World War II’s Most Ludicrous Construction Projects

We like to talk about all the interesting planes, tanks, vessels, etc. that came out of World War II, but what about boring things like constructions? They are, in fact, anything but boring, and we’ll cover 8 of them in this video.

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~Chapters~
0:00 – So It Begins
0:46 – The Maginot Line
2:52 – Fort Eben-Emael
5:05 – The Atlantic Wall
6:57 – Saint-Nazaire U-Boat Base
8:25 – Schwerer Gustav Railroad Gun
10:22 – Mulberry Harbors
12:19 – Willow Run Bomber Plant
14:04 – Kaiser Shipyards
15:40 – Thanks For Sticking Around

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~Attribution~
Music from Epidemic Sound.

Thanks to World War Photos (https://www.worldwarphotos.info/) for being such a great WW2 photo resource!

#dday #atlanticwall #mulberryharbor #maginotline #ridiculous #ww2 #worldwar2 #worldwarii #worldwartwo #history

in World War II the US had a factory that could build a B24 bomber in 63 minutes Tada hello you fine folks today we’re talking about massive construction projects of the second world war if that sounds boring then let me hit you up with the largest artillery piece known to man the largest single story building in the world at the time a massive underground Hobbit Hole Fortress and much much more that is exciting World War II was a time of unparalleled industrial and Military might and the Feats of production and those days are absolutely mind-bending whether it’s building walls or producing machines that could take them down those 1940s boys sure knew what they were doing what do I do with this so join me and we will cover eight of the most ludicrous projects that were completed in or right before World War II we’re going to start off with either a very famous or very Infamous creation of the French the majino line the majino line was an elaborate series of fortifications along France’s border with Germany its purpose was to deter German aggression conserve Manpower for defense and to slow or deflect a German advance so that France’s military could mobilize in time the magino line was the brainchild of Marshall Joseph jofa though the idea of a static fortification was opposed by more forward-thinking French leaders who wanted to invest in Mobile Warfare technology a Statesman by the name of Andre majino was eventually able to convince the government to adopt this plan and the majino line became his namesake now I know that I pronounced magino somewhat correctly and then in the same sentence I called the wall the majino line but I’m just going to going to do that for the rest of the video I don’t care this is America and I’m going to keep calling it what everybody else calls it just be happy I’m not saying magut construction of the magino line began in 1929 and was completed in 1938 the finished product was a 280m long series of defenses that were anywhere from 12 to 16 Mi deep that’s right it wasn’t just one bunker thick it was a several mile thick array of obstacles it also technically extended another few hundred miles along Belgium but the primary system was along the French German border this elaborate Network consisted of formidable bunkers pill boxes gun imp placements barricades and outposts it also had a number of sophisticated turrets that were built deep in the earth and could raise or retract as needed it’s estimated that more than half of France’s 800,000 Mainland troops were stationed along this network to accommodate these troops the mhno line had Barrack’s Communications centers Supply Depots Recreation areas and underground rail network and redundant telephone systems it’s estimated that this project required 1/2 million cub meters of reinforced concrete and cost anywhere from4 to9 billion in today’s money to the French it seemed impenetrable and perhaps it might have been if they hadn’t left the back door open at the Arden’s Forest the Germans exploited this weakness and swiftly flanked the line proving the French entirely wrong that the forest was an adequate defense on its own France surrendered in 6 weeks if we travel a little north of the mno line we’ll find our second entry which was the largest Fortress in the world at the time of its construction Fort aen Amile located in Belgium near the city of MRI I’m so sorry for my pronunciations I’m doing my best I speak American the foundations of this Fortress were laid prior to World War I but it was expanded and modernized from 1932 to 1935 the term Fort doesn’t quite do this thing Justice because its underground Network spanned 185 Acres or 140 American football fields if you had a dollar for every square mile of this Fortress you’d have 29 cents almost enough to buy a grain of rice in 2024 anyway it was big aen Amile was a hobbit style Fortress built into a hill with 17 heavily fortified bunkers connected underground by miles of tunnels the overall network was shaped like a triangle and it wasn’t meant to function so much as a physical wall as much as a projection of danger like a knight on a chessboard this was due to the fact that it featured not only machine gun nests 60 mm anti-tank guns and 75 mm guns but also 120 mm artillery with a range of over 10 Mi these weapons allowed the fort to fiercely defend a wide range of important territory requiring the Germans to deal with it if they wanted to invade Belgium aen Amile was specifically situated to defend the River Muse and the Albert Canal giving the Germans a potentially miserable crossing the fort featured both turrets and casemates for its guns and was surrounded by a ditch for added protection on the inside this construction was permanently manned by 200 technical staff and two rotations of 500 artillerist each would alternate Manning its Weaponry the reinforced concrete structure kept the men comfortable by cycling fresh air from the surface it even had a filtering system designed to mitigate a gas attack making the fort nearly invulnerable