When Detroit stood at attention

There's no disputing the city's major role in helping the United States become victorious in World War II. Here's what people and the news media said back then:

"The hottest town in America," crowed a 1943 article in Variety, the show business trade paper.

"A miraculous city, a city forging thunderbolts," wrote the New York Times, soon after the United States entered World War II.

"The wonder city of America," said novelist Erskine Caldwell in 1942, while talking about how much Germany and Japan wanted to bomb Detroit.

"Detroit is winning the war," Soviet dictator Josef Stalin reportedly told President Franklin D. Roosevelt three month before the Germans surrendered.

And Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower, who commanded 3 million soldiers in Europe, said the weapons he valued most were the Jeep, 2 1/2 ton truck, bulldozer and transplant plane - all partly or fully Made In Detroit.