The Rise and Fall of Nelson

Nelson struggled to impose order on the unruly production process. The military was still in charge of procurement awarding contracts without prioritizing the most urgent needs and with little thought for the availability of materials. In 1943 a bold new plan broke the gridlock by giving the wpb control of allocations. It wasn't until 1943 that the efforts finally got up to speed outputs that year dwarf those of the previous year Production of naval ships shot up 75 Munitions spiked more than 80 percent and aircraft tonnage skyrocketed 140 percent higher than in 1942. Over the course of the war america's plans and assembly lines would churn out billions of bullets millions of machine guns and hundreds of thousands of ships tanks