Dust Bowl Darkness falls across America. The worst environmental disaster in American history. Dust storms hit New York, Chicago and Boston. In Manhattan the street lights come on at midday. A monstrous dust storm 1800 miles wide. From the Great Plains to the Atlantic Ocean the air turns to earth. The storm carries 3 tons of dust for every American alive. Ships stop off the Eastern Seaboard not sure what is happening. The cloud reminds the captain of the ship 'The Deutschland' of the sands of the Sahara blowing out to sea. But now the clouds are devouring the Statue of Liberty.
Dust storms were born out of a 100 million-acre dead zone The Great Plains had once been the most fertile grassland on Earth. The top soil was 6 feet deep but it has been plowed up and used up by four generations of farmers. And now the sun has dried it up. “What really did the farmers in was an environmental cataclysm that involved an extended drought, high winds, and the loss of millions and millions of tons of topsoil. It was almost through the heavens themselves had turned against the farmers.”
By 1930 the rains virtually stop. The lighter organic matter, the best soil, is literally gone with the wind - the tiny particles of soil are suspended in the air. Then a freakish phenomenon happens. Static electricity builds between the earth and dust. Like a magnet, static electricity sucks up more and more dust, feeding itself, growing in size and power. A monster is created. The dust lifted up to 10,000 feet. Powered by high-altitude winds, the monster rips across the country looking for prey.
April 14, 1935. Lamar, Colorado. Louise Walton, once a Broadway dancer and actress gives up the glamour to breathe the clean, dry air of prairies. The doctor says her lungs need it. Louise thrives on the Southern Plains, and so did her 6-year-old daughter Jeanne Until recently. Their rural dream has becomes a nightmare – 49 dust storms in the last 3 months. But today the air is crisp and clear. Jeanne just got out of hospital with respiratory problems because of the dust storms.
Early that morning, 600 miles north, a cold front from Canada had hit a warm high-pressure front - perfect conditions to create the winds for a dust storm. But this is not just any duster. By the time it passes Bismarck, North Dakota, it is the biggest, strongest dust storm ever seen in America. The cold front drives the storm south across the prairies. It's heading straight for Louise and Jeanne's place at 65 miles per hour. It grows more and more powerful, it produces enough static electricity to power New York City. By the time the storm reaches Lamar, Colorado, it is 200 miles wide. The temperature plunges, Jeanne finds herself looking into the heart of the storm. "It was like I was caught in a whirlpool. All of a sudden, it got completely dark. I couldn't see a thing.” The dust clouds contain over 300,000 tons Of Great Plains topsoil.
People tie themselves to ropes before going to a barn just a few hundred feet away. Cattle die, and when they are cut open, their stomachs are full of sand. “There are these memories of people that go for days and days and days holed up inside of their little ranched houses, and they never see the light of day because the dust is so severe and it's so thick, over hundreds of miles. For days, they don't see light.”
The tiny dust particles drill into the child's lungs. She comes down with dust pneumonia, the brown plague. The Red Cross set up 6 emergency hospitals in Kansas, Colorado and Texas to deal with the rise of respiratory infections. Louise Walton had come to Colorado for the air, and now the doctors tell her that her little girl could die of it. There is an Exodus of Biblical proportions Underway on the Great Plains. By 1936, farmers are losing $25 million a day. Farming is no longer a possibility. The Great Depression takes hold. “Their mortgages come due, they can't pay it - they're not growing crops. They lose the family farm, they lose their identity.” A century before, 500,000 people had gone west on these same trails looking for hope. Now 250,000 of them are fleeing the "Dust Bowl" in despair. But not everyone has the choice to leave. Jeanne and Louise survive 'Black Sunday' and stay put. They have nothing left but their determination and will.
Bank Run America booms. But now, it's bust. The Great Depression explodes across America: social upheaval, poverty, draught. It's time for America to fight back. The American spirit is forged in the fires of the great depression.
The 1920s is boom time in America Money flows and oil wells explode. Though farmers are struggling, cities expand. Skyscrapers go higher than the stock market. Aspirations run wild for cars and suburban housing projects like Hollywoodland. By 1929, more money is spent on advertising than on education. “We got a little carried away with consumerism and capitalism. And it bite us in the butt.” The boom is built on credit. In 1929, $6 billion of goods are bought on credit. But 80% of Americans have no savings at all. Some stocks are valued at 50 times what they're really worth. A giant bubble just ready to burst. By October 1929 the inevitable happens - the stock market loses 12 times more money in 3 weeks than the US government uses in a year. “The entire country could've gone down…and almost did, from an economic point of view.” For a year after the stock market crash, America's economy teeters on the edge of the abyss.
