World War II helped supply Evansville residents with jobs after the hard times following the Depression & brought a flurry of action to the town by providing war supplies. Republic Aviation, employing thousands of Evansville and nearby residents, built a plant in Evansville to construct the new age fighting machines, the P-47 Thunderbolts, which helped to send the Japanese & German military scrambling. Republic Aviation eventually produced about half of the P-47's made for the War, approximately 6,200 planes. The plant officially closed on January 4th, 1946.