ched 26,461 aircraft in 1944, compared with 39,807 aircraft for Germany that year. Nevertheless, Great Britain's overall production of 131,550 aircraft during the war exceeded that of Germany, which produced 119,331 aircraft.
The Soviet Union possessed large numbers of aircraft at the outbreak of the war, but most of these were inferior to their German counterparts. Making matters worse, when Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, it destroyed 1,200 Soviet aircraft in the first nine hours of the attack. The Soviet Union managed not only to sustain this loss but to recover, because of its monumental efforts to transfer industries eastward beyond the reach of the German army and air force. In the first three months after the German invasion, the Soviet Union relocated 1,523 factories. The primary production line for the Yakovlev Yak-1, for example, was moved more than 1,000 miles and returned to production in less than six weeks. The success of these efforts allowed the Soviet Union to exceed German production for each year of the war, including 1941, for a total of 159,261 Soviet aircraft compared with 119,331 German aircraft.
In 1939, the U.S. economy was still suffering from the Great Depression, with 8.9 million registered unemployed workers. However, the success of the German blitzkrieg against western Europe in 1940 spurred the American war machine into action. The Burke-Wadsworth Act of 16 September 1940 introduced peacetime conscription for the first time in American history, and massive military spending got the American economy working again. Unlike Germany and Japan, the United States not only had a large population base and natural resources that could be mobilized for production but also enjoyed an industrial infrastructure far removed from its enemies. By 1944, a total of 18.7 million Americans, approximately 50 percent of whom were women, had entered the American workforce. Of all of their industrial achievements, none was more spectacular than aircraft production. From just 5,856 aircraft produced in 1939, the United States would reach the staggering total of 96,318 produced in 1944—almost one-third more than that produced by Germany and Japan combined for that year. For the war years as a whole, the United States would produce 324,750 aircraft, compared with a total of 206,773 for Germany, Japan, and Italy. The U.S. output, combined with the output of the British and the Soviet Union, gave the Allies an advantage greater than three to one, with 615,561 aircraft. With such an advantage, it is little wonder that the Allies won the war in the air. Justin D. Murphy
Jarrett, Philip, ed. Aircraft of the Second World War. London: Putnam, 1997.; Keegan, John. The Second World War. New York: Viking, 1989.; Munson, Kenneth. Bombers, Patrol, and Transport Aircraft, 1939–45. Poole, UK: Blandford Press, 1975.; Wilson, Stewart. Aircraft of WWII. Fyshwick, Australia: Aerospace Publications, 1998.
Justin D. Murphy