December 1930. The streets of New York are quiet. It's been a year since the stock market crash of 1929. But only 2% of the population own stocks, the other 98% get on with their lives…until today. This man is about to shake America's confidence in its banks to its very core. He's put his money in his local bank, the Bank of the United States. A bank that has only hours left to exist but a newspaper article questions his bank's stability. This is the moment that begins a chain reaction that will shake the whole country's economy. Yet we don't even know the man's name. But his story was recorded by "The New York Times". "A small merchant in the Bronx went to a branch of the bank of United States And asked bank officials to dispose of this stock in the institution.” Bank regulations are virtually nonexistent at the time Bad real-estate investments mean the bank has only kept itself afloat by cooking the books. The last thing the bank needs is to hand out all its cash. “We almost witnessed that fairly recently And I've seen what can go on, and I've seen travesty.” “He departed and apparently spread a false report That the bank had refused to sell his stock. By mid-afternoon, a considerable crowd had gathered outside the bank Estimated at between 20,000 and 25,000 persons.” This is the day worry turns to panic: Would the banks go the same way as the market? Hysteria spreads like wildfire. Two million dollars are withdrawn from this branch alone. “Even though all anxious depositors who asked for their money before closing time were given it, the crowd became restless A squad of police were sent to control them.” The troubles spread to other branches. By the next morning, the Bank of United States has collapsed.
Confidence in US banks disintegrates. In the last 60 days of 1930, 600 banks shut. Banks close in wave after wave across the country. By 1933, there are 28 states without a single bank open. Unlike today, the federal government does not bail out the banks. Unemployment goes from 4 million in 1930 to 12 million in 1932. Every day, 1,000 homes are repossessed, 200,000 vagrant children wander the country, and 34 million Americans have no source of income. “It was an American tragedy, the Depression was, and it took American ingenuity to lift America out of it.” The fightback starts here. Vast building projects, publicly funded, privately built. Pearl Harbor World War II strikes America. The country fights back like never before. America becomes the most powerful war machine the world has ever seen. By entering the war, the United States transforms itself into a superpower in only 4 years.
The 1930s meant poverty. No future. But with war comes purpose and determination. American industry goes into overdrive. It will go to war with economic and military powers of the Axis: Germany, Italy and Japan. Now every weapon, ration, medical supply is mass-produced on a scale never seen before in human history. “Sometimes it takes a terrific challenge and a horrible threat to the Republic to discover how good you can be.” But the road to greatness begins with treachery.
December 7, 1941. 200 miles north of Hawaii. A pack of cutting-edge killing machines are on a mission: to destroy the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. The Japanese Zero was a better fighter than anything of Americans had produced at that time. It can fly 2,000 miles without refueling - perfect for a surprise attack. “When Pearl Harbor was attacked, it was one of the most stunning moments in American history.” Now 183 Japanese bombers and fighters are heading straight for Hawaii. Another 170 follow right behind. Japan has built an empire across Korea, Manchuria and Hong Kong. It wants the whole Pacific Ocean. But the US fleet in Pearl Harbor stands in its way.
Opana Mobile Radar Station. 30 miles north of Pearl Harbor. Radar operator Joe Lockhard makes first contact. Two blips are showing something out to sea. Radar is still experimental technology in 1941. Its importance is about to be realized. “If I could reach out and touch you from a greater distance, I had a tactical strategic advantage.” Radar will evolve into a system essential to the modern world. Tracking 10 million flights around America and 5 billion passengers around the world every year.” So far, America has kept out of the Second World War. “We had almost our whole fleet in one little harbor. One little area we are sitting ducks. But then again, we trusted the Japanese. At the same time, we were having peace talks with them. They even gave us a peace medal.” America is about to receive the biggest wake-up call it's ever known.
“Operator.” Private Joseph McDonald of the 580th Aircraft Warning Division. “Yeah, this is Opana.” “It looks like there are a large number of planes coming in from the north, three points east.” “I think everyone's gone off shift. Hold on.” It's early Sunday morning. Japan is over 4,000 miles from Hawaii. Pearl Harbor is not expected to be attacked. The surprise attack flaunts the specialty of American rifle men in the War of Independence. The tactic that made America free is now being used against it. “We still got planes coming in.” “It looks an awful big flight.” “Okay.” Lieutenant Kermit Tyler. He knows there is a flight of American B-17s due in today. He assumes that's what's on the screen. “Look, don't worry about it.” “What do you think it is, sir?” “Nothing.”
