The Dane Who Changed the Course of the Second World War

On the 28th May 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt placed a direct call from the White House to William S. Knudsen, Director of General Motors Corporation in Detroit. Roosevelt needed the right man to lead America’s armament during the Second World War — and the president only had one candidate in mind for the job: the Dane known as ‘Bill’ to his friends and colleagues. For his efforts, Bill would receive just one dollar a year.

ONE DOLLAR MAN is the forgotten story of a Danish bicycle mechanic who emigrated to the United States in 1900 aboard a steamship with just 30 dollars in his pocket. The Dane fought his way from the bottom of society to the upper echelons of American industry until he was called to Washington, D. C., to serve his adopted country during the war.

WILLIAM S. KNUDSEN had an uncanny talent for organising men and machines. He systematised assembly-line production at Ford Motor Company, generating the formidable success of the Chevrolet brand. At General Motors he quickly rose in the ranks and became CEO of the company, with 250.000 employees reporting to him. William S. Knudsen was a key figure in Washington during the war, and as a three-star general, he helped turn the tide in the Allies’ fight to defeat Hitler and the Japanese.

OLE SØNNICHSEN is a Danish author and trained journalist from the Danish School of Journalism and San Francisco State University. He has written multiple bestselling biographies featuring famous Danes.

BRIAN DAN CHRISTENSEN is a Danish-American writer and translator. He has published novels, poetry, and nonfiction, has translated such diverse writers as Garrison Keillor, Christopher Isherwood, Jack Kerouac, Graham Greene, Norman Mailer, David Nicholls, and Catherine Lacey, and has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion.

Ole Sønnichsen