The Real Reason German POWs Knew Germany Couldn’t Win — The Tank Trains Never Stopped
Markets of the Past
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They were told America was weak. A mongrel nation. Too soft, too divided, too decadent to fight a real war. Then they rode a train across the United States — and everything they believed collapsed.
Between 1942 and 1945, more than 400,000 German prisoners of war were transported by rail across the American heartland. What they saw out the window — the factories running day and night, the farmland stretching to the horizon, the freight trains loaded with brand-new Sherman tanks rolling east without pause — shattered every piece of Nazi propaganda they'd ever been fed.
This is the story of how the war was lost not on a battlefield, but in the minds of soldiers who watched America's industrial machine in motion and realized the count never ended.
One flatcar. One tank. Another flatcar. Another tank. The tank trains never stopped.
SOURCES:
• Smithsonian Magazine — "German POWs on the American Homefront"
• The National WWII Museum — "By the Numbers: Wartime Production"
• Naval History and Heritage Command — "Gearing Up for Victory: American Military and Industrial Mobilization in World War II"
• GlobalSecurity.org — "The Arsenal of Democracy: U.S. Industrial Mobilization in World War II"
• Michiganology — "Arsenal of Democracy"
• Detroit Historical Society — "Willow Run"
• Assembly Magazine — "Willow Run: A Historical Perspective"
• Wikipedia — "German Prisoners of War in the United States"
• Wikipedia — "Liberty Ship"
• Wikipedia — "SS Robert E. Peary"
• Wikipedia — "Detroit Arsenal (Warren, Michigan)"
• Calvin University — German Propaganda Archive, Goebbels essays (1942–1944)
• Stars and Stripes — "German POW asks: 'Why did America give their young men to save us?'"
• Fold3 — "WWII POW Camps in the United States"
• MilitaryHistoryNow.com — "Murder Behind Barbed Wire: The Secret Trials of Nazi POWs in America"
• East Tennessee State University — "American Reeducation of German POWs, 1943–1946"
#WW2 #WorldWarII #GermanPOWs #ArsenalOfDemocracy #ShermanTank #AmericanHistory #WW2History #MilitaryHistory #WWII #USHistory #WillowRun #LibertyShips #WW2Production #WarProduction #WW2Documentary #HistoryDocumentary #GermanSoldiers #POW #NaziGermany #HomeFront #WW2Facts #TankTrains #AmericanIndustry #FDR #DetroitArsenal
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The Real Reason German POWs Knew Germany Couldn’t Win — The Tank Trains Never Stopped
Markets of the Past
5,624 views
They were told America was weak. A mongrel nation. Too soft, too divided, too decadent to fight a real war. Then they rode a train across the United States — and everything they believed collapsed.
Between 1942 and 1945, more than 400,000 German prisoners of war were transported by rail across the American heartland. What they saw out the window — the factories running day and night, the farmland stretching to the horizon, the freight trains loaded with brand-new Sherman tanks rolling east without pause — shattered every piece of Nazi propaganda they'd ever been fed.
This is the story of how the war was lost not on a battlefield, but in the minds of soldiers who watched America's industrial machine in motion and realized the count never ended.
One flatcar. One tank. Another flatcar. Another tank. The tank trains never stopped.
SOURCES:
• Smithsonian Magazine — "German POWs on the American Homefront"
• The National WWII Museum — "By the Numbers: Wartime Production"
• Naval History and Heritage Command — "Gearing Up for Victory: American Military and Industrial Mobilization in World War II"
• GlobalSecurity.org — "The Arsenal of Democracy: U.S. Industrial Mobilization in World War II"
• Michiganology — "Arsenal of Democracy"
• Detroit Historical Society — "Willow Run"
• Assembly Magazine — "Willow Run: A Historical Perspective"
• Wikipedia — "German Prisoners of War in the United States"
• Wikipedia — "Liberty Ship"
• Wikipedia — "SS Robert E. Peary"
• Wikipedia — "Detroit Arsenal (Warren, Michigan)"
• Calvin University — German Propaganda Archive, Goebbels essays (1942–1944)
• Stars and Stripes — "German POW asks: 'Why did America give their young men to save us?'"
• Fold3 — "WWII POW Camps in the United States"
• MilitaryHistoryNow.com — "Murder Behind Barbed Wire: The Secret Trials of Nazi POWs in America"
• East Tennessee State University — "American Reeducation of German POWs, 1943–1946"
#WW2 #WorldWarII #GermanPOWs #ArsenalOfDemocracy #ShermanTank #AmericanHistory #WW2History #MilitaryHistory #WWII #USHistory #WillowRun #LibertyShips #WW2Production #WarProduction #WW2Documentary #HistoryDocumentary #GermanSoldiers #POW #NaziGermany #HomeFront #WW2Facts #TankTrains #AmericanIndustry #FDR #DetroitArsenal