I've never heard of this before.... but the war effort also focused on the need for 600,000 typewriters for all the communications to and from everywhere

Taking time off between the shooting of scenes at the RKO Studios in Hollywood, Miss O'Hara helped to collect more than 70 typewriters for use by the Army, Navy, and Marines.

Uncle Sam needed 600,000 typewriters for the armed services and contacted all possible typewriter users to urge them to release "1 out of every 4" typewriters for Army or Navy services.

http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu:8000/BROWSE.cgi?db=2&pos=351&inc=50