however like the magino line aen Amile had a weakness its roof was essentially defenseless when Germany invaded Belgium on May 10th 1940 a force of specially trained Commandos landed at top the structure in gliders they used flamethrowers and explosives to knock out its main defenses and used shape charges to tear it open for entry after German ground troops arrived to reinforce the Commandos The Defenders eventually surrendered the impenetrable Fort had fallen in a little over a day if you think the French and the belgians were ambitious then you ain’t ready for number three the Atlantic Wall after the bulk of Allied Forces were pulled out of Dunkirk in 1940 Germany had free reign of Western Europe however the Vermont was unable to defeat the UK during the Battle of Britain and it became evident that the Atlantic Coastline could be vulnerable to a future Allied invasion this was exacerbated by America’s entry into the war and in March of 194 2 Hitler issued his furer directive number 40 which dictated the construction of the Atlantic Wall work began soon after and it continued right up until the D-Day invasion in 1944 not nearly being finished to the extent that the Germans had hoped nevertheless this proved to be one of the most massive Endeavors of World War II covering 3,200 Mi of Coastline from Norway to Spain and the British Channel Islands in between the project required a m- numbing 22 million cubic yards of concrete and 1.2 mli million tons of steel nearly 10,000 permanent concrete structures were produced including bunkers artillery positions walls pill Boxes Etc the project cost over $200 billion in today’s currency almost enough to buy a whole month’s worth of groceries for a family of four by the time of D-Day Germany had positioned 60 divisions to defend this line for a total force of something like 1 million men the Atlantic Coastline had 850 gun batteries ranging from 37 mm to 4 10 6 mm artillery it also had machine gun nests Mine Fields Airborne deterrence and countless Beach obstacles that are easily recognized in any cinematic depiction of D-Day while a shortage of Labor resources and transportation meant that the wall could not be fully completed it was still a serious problem for the Allies in the network of this defense were individually famous constructions such as the 406 mm adal guns the observation tower at alderney and what happens to be our number four the St nazer submarine base the ubo basee at St naer is a structure that still stands today on the west coast of France it was built over the course of 16 months from 1941 to 1942 and consists of almost 600,000 cubic yards of concrete the harbor of St nazer was already one of the largest in France and when the Germans arrived they determined it to be an ideal place for a specialized ubo pen the base was designed to be impervious to bombing raids and it’s 26t thick roof consisted of layers of reinforced concrete granite and steel beams true through to its function it had 14 submarine pens that could together host 20 uots at a time eight of the birds were dry dock for intense work while the remaining six were for repairs and resupply for defense the base had machine guns anti-aircraft cannons and a menacing automatic 2-in mortar in addition this 980 ft long 430 ft wide 59 ft tall structure had all the trappings of a small town it had 62 workshops 97 magazines and 150 offices for its work but also featured a hospital housing kitchens two electrical plants and even a restaurant in total it had a Garrison of around 25,000 men it also served as the home of the sixth and seventh ubo flotillas and it supported OTS in over 400 patrols throughout the war it was bombed a total of 13 times receiving 44,000 lb of bombs but it never ceased operations until it surrender on May 8th 1945 our final German Contraption on the list is one that I’ve mentioned Elsewhere on the channel but I felt it still deserved a place here the Shar Gustav Railway gun the Shar Gustav was the epitome of Hitler’s obsession with only the most impressive a inspiring ludicrous pieces of super modern technology whereas the strategy of the Allies was to produce effective weapons and overwhelming numbers Germany’s lack of industrial power meant it focused on smaller quantities of devastating machines often to a fault to this end as France’s Mao line came to fruition in the early 30s Germany’s answer was to order construction of the the largest artillery piece in the history of mankind that’s right the Shar Gustav was the heaviest single weapon ever produced and the largest caliber Cannon ever to see combat it weighed a ridiculous 1,350 metric tons and could fire an 800 mm concrete piercing projectile weighing 7 tons with a range of 29 Mi one of these shells is reported to have punched 100 ft into the Earth it could also fire lighter high explosive shells carrying 1500 lb of explosives which could create a 30t crater upon impact its design was approved in 1937 with the stipulation that it’ be ready for the invasion of France in 1940 but this deadline wasn’t quite met missing its opportunity to lay waste to the majino line the gustab was first used in July of 1942 to begin pummeling sasty the completed gun was over 140 ft long and 23 ft wide and it had a barrel length of 106 F 8 in the Gustav was confined to railroad tracks for mov and required over 2,000 men to lay track for it to advance and another 250 men to disassemble and reassemble it for longer Journeys since it was so massive and thus a Sitting Duck to enemy aircraft it was always accompanied by multiple flak battalions as a side note there is record of a second gun called Dora also being produced but sources conflict on whether this was actually just the same gun or a different gun entirely for our number six we turned North to England where the Allies were hard at work scheming up ways to invade Normandy in 1943 planners of the invasion were discussing the problem of Harbors the Allies had capability of