It was set up by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill on June 9, 1942.
[3] The mission of the Board set out by Roosevelt and Churchill was twofold:[4] The Board was charged by the Combined Chiefs of Staff to take all relevant production factors into account, for the maximum utilization of the productive resources available to the United States, Britain and its Commonwealth, and the United Nations at war.
[6] The need for the Combined Production and Resources Board was underscored in 1942 when it called on the War Department for details on the material requirements of the Army (including the Air Force) for the next 18 months.
Each unit in the War Department had been accustomed to ordering directly from industry, giving out high priorities based on rough estimates, with no coordination or overall picture.
The official history of the War Production Board says the CPRB "never realized" its opportunity:[8]