Contract Awarded to Build the Detroit Tank Arsenal

The first US factory designed for mass production of tanks; it later produced 22,234 new tanks.

Industry, infrastructure and technology changed rapidly between 1938 and 1946, reshaping production, mobility and the material foundations of war and post-war recovery.

The principal source supports the period August 1940 for “Contract Awarded to Build the Detroit Tank Arsenal”, but it does not justify assigning a single calendar day. WWII CHRONOS therefore preserves the event with a partial date rather than inventing one.

Verified figure or fact: The first US factory designed for mass production of tanks; it later produced 22,234 new tanks. Physical measurements in WWII CHRONOS are expressed in the metric system.

This mass manufacturing milestone helps explain the material systems behind the era: factories, energy, transport networks, extraction, communications, new materials and production methods.

Where an industrial achievement was tied to war, coercion or forced labour, the technical accomplishment must be read together with that human and political context rather than celebrated in isolation.

Editorial status: Month, core fact and quantitative figure verified. The source below supports the period and central claim; unsupported details have deliberately not been added.

Source: View historical source ↗