We naturally think of World War II as a series of set-piece battles: The Battle of Britain. Pearl Harbor. The Africa Campaign. Stalingrad. Pacific island hopping. And finally, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which prevented what would have been an absolute bloodbath of a battle. But WWII was won by the factories that could produce the most materiel. (Or in the case of Los Alamos , Christopher Nolan’s new “Oppenheimer” movie reminds us, the most revolutionary and lethal materiel.)
In 2019, the UK-based documentary producers WAG Entertainment commissioned a three-season documentary titled “War Factories.” As British historian Dr. Stephen Davies says in each episode’s opening titles, “All wars are about competition and production. The side that can produce more is always going to triumph over the other side.” Well, certainly in WWII, but the 1974 “Watergate Congress,” Barack Obama, and Joe Biden each might want to have a word here about how to lose a war in dramatic fashion, despite their nation, when compared to its enemies, having the overwhelmingly greater manufacturing capability.
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