December 7, 1941 was the day the Japanese bombed the Pearl Harbor naval base in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Japanese arrived in two waves from the air and unleashed their fury. They managed to damage 8 battleships and sink 4 of those ships and killed thousands. This inevitably brought the United States into World War II. As Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his famous speech, people from all over the United States went to local recruiting offices to look for ways to help the war efforts from the home front. Men and women from throughout Western New York stepped forward and dedicated countless hours to work at Curtiss Write, Belle Aircraft, Bethlehem Steel, and other factories to help produce supplies to help with the war. The “day that will live in infamy” is the same day that brought together thousands of people from across the United States to show the world that the United States will not go away quietly. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The war in Europe had already begun, and although the United States had not yet entered the war, we were already preparing for the inevitable. The Curtiss Wright Corporation was the largest aircraft manufacturing company in the United States. In 1940 the National Defense Expansion Corporation purchased 124 acres of land across from the Buffalo Airport and a massive building was built on the land known as Curtiss Write Aircraft Buffalo Plant Number 2. Men and women got up every day, got ready, and went to working at Curtiss Wright, where they helped build planes for the war we had just been brought into. They took their place in one of three divisions. The first division was Curtiss Wright's aircraft division which produced airframes. The second division was the Wright Aeronautical Corporation which produced the engines. The third and final division was the Curtiss Wright propeller division which produced propellers for airplanes. During World War II they ended up producing 142,840 engines, 146,468 propellers and 29,269 aircraft. They also employed over 180,000 workers in their facilities. Curtiss Wright's planes were not only used by the United States, but also by our allies. Men from all over the world joined the group of American volunteers to help the Chinese fight the Japanese, nicknamed "The Flying Tigers". They were armed with 100 P-40 aircraft. On December 20, the Flying Tigers struck their first blows, destroying 6 out of 10 Japanese bombers. The plant wasn't just a home for men, women from all over Western New York stepped forward and helped produce and assemble the planes. Curtiss Wright also sponsored the woman's aeronautical engineering and training program. These women became known as the Curtiss-Wright Cadettes. A total of 766 women ended up graduating from the program and went to work in the five different factories they owned. Although women played an important role in the factories and pilots of the Air Force known as (WASP) after the war ended, the women were sent home and their work as war heroines on the home front had come to an end. Another major manufacturer of war materials was Bell Aircraft, which was in Buffalo, New York. He was the builder of several fighter planes and helicopters for World War II. Bell Aircraft started small with just Lawrence "Larry" Bell as president, Ray Whitman, Robert Woods, and a meager 56 employees. With the rise of Nazi Germany and threats from Japan, the United States, which was not at war at the time, knew what it had to do.It was a question of starting to produce as much war material as possible. Bell had an idea for an airplane that would push the boundaries and take things to a whole new level. Bob Woods had begun work on a new concept in the early summer of 1936. He introduced the P-39 Aircobra. However, it is considered the least popular of all aircraft developed for World War II. It could not match the high altitude of other aircraft. It boasted some new ideas and technologies never seen before, such as mounting the engine behind the cockpit. It was also the first design to have a landing gear under the nose in addition to one on either side of the aircraft's fuselage, making it more stable. If you look at today's aircraft, it is the design that has been preferred and adopted. Bell produced more than 9,000 P-39 Aircobras, many of which saw direct combat with enemies. Shortly before the end of the war, Bell introduced an “upgraded” version of the Aircobra. This one was a little bigger and a little more powerful, called the P-63 “Kingcobra”. It also produced the first American jet aircraft called the P-59 “Airacomet”. With the need for men to serve in the military overseas, the need for factory workers increased. Women and even high school students were ready to go to work on assembly lines and do office jobs. At its peak, employees went from 65 to as many as 36,000. Bell was also responsible for producing helicopters for the military. But they didn't stop there; they also played an important role in the space journey that gave birth to Bello Aerospace. On October 20, 1956, Lawrence Bell died of a stroke and was buried in Forrest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York. Bethlehem Steele opened its doors in 1863 and operated until 1995. It started in Bethlehem Pennsylvania before opening steel plants in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Massachusetts, Seattle and Buffalo. Bethlehem Steel had become a major military contractor during World War II. Steel production was so essential to the war efforts that the plant nearly doubled employment from the start of the war with 13,055 employees to a peak of 31,523 in 1943. According to a woman interviewee named Margaret Spalluzzi, she came across an adjunct in the paper that called for female workers to take the place of men in those establishments who were now serving in the military. He said that “I challenged them. 10 of them. I said, let's be a welder. It was in Quinsy that we trained, but I don't know exactly where. And after we trained, only 6 of us remained out of 10.” The plant also hired several women willing to work and at the time employed 25,000 women in various positions within the company, such as mine work, railroad work, shipyards, fabricators, and in the steel mills themselves. Margaret and many other workers worked day after day to help mass produce war materials, and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, they received $1.3 billion to quickly produce more material. Overall, the plant produced 70% of aircraft cylinder forgings, ¼ of warship armor plates, and 1/3 of cannon forgings. It also produces bomb casings, warships, weapons parts and parachutes. All the essentials America needed to win the war. When Perl Harbor happened, people flocked to local recruiting sites and joined different military branches. They wanted to help defend the land they love. Civilians came out to support their loved ones and neighbors and watched the Army Day parade. Ed Stone enlisted in the United States Navy in Buffalo at the age of 17. Shortly after, a year later, when he was 18.