WWII: Arsenal of Democracy
How America out-built the Axis: shipyards racing the clock, hidden bomber plants, desert airfields, and the small towns and five-star heroes who carried the war from the home front to D-Day.
14 narrated stories — read them here, or hear them all in the app.
Swan Island
Where Portland Turned Speed Into Ships
On Swan Island, wartime urgency remade Portland through shipbuilding at industrial speed.
Seattle
The Neighborhood That Hid a War Factory
How a fake suburb helped conceal Boeing Plant 2 during World War II.
New Orleans
From Swamp Boat to D-Day
How a New Orleans workboat became a war-winning landing craft.
Houston
Where Houston Went to War in Steel
A Ship Channel yard turned industrial muscle into wartime warships.
Newport News Shipbuilding
From Coal Pier to Carrier Yard
How a rail terminal became a cornerstone of American naval shipbuilding.
Mountain Home Air Force Base
Where the Desert Learned to Fly
How open Idaho desert became a wartime training ground and reshaped Elmore County.
MacDill Air Force Base
How MacDill Helped Make Tampa an Air City
A fallen aviator, a new field, and Tampa’s wartime transformation.
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson
The Field That Became Alaska’s Air Shield
How a wartime field near Anchorage became vital to Alaska’s defense.
San Francisco
Where San Francisco Sent a War Across the Pacific
How Fort Mason and the Presidio became the Army’s Pacific gateway.
Randolph County
From Randolph County to Five Stars
A Missouri-born officer rises to one of the Army’s rarest ranks.
Bedford County
When D-Day Reached Bedford
How one small Virginia community felt D-Day all at once.
San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site
The Battleship That Refused to Become the Past
A warship’s long journey from battle line to Texas memory.
Minnesota World War II Memorial
A War Memorial That Speaks in Human Voices
On the Capitol Mall, Minnesota remembers World War II person by person.
X-10 Graphite Reactor
From Secret Reactor to Living Landmark
How a wartime reactor became a postwar engine of research and remembrance.
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