(first posted 5/29/2017) In honor of Memorial Day, let us take a look back at World War II through the eyes of U.S. Automakers, and specifically their advertisements. They tell quite a story about the history of World War II in the US, and what the times were like.
In the early 1940s, it was clear that the United States was eventually going to be drawn into the Second World War, with Great Britain barely holding on after Hitler had conquered most of the rest of Europe. The only question was when. By the start of the 1942 model year, manufacturers started dropping hints that the next car you bought may have to last a while and started selling up their durability. In some cases, the pitch was subtle, like in the 1942 Buick ad above.
Other times, the pitch was more direct, like the surprisingly prescient DeSoto ad above, which came out around September of 1941, a good three months before Pearl Harbor.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, all the automakers switched over to wartime production. While there were still a significant number of unsold 1942 model year cars on dealer lots, new car sales were immediately rationed, leading to rather interesting ads like the Pontiac piece above, targeting “Eligible” buyers and offering to assist in the procurement of a “Certificate of Purchase” necessary to buy a new car during wartime.
Most people were not interested in buying a new car during the war, and in any case, the limited supply of leftover 1942 cars would soon be exhausted. In order to keep the now carless dealerships in business, the manufacturers now focused on driving business to their dealers’ service departments and helping customers keep their existing cars on the road.
Others turned to selling used cars, touting such features as remaining tire tread life (important in a time of rubber shortages).
However, most manufacturers, lacking cars to promote, used their advertisements to tout their participation in the war effort, like the Cadillac ads above. In addition to demonstrating their support for the war effort (along with the obligatory War Bonds message), it was hoped that the luster and durability of their military products would rub off on their civilian offerings at the conclusion of the war.
As the war dragged on to 1943, Packard playfully released the ad above touting their new “1943” Packard.
However, most of the wartime ads were far more serious, and some were even downright grim, like the Packard Ad above.
The artwork on some of these ads is just phenomenal.
After V-E Day and the fall of Germany in the spring of 1945, things began to look up. While the war in the Pacific theater was still going on, Allied forces were rapidly advancing on the Japanese, and automakers felt confident enough to start teasing buyers with post-war car production, as the Buick and Oldsmobile ads above illustrate.
Most of these ads didn’t even feature actual cars, which would take time to appear as the manufacturers retooled, and in any case would be mildly warmed over 1942 models. the Lincoln ad above is particularly reminiscent of the Infiniti ads from the 90s.
Once Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945, ending World War II, auto manufacturers had a new problem to deal with: Four years of pent-up demand, and no cars to sell. Raw materials were still in short supply immediately following the war, and manufacturers were allocated materials based on their pre-war marketshare. Unfortunately for the independents, this meant insufficient raw materials to meet demand. You can see how Packard tried to spin this in the above ad.
The one manufacturer that was ready to almost immediately jump into civilian production was Willys. With Jeep, they had a ready-made product with a built-in audience.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1948 Willys Jeep MB – In The Beginning
D-Day History Classic: The Harley-Davidson WLA In The Second World War
Wonderful, wonderful! Thank you for preparing this. There are many ads from WWII that reinforce our need to understand the war effort. There are terrific.
Thanks for reading. Not being alive during the War, I think these ads give a better feel for what the zeitgeist of the time was, as opposed to a dry history book.
It was truly a different time, and I can see why they refer to people of this time as “The Greatest Generation.”
The Cadillac ads seem especially effective to me… who wouldn’t want an engine strong enough for a tank? The picture of the woman in the diamond earrings also strikes me as powerful. Rich enough for the best? A Cadillac for you!
There’s something about those eyes in the Nash Kelvinator (nominee for the worst car name ever?) ad though…. That pilot doesn’t seem to think his engine is going to make it – he’s wishing that he had one of those Packard Rolls Royce Merlin engines (nominee for the best name ever?) in his plane.
I like to think the pilot in the Nash ad just has an expression of superhuman determination. “I’m going to engage the enemy if I have to get out and push this thing.”
There are stories around about people using those flathead Cadillac tank engines in cars — in 1940’s Cadillacs as well as street rods. It apparently can be done, but it’s not a simple bolt-in job. For one thing, at least some of the military engines run in the opposite direction of the civilian ones.
There are stories around about people using those flathead Cadillac tank engines in cars — in 1940’s Cadillacs as well as street rods. It apparently can be done, but it’s not a simple bolt-in job. For one thing, at least some of the military engines run in the opposite direction of the civilian ones.
