15 Very Rare Photos Taken During WWII In Cleveland

Manufacturing cities like Cleveland played a huge role in the Allied war effort. Car, tire, aircraft, and other companies began production of parts for the United States Army, Navy, and Airforce. The US was active in WWII between 1941 and 1945, during which the rate of employment rose 35% in Cleveland. The manufacturing sector accounted for most of this growth, including a 75% growth in African American laborers, and unprecedented paid employment opportunities for women. Here is a rare glimpse inside the factories and plants of Cleveland's war effort.

1. Warehouse workers gather around the radio to listen to the news during their lunch break (1942)

2. A woman checking pig iron for steel production (1943)

3. An old factory worker teaches a new recruit how to operate a machine in a plant manufacturing diesel engines for the Navy (1941)

4. A Greyhound driver sleeps at the station to ensure that he will be ready if another service is needed (1943)

5. Workers and Navy officers are instructed on the process of diesel engine construction (1941)

6. Miss Clara Camille Carroll, a Clevelander who moved to Washington DC for work, sits down with a an old friend from home to reminisce (ca 1942)

7. Men attach a tractor belt to the wheels of a half-track scout car in the White Motor Company factory (1941)

8. A man unloads iron ore from a barge at the Pennsylvania Railroad Docks (1943)

9. A woman reads a propaganda poster as she mixes cement in a factory in Summit County (1941)

10. An electronics technician for Goodyear Aircraft checks her work (1941)

11. Workers for a rubber reclamation plant which recycles rubber products pose for a photo (1941)

12. Two metal workers pour molten metal into a mould to create billets, which will become metal wires, rods or other objects

13. A man crawls out of a barrage balloon (blimp) after inspecting the inside for faults (1941)

14. Employees in the Goodyear factory inspect US Marine Corps assault boats (1941)

15. A worker weeds out faulty wheel castings for Army scout cars at the White Motor Company factory (1941)

How different is the Cleveland of today! It's always interesting to take a look back into the past, and we're grateful to these photographers for documenting these scenes so that we can glimpse a life over 70 years ago.