Aerial View of downtown Pittsburgh on a clear day in 1945. The country is nearing the end of World War II, having liberated Europe and most of the southern Pacific. Much of the steel that went into the war effort came from the mills surrounding the city of Pittsburgh. Landing craft vital to the invasion of Normandy were manufactured on Neville Island. Some say that Pittsburgh was as important to winning the war against the Axis as any other weapon in the arsenal of democracy.