The early 40s US tanks were designed around radial aircraft engines. When the war started, every engine that Wright, Continental and Pratt could turn out was needed for aircraft, so the search was on for substitutes. The problem was, there were no existing alternate engines that produced enough power.
The Cadillac arrangement was two flathead car V8s geared into a Hydramatic.
Ford had developed an aircraft V-12 to get in on the business Allison was getting from the Army. The Ford engine was late to the party as the Army had standardized on the Allison and the Navy wanted radials as their shorter length provided the pilot with a better view of the deck when landing. Then Ford saw the opportunity for a tank engine and cut the aircraft engine down to a V8 to create the GAA.
Chrysler lashed up 5 flathead sixes geared to a common output shaft.
Both the Cadillac and Chrysler arrangements were installed in several thousand tanks, but iirc, the Ford GAA saw the most use.
This is one of the Chrysler tank engines, which was on display at the Chrysler museum in Auburn Hills.
Re Radial Engines for Naval aircraft. Air cooled engines were also highly preferred over water cooled as there was no radiator to get hit and incapacitate the aircraft. I believe a radial could keep going on reduced power in some cases when it had been hit too. Perhaps some CC reader has more details.
Air cooled engines were also highly preferred over water cooled as there was no radiator to get hit and incapacitate the aircraft.
No vulnerable engine coolant system, but radials do tend to have oil coolers which, while smaller, present the same vulnerability.
V-12s have the advantage of small frontal area, hence lower drag, so were preferred for fighters. Of the US, Brits and Germans, the only land based radial engine fighters that come to mind were the P-47 and early Fw-190.
The Japanese never developed their own V-12, so licensed the Daimler Benz, as did the Italians.
On the other hand, radials are more scaleable. The Merlin displaced 1650cuin, iirc the Allison displaced 1710. By the end of the war radials were in production of twice the displacement of the V-12s. The Pratt in the Corsair displaced a hair over 2800 cuin, the Wright in the B-29, a hair under 3350 cuin.
Chrysler developed a liquid cooled V-16. This one was on display at the museum in Auburn Hills.
The 2220cuin Chrysler V16 was fitted to a P-47. In some respects, performance was improved over the 2800cuin Pratt, but the war was nearly over, so it was not pursued.
There were actually TWO Hydra-Matic transmissions, one for each engine. The engines were in the rear of the tank, with the fans facing backward, with the transmissions in front driving a common transfer case at the front. You can see pictures here, from the service manual:
http://afvdb.50megs.com/usa/pics/m5stuart/m5stuart.html
Er, with the two transmissions also turned backwards and driving the transfer case at the front.
If we can expand the makers of radial engined land based fighters in the Second World War the planes developed by the Lavochkin design bureau in Soviet Russia is worth mentioning. These served through most of the war and actually continued in production into the late 1940s.
Kelvinator wasn’t the name of a car. It was the division of Nash that produced refrigerators & other appliances, which is mentioned in the ad.
As for the Caddy ad w/the beautiful woman, it reminds me of a Roxy Music album cover.
Looking at his eyes I’d say it looks like he’s had a few too many cups of coffee in the last 24 and now he’s regretting it, REALLY regretting it.
The Lincoln ad looks to be a more highfalutin’ yet cheaper (B&W instead of color, stock photo instead of artwork) version of the Ford ones featuring scenes in a crystal ball and the tagline “There’s a Ford in your future”.
The Nash war ads are well worth seeking out.
I T IS TRULY AMAZING HOW WELL THE MOTOR INDUSTRY ADAPTS TO NEW AND UNFORESEEN CHALLENGES-LIKE WW 2
In the war years ads like the one for used Oldsmobiles seemed somehow patriotic, while 10 years later a used car dealer advertising a car “with tires having plenty of tread” would be a joke.
These ads were about 10 years “before my time”, and yet a 10, 15, or 20 year old magazine was a real rarity so I’ve never seen these except as re-productions.
It will be interesting to see the immediate post war ads someday….hint, hint.
Old magazines sure were a rarity then, but as with books, their production was probably severely curtailed by the war effort. Plus, in those days of rationing and hardship, how many people would have been buying them?
Out this way WW2 started in Sept 39, thats when the assembly plants produced their last new civillian cars war materials got shipping priority luxury goods like new motor cars got very very scarce very fast.
My father worked at a GM Chevrolet/Vauxhall/Bedford dealership and they simply couldnt obtain new vehicles from 39 onwards.
Try http://fredsmotorcity.tumblr.com for a blog with more.oldie car ads than you can shake a stick at. One can lose a lot of time just leafing thru them.
