It is time for us at Aces High to take another look at the history of World War II, and today that look will be focused on shipbuilding during the war years.
At the outset of the war, the United States was woefully unprepared for war. Our aircraft numbers were down, our ship numbers were down, and President Roosevelt was well-aware of those numbers. He immediately set about correcting those deficiencies. One such move was to designate a new government program, the Maritime Commission, with contracting out to have emergency ships built. The original order in 1941 was for 200 ships similar to those already being used by the British for keeping supply lines open in Europe.
At the time of this commission, there were only two major shipbuilding yards supplying ships, the largest of which was Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Baltimore, Maryland. As the war progressed, this became known as the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, and shipyards were built in Quincy, Massachusetts, Staten Island, New York, and Sparrows Point, Maryland. Others soon followed in Wilmington, North Carolina, Newport, Virginia, Mobile, Alabama, New Orleans, Houston, Toledo, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon.
The one in Newport was known as the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company and became the largest supplier of combatant ships during World War2.
The original ships that were designed were too slow, so production began on new turbine engines, but production facilities were few in number; companies like General Electric and Westinghouse could not keep up with demand. It was finally decided to concentrate on only one type of ship, which was called the Liberty Ship. The first of these was the SS Patrick Henry which was launched on September 27, 1941.
By May, 1942, the Declaration of Unlimited National Emergency was signed by Presiden Roosevelt, and building hit a third wave. 500 ships were ordered for 1942 and an additional 700 for 1943. As has been mentioned in earlier posts, once the industrial might of the United States was in full swing, the outcome of the war was not in doubt. By the middle of 1943 it was obvious that the United States could out-produce any nation on Earth.
We hope you like these features about the war effort. We just believe that if our combat flight simulator is going to remain the best on the market, then we need to do everything possible to make sure it is historically accurate.
Aces High, the number one flight sim game and getting better all the time!
