some conmen sold worthless flood plain lots to trailer owners who were flooded out at the first spring rains. There were angry calls for more permanent housing.

30. Ford Motor national defense housing at the Willow Run plant is seen Aug. 24, 1943. Frederick A. Delano, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's uncle, was put in charge of organizing homes for the expected 100,000 workers at Willow Run. A plan for a "Bomber City" was designed by architect Oskar Stonorov. He attacked single-family homes as "fortresses of individualism" and proposed project-style housing. When Ford refused to sell the land for this, the plan was abandoned, and dormitories were built.

31. A 1944 view of the Willow Run Lodge Dormitories. In the left background are the theater, cafeteria and community center. Willow Lodge was a dormitory for 3,000 single workers four miles from the plant. Rooms were $5 per week. An initial experiment for mixed-gender housing, with men and women on alternating floors, was quickly abandoned after "gamblers and fast girls quickly moved in," according to a Detroit News report. Scandalized, the housing officials returned to more traditional separate housing.

32. M.L. Bricker puts the finishing touch on the 8,000th bomber to come off the assembly line at Ford's Willow Run plant March 20, 1945.

33. The last B24 Liberator Bomber rolled off the line June 25, 1945

34. Willow Run produced 8,685 B24s before it closed in 1945. When the final plane, christened the Henry Ford, rolled off the line, Ford let it be known that he wanted the plane named after the workers who had built it. The name of Henry Ford was erased from the plane, and the workers autographed the nose.

35. Four women stand beneath the Plexiglas bonnets in the tail of the Martin B-26 Marauder bomber fuselage sections built in a Detroit plant of the Hudson Motor Car Company in December 1944.

36. Estella Gleason holds a Detroit News paper with the headline "Exclusive!! Full Surrender" celebrating VE (Victory in Europe) day in May 1945. May 8, 1945 marked the surrender of Germany and an end to fighting in Europe; the war in the Pacific would continue until August.

37. Paper burns on Woodward in front of Grinnell's Music store at Grand River after the celebrations for VE Day on May 8, 1945.

38. A crowd of high school students parades on Woodward to celebrate the end of the war in Europe in May 1945.

39. The Majestic Building wears a large "V" made of paper on May 10, 1945, for VE Day to celebrate the victory in Europe.

40. Detroit crowds celebrate Japan's surrender in August 1945.

41. Crowds celebrate VJ Day in front of City Hall on Aug. 14, 1945.

42. Teenagers celebrate the end of the war and the victory over Japan with an early car cruise.

43. Detroiters celebrate the Japanese surrender.

44. American veterans of World War II march in downtown Detroit on June 5, 1946. Labor leader Walter Reuther, head of the United Auto Workers, said, "Like England's battles were won on the playing fields of Eton, America's were won on the assembly lines of Detroit."