I grew up with stacks of old National Geographic’s in the house, many from the war years and I still remember some of these ads. Also the General Tire ads. Im not sure where the magazines came from, as my dad only came to the US from Europe in the late ’40’s and my Mom travelled to the West Coast from DC, with pretty much all her possessions, on a bus in 1943. I suspect they picked up the magazines at thrift stores or yard sales (rummage sales, as they were known) for us kids. In addition to the ads, what I remember from those the wartime National Geographic’s were the graphic war updates in every issue.
The Bofors gun pictured in the DeSoto ad was quite a story in itself. Not only did Chrysler have to redraw all the drawings, convert metric to English dimensions and translate Swedish notes. Bofors had not designed the gun for mass production and many parts had to be hand fitted. Chrysler had to reverse engineer several samples of working guns to discover the actual dimensions parts needed to be machined to. Packard had to do the same thing with the Merlin.
This Christmas 1945 ad from Studebaker is a favorite of mine.
That is definitely a very heartwarming ad.
I would say, no matter to who, either Allies or Axis the most important thing was the war was over, and start from there. Victory or not wasn’t the most important, it was the peace and starting from there.
Wonderful and insightful ads. These truly are from a different age, in more ways that we know.
Chevrolet was another maker that was able to quickly ease into vehicular production – but on trucks. They’d been making them with GMC names during the war and when the military contract was cancelled on a Friday they resumed civilian production on Monday.
Cars were a much different story, as you mentioned.
GM also had their first military contract in 1940, some eighteen months prior to Pearl Harbor. The war just ramped up their production as it was already underway prior to that point.
I guess relationship between GM HQ in Detroit with their German operations was very bad at the time. But I would assume the situation was worse in Dearborn next to Detroit, considering Henry Ford’s opinions on many things.
There is a great book on this subject, particularly with the finagling needed to get old Henry Ford on board with the war effort:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/aj-baime/the-arsenal-of-democracy/
Yep lendlease Chevy pickups had painted trim same as Fords 46 models had chrome trim, same pickup, ex military stuff were on sale here for a very long time Pacific theatre damaged vehicles came back to NZ assembly plants for reconditioning every 21/2 ton GMC went back with a Jeep in the back some people my self included were amazed when pulling flathead V8s apart and discovering one only oversize piston and 7 standard size, my father explained how it worked at GM NZ what ever was wrong got fixed nothing else then it was sent back ASAP, never to be a problem US motorists ever faced nothing went back, but we were loaded with ex military trucks, its literally all we could get, I began working at the New Zealand electricity dept NZED in the late 70s ex WW2 GMC 6×6 & 6x4s and V8 pickups were still going to auctions as they had been replaced and the govt stores were being emptied of them 1 or 2 were even rumoured to still be new having never been issued to anybody, new parts were simply dumped, rummaging in those dumps was considered theft as a servant so instantly sacked and gaoled.
Brice ;
Up into the late 1950’s in the U.S.A. boring a single sylinder or grinding one rod journal wasn’t that odd .
One place I worked for had an old ‘A’ Model Ford Foreword with a boring bar on a swing out thing, you’d pull it next to the car with the bad hole and set to work .
Remember early Hondas that used an on the car brake rotor surfacing machine ? .
Sort of like that .
Labor used to be the cheapest part of repairs .
-Nate
My father was stationed in Iran, where the U.S. supplied Russia with everything imaginable to hasten the defeat of Hitler, including GM and Studebaker trucks. According to this historical narrative, the Army, aided by General Motors, had built two truck plants where thousands of Iranians were turning out more than 100 vehicles a day, mostly Studebaker US6s. Assembly crews needed only minutes to wrestle a jumble of components into an operable vehicle, whereupon Soviet inspectors checked each “Studer” from tarpaulin to tires, chalking initials on the doors of trucks that passed muster. Studebaker fleets set off daily for the Motherland with Red Army drivers at the steering wheels. The Soviets had hoped for 2,000 trucks a month; they got an average of 7,500.