Landing an initial Force directly on the beaches but Harbors would be necessary to support the foothold and allow the continuous unloading of troops and supplies the port of sherberg wasn’t far from The Landing site but it was uncertain how quickly the Allies would be able to capture it amidst this conversation Commodore John Hughes Hallet joked well all I can say is if we can’t capture a port we must take one with us laughter ensued but the planners recognized that this was an actual possibility and the project of the Mulberry Harbors was born granted this idea had been floated around before and Churchill had even issued a memo on the concept in 1942 but it wasn’t until the Quebec conference in 1943 that it was officially adopted the idea was to assemble various elements of a portable Harbor in England and then tug them over for Rapid installment on the coast of Normandy it consisted not only of massive steel and concrete pontoons that would form the peers themselves but also a system of queson derel vessels and break Waters that served to shelter the Inner Harbor from the tossing sea the massive queson alone needed half a million cubic yards of concrete 15 million ft of steel tubing 30,000 tons of iron bars and 50 Mi of wire in the end not one but two Harbors were built Mulberry a for the Americans at Omaha Beach and mulberry B for the British at Gold Beach assembly began as soon as the beaches were cleared and the harbors were completed 12 days after D-Day each Harbor was composed of 6 mil of of flexible roadways and they were each capable of offloading 7,000 tons of material every day unfortunately the fiercest storm in 40 years whipped up the day after completion and mberry a was utterly destroyed within a few days Mulberry B was more naturally sheltered and was able to survive and it was brought back up to full speed with salvaged components of the American Harbor our number seven is a true recordbreaker and was considered the largest singl story building at the time of its completion the willowrun bomber plant early on in the ression of the war America had rolled up its sleeves and was setting about to use every square foot of manufacturing power it could access the US was of course home to numerous industry tycoons and the privatization of wartime manufacturing proved to be an invaluable asset bickering bureaucracy was largely kept out of production and the independent Giants of Industry were able to do what they did best build build build though technically retired Henry Ford was one such Tycoon that got involved in the war effort he was a staunch isolationist before America’s involvement in the war but he eventually decided to help give his country the best Fighting Chance possible one lucrative and all important contract that became available was for the production of countless B24 Liberator heavy bombers Ford Motor Company jumped on the contract and constructed the willowrun bomber plant in 1941 for this very purpose the factory was a staggering 3 1/2 million square ft and its assembly line was over 1 mile long using the same mass production technique of Motorcars Willow Run was able to produce prod a B24 every 63 minutes at its height Willer run had a Workforce of over 42,000 employees which necessitated the construction of local housing various developments were added around the factory and they were able to house 15,000 people by the end of 1943 in addition to help train new employees for factory work Ford constructed the aircraft Apprentice School which could produce 8,000 qualified workers every week by the end of the war this Unstoppable Factory had produced 8,645 b-24s versus the 988 produced by four other factories combined the subject of ridiculous American manufacturing brings us to our final entry on this list the Kaiser shipyards of the West Coast Henry Kaiser was another industrialist whose methods achieved quicker ship building at a fraction of the cost he established the Kaiser ship building company in 1939 which then built the seven Kaiser shipyards in 1941 and 1942 four of these shipyards were constructed in Richmond California with the other three being built in the Northwest two in Portland Oregon and one in Vancouver Washington the primary vessel produced was the Liberty ship a cargo transport that measured in at 440 ft and displaced a bit over 14,000 tons before the Kaiser shipyards the industry standard to produce a liberty ship was 230 days but Kaiser was able to get this down to under 3 weeks during a competition one yard crew set a record by producing a liberty ship in under 5 days Kaiser was able to achieve this by by implementing mass production techniques including welding ships instead of riveting them which allowed for use of less skilled laborers between the seven shipyards which occupied 1,700 acres of land nearly 1,500 ships were produced during the war besides Liberty ships and the larger Victory ships these yards also produce the ever important lsts troop carriers and even escort carriers the Vancouver Shipyard in particular produced all 50 of the Casablanca class escort carriers of World War II one of the greatest problems the Allies faced during the war was the German yubo threat but with the help of the Kaiser shipyards America was literally producing cargo vessels faster than the Germans could syn them and it was this asset that eventually allowed the Allies to invade Europe and that concludes our foray into some of the most massive ludicrous projects that came out of the World War II era comment below any entries you think should have made the list and I may make a follow-up video If you’re looking for more Wacky World War II content try my video on the most bizarre planes of World War II or just click over here for some random video of mine that YouTube thinks you’ll like if this video was worth your time don’t forget to like and do the subscribe so you stay tuned in for all future vids I’ll see you guys in the next video Ry boss out [Music]