Though radar is invented and used by the British as early as 1935, this SCR-270 mobile radar system was developed by the US army. But the radar is still considered a gadget by the military. There are only five radar trucks to cover the whole Hawaiian Islands, and they're only manned 3 hours a day. “20 miles.” Radar has another weak point: It can't see through Hawaii's mountains. The low-flying Japanese squadron vanishes from the screen…Shift over, there's nothing more the men can do.
McDonald types up his report. “Hey, Bob, take a look at this, will you?” Today, America pays the price for neglecting radar. “When did this come in?” At 7:50 a.m., the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. “Fire!” “Most of the marines and sailors were still in their rack. They were still sleeping. We had no idea that this was gonna happen. But we all know that it did.” The Japanese have prepared this attack for a year. They have rehearsed bombing a model of Pearl Harbor in Japan until they reach an 80% hit rare. All 8 battleships are put out of action. 1,178 Americans are wounded. 2,403 are killed.
Private McDonald's report was finally read, but by then, it was too late. "A day that will live in infamy." “We were completely unprepared for that, emotionally, and it turned the country on a dime, overnight. Antiwar people were down, signing up to join the Navy, the Army, or the Marines, whatever was required.” 27 hours after the attack, America declares war on Japan. Three days later, the US is at war with Germany. “It unleashed America. And I think it gave us an energy that carried us through the rest of the war.” Once provoked, that massive tiger of engineering was awakened. “We had factories that were sitting underutilized in Detroit and around the country because of the Great Depression. We were ready to go on a building spree.” The sleeping giant awakens. America transforms into an arsenal of democracy. The nation sets to work. Before the war, there were 3 million unemployed. Now, America's huge potential is being realized. “There was no country that had a deeper economic base and an enormous pool of not just labor, but of scientists and engineers and technologists.”
How WWII Ended the Great Depression Jeeps, tanks and every other weapon of war will be produced in record numbers. But America's best-kept secret weapon of World War II has yet to be revealed.
America sets to work. The plan: overwhelm the enemy through mass production: 88,000 tanks, 7333 ships, 20 million rifles and small arms, and 40 billion bullets produced in 4 years. 43 million men are registered for combat serve but America needs more human manpower. The answer is the best-kept secret weapon of the World War II.
“It was actually the women back in this nation that were the ones working in the factories that were putting the tanks together, building the ships, building the airplanes. You know, so they are actually the ones that logically, won the war for us.”
Women like Peggy Blakey, a migrant farm worker, now she works in a munitions factory like 2 million other women. The Depression is suddenly over. The Factory used to make fireworks, now it's pumping out 20-mili meter tracer shells. Tracer shells leave a trail of burning chemicals containing magnesium - see where it's going and you can hit your target.
The pressure to produce quickly is real. So is the danger. Just combing your hair could kill you. Static electricity and gunpowder equal explosion. But the risk is worth it. Peggy makes real money - $32 a week. "To us, it was just an absolute miracle. Before, that, we made nothing. Now we'd have money to buy shoes and dress and pay rent and get some food on the table." And pay taxes. Tax returns jump from less than $4 million in 1939 to $42 million in 1945. World War II will cost $300 billion - twice as much as the federal government had spent since George Washington. Women's salaries set off a wartime consumer boom: 11,000 supermarkets are built, purchases go up 12%. “The precedent of what women accomplished during World War II did linger in the memory of the society at large. And I think was one of those things that energized the feminist movement a decade or two later. In World War II, when women entered the workforce, once they got a taste of that kind of fulfillment that work can give you, there was no going back.”
But Peggy's job is undeniably dangerous. "I was most worried about the detonators." Detonators are put into the tip of the shell last, they explode on impact. They set off the gun powder in the shell. Detonators are extremely unstable. The factory is a giant bomb. It's loaded with tons of explosives. It only takes a spark to set it off. "This terrible thunder storm came. We were in a hurry to go [to the cafeteria] and somebody knocked detonators on the floor. We were in the pitch dark. Someone was screaming, don't move, anybody! I just froze right where I was. I was afraid to step. I was so scared, I crawled on my hand and knees. We were in slow motion. Because if we'd stepped on one..." Making weapons can be as dangerous as using them. In the first 16 and a half months of the war, 12,000 military men died, but 64,000 American workers die through accidents. Another 6 million are injured. That night, Peggy was one of the lucky ones.
First, they survive the Depression, now they risk their lives every day for their country at war. “That was our finest generation in terms of people who would sacrifice and give something of themselves.”