http://www.historynet.com/the-battle-before-the-battle.htm
I taught a “WW II on the Home Front” class when I taught GED. I used that yellow Buick “So Nice To Come Home To” ad in preparing the learner hand – out to highlight US rationing. These and other WW II – era consumer ads and posters are very colorful, and to a younger set, they bring the era alive…much of our collective memory of that war are old and grainy b/w images…
The Government beseeched Detroit – along with the advertising industry – to get onboard with the war effort. Rationing was HIGHLY, HIGHLY unpopular, remember. Because of the war boom, folks suddenly had huge amounts of disposable cash on hand, and little to spend it on. Detroit iniitially insisted that civilian car production would continue, as it would contribute to “morale” (and profits!)…the government had “other ideas”, and the government prevailed. But we all certainly got vastly richer, there was more money about than people knew what to do with. Despite rationing, consumer spending roared to new heights…
Those Nash ads someone mentioned are a perfect example of the propaganda effort – we all sacrifice together now, and when the war ends the message was: “Just WAIT until you see what you’ll be able to buy: shiny cars and huge food – filled refrigerators, televisions and FM radio, air conditioned homes with barbecues and dream kitchens, new “miracle” synthetic fabrics and medicines…”
What we did to ramp up production and effort to win that war is still a breathtaking saga, it staggers the imagination that we did it, and did it so very quickly.
Thank you for posting these wonderful ads, they are a reminder of why we should be thankful we live in the US, and that we prevailed in the war…
What I’m curious about is who the primary beneficiaries of these ads might have been, as well as who was paying for them. I mean, with no cars to sell, what was the point? Surely, the car companies weren’t footing the bill for these magazine ads just for the war effort with no direct financial return.
It’s interesting that magazine ads for the defense industry have always been around, but it was only during WW2 that they were circulated widely in publications for the general public. Ever since, it seems like they’ve been limited to those trade publications that circulate solely within the contractors (like the US government). I certainly can’t recall anything similar for the Korean conflict, Vietnam, or even Iraq. I can only surmise that while they might have been great public relations for a war where the enemy was so clear-cut, in more recent military actions where the nation was not nearly as united, it put a significant damper on such marketing.
I’m sure that the various automobile companies footed the bills for the ads that appeared in the mass circulation magazines during wartime. While there were no new cars to sell at this time I’m pretty sure that once the initial shock of the Pearl Harbor attack and the subsequent losses in the Pacific wore off, nearly everyone in the U.S. was reasonably confident that the war would eventually end in victory for the Allies. It made sense for the various car companies to advertise, both to keep their names before the public and to let the public know that the auto manufacturers were doing their part.
The Korean, Viet Nam and Iraq wars were quite different from WW2, in that the US government did not impose drastic rationing. These conflicts were part of the new era of deterrence, which changed the rules of escalation.
The Korean war definitely had an effect on car production — even in Europe and in Japan — because most folks figured rationing was around the corner when it kicked off in 1950, mostly because people also thought the Korean conflict might lead to a more generalized Asian war that would necessarily involve the USSR.
But that war played out differently, and the fighting was restricted to Korea. The development on nuclear weapons meant that “all-out war” was no longer a viable option, something that only a few top-level players understood. So most of the major conflicts became superpower proxy wars within civil wars (Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan in the ’80s, Yemen, Nicaragua, etc.).
Iraq was the new (current) era, where wars became more of a police action, with the professed goal of “nation-building”.
I stand corrected. There would likely have been the same type of cross-over advertising from the car companies had auto production been halted and converted to defense for any subsequent wars. But there wasn’t anything similar to the home situation for WW2, so there was no need for the same sort of marketing effort.
I too love the art works .
Sadly almost all of my WWII buddies are gone now .
-Nate
Great pieces, thank you for showing them and providing the commentary.
The period inspired some great catalogues too. The 42s are relatively rare and often expensive when found, but worth seeking out. The 42 Mercury looks just like Kaufmann and Fitzpatrick enlisted!
Do any Curbivores have information on the requisition of new, and near new, cars at the commencement of the war? Was this voluntary or enforced somehow? I recall reading Rita Hayworth offered her 41 Sixty Special which went into service in Hawaii.
Related fact: Even at the height of hostilities the British car manufacturers continued advertising in a similar style to their US counterparts. The wartime newsprint is very poor, inevitably b&w, but somehow car publications continued with no real news, I’ve found quite a few all the way over here in Aust. The campaign that falls to mind most easily is the Armstrong Siddeley concern reinforcing their ties to aviation – delightful line drawings of fighters destroying rail transports…
By older brother Lonnie owned a 1942 Desoto with the hidden headlights. This was his first car at age 16 , and the first car I had ever driven at 13 years old. It was a beast of a car that took all 6 cylinders to move it down the road, The head light eye brows were a real fastination to everyone who looked at the car. Good memories.
Love the 42 aerofoil headlamps! Sorry they never returned.
Vacuum or electrically/mechanically operated, do you recall?
Maybe you could forgive the lack of performance if the car actually looked like the sleek renderings? I still like them, but the artwork is misleading.
42 Mercury:
http://www.classiccarcatalogue.com/MERCURY%201942.html
While we are on the subject of the “Arsenal of Democracy”. some are probably familiar with the Willow Run plant Ford built to build B-24s. After the war the plant was used by Kaiser-Frazer, then Hydramatic. The plant was closed in the 2009 GM bankruptcy and put up for sale.
The aviation museum at Willow Run bought the two bay hanger at the east end of the plant to convert into their new museum building. The rest of the former plant site has been bought by an organization to be used in developing autonomous cars.
A peek inside the hanger last year. This is one of two bays. As expected, one of the stories the museum will be telling is the creation of the plant and the B-24 program. The museum had dredged up a couple pieces of B-24 fuselage, which they riveted together, and they keep adding on more structure to it. I kidded a couple of the volunteers who were working on it “are you guys going to keep going until you have a complete 24?”
Spectacular images! Thanks for this insightful post. I see similar adverts on the regional editions of Reader Digests from the time.
For instance, there is this advert for Lockheed, from August 1943: https://www.flickr.com/photos/riveranotario/16309105077/in/photolist-CKzUSF-CmyphH-D9moku-CmoDeG-r6k7Wd-NEVQN2-psWxGG-qRbqJR-pqWhob-EmfMCB-DSyQF7
I imagine the translation would be like “Shooting Japanese without cannons”.
By the way, the Germans were on their side obviously playing the same game… here are some Nazi Germany-themed Mercedes-Benz adverts.
http://ripituc.blogspot.cl/2017/01/nazi-germany-mercedes-benz-advertising.html
IIRC Ford was late to the game in WW II, old man Henry being a long standing German admirer. It wasn’t until FDR threatened to nationalize the company that it came fully onboard with the war effort.
CPJ, The USA did not enter WWII until December 8, 1941; however, note the following from https://corporate.ford.com/: DURING WORLD WAR II, FORD MOTOR COMPANY SHUT DOWN CIVILIAN VEHICLE PRODUCTION TO DEDICATE ALL OF ITS RESOURCES TO ALLIED WAR EFFORTS. While all civilian manufacturing ceased in February 1942 by order of the U.S. government, the mighty River Rouge Complex began supporting the military as early as 1940.
I read this yesterday but am just now getting back to the comments. Studebaker had a series of wartime ads that talked about the family ties of Studebaker workers or featuring workers whose boys (some of whom had also worked for Studebaker) were in combat.
Another series of ads was for the wartime products. In addition to the B-17 engines shown in the piece, there were ads devoted to the 6×6 trucks and amphibious Weasels. There is a Weasel in the Studebaker Museum.
One of the “Father-Son Team” ads.
Thank you for this great article.
The Buick ad touts its “Compound Carburetion” as a way to save gasoline. “Compound Carburetion” was an early attempt at dual carburetors that consisted of dual, two-barrel carburetors.
In the real world, Buicks so-equipped had quite the appetite for rationed gasoline, so most owners modified the engines to run on a single carburetor.
When I was younger, WWII-era Life magazines etc were stacked up to your elbows at used bookstores and fleamarkets. Lots of familiar stuff here.
Especially how those super artistic Cadillac ads have a government-stamped “BUY WAR BONDS” thing reproduced in the corner. Brings a certain humility to the whole thing.
There’s been many books written that touched on these ads.”Yeah, it’s the Big One, and we’re only taking a little break from consumer capitalism. Don’t worry, win the war, and we’ll be back better than ever.” Meanwhile, our enemies were pushing extremely ideological points of view.
And now the cars of the former enemies are preferred to the products of the American manufacturers.
Times do change, don’t they.
Back in the day when I first started going to airshows one of the regulars we would see was a B-17 pilot. His opinion was the best B-17’s had 4 Studebaker engines. Also a lot of talk on how the American built Merlin’s were better than the original British engines. Probably better tolerances to eliminate hand fitting parts.
The “so nice to come home to!” Buick ad really shows its’ moment, right in the middle of the pivot from the gung-ho early-wartime ads to the dreamy soft-focus look to the postwar future post D-Day.
The USA would never tolerate a war nowadays where everyone would have to sacrifice.
Most Americans today are like my friend’s cousin’s son’s friend is serving. I demand my military discount!
Yes and no ;
I never liked being shot at but I also think more Americans are fed up with the current world situation .
I don’t personally think war is the proper automatic answer but some times the bad guys just refuse to be good .
-Nate
Anyone interested in which company made which products for the war should check out http://usautoindustryworldwartwo.com/index.htm. There are dozens of articles on companies ranging in size from General Motors down to Cheney Bigelow Wire Works.