WWII Notes 10: Homefronts

World Wars – HamerMay 4, 2010

Total War

What is Total War?

Soviet Union

• Saw an increase in nationalism against the German invasion

• Women, youth, and the elderly worked in factories to maintain war production

• Millions of civilians died in sieges and from starvation

Germany

• Did not begin total war until 1943 under Albert Speer

• Had labor issues even though there were lots of people– Needed lots of people to farm and build

synthetic oil plants

• By the end of the war Germany had brought in over 7 million foreign “workers” (POW’s and forced laborers)

America

• 1942 - $100 billion of military orders• All orchestrated by the War

Production Board• Manufacture of non-essentials was

halted– No cars produced in America between

1942-1945– All was focused on access to raw materials

to build war supplies and transportation for the war

• War Labor Board (WLB) created a ceiling on wage increases

Propaganda

• Every country used propaganda to convince their citizens to enlist, get a war job, buy a war bond, conserve, or just to reinvigorate them about the war

“Loose Lips Sink Ships”

Propaganda warns against talking about war related topics – deployment locations and defense production were the most important.

War Bonds

Buy War Bonds• Even though many

governments were finally taking in a larger tax revenue after the Depression, WWII still cost billions of dollars.

• Citizens were encouraged to buy war bonds to help the government finance the war effort and to soak up extra currency to reduce inflation.

Production

Australia

USA

Germany

“You are the Front” and “Work as Hard for Victory as We Fight”

Munitions Production in World War II(Expenditures in billions of dollars, US 1944 munitions prices)

Country/Alliance

Year

1935-9 avg

1940 1941 1942 1943 1944Total

1939–44

U.S.A. 0.3 1.5 4.5 20.0 38.0 42.0 106.3

Britain 0.5 3.5 6.5 9.0 11.0 11.0 41.5

U.S.S.R 1.6 5.0 8.5 11.5 14.0 16.0 56.6

Allies Total 2.4 10.0 20.0 41.5 64.5 70.5 204.4

Germany 2.4 6.0 6.0 8.5 13.5 17.0 53.4

Japan 0.4 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.5 6.0 16.9

Axis Total 2.8 7.0 8.0 11.5 18.0 23.0 70.3

Rationing

Rationing in America PART 1

• Rationing is the controlled distribution of resources and scarce goods or services

• In WWII, rationing was used to control how much civilians used so more could be sent to the troops.

• Rationed goods included sugar, coffee, processed food, meat, wheat, shoes, and gasoline– Gasoline was rationed not only for the gas,

but also to conserve rubber

Rationing in America PART 2• Different series

of ration books were issued to cover different time periods or products.

• This ration book covered food. Each person in the household received a food ration book.

Rationing in America PART 3

• Ration stamps were necessary to buy ALL rationed goods,

• They were not money. The stamps just allowed the item to be purchased.

Rationing in America PART

4• Each time a ration

book was issued, specific instructions were issued for its use.

• Each town had a ration board that distributed books and instructions as well as insured that businesses were enforcing the use of stamps.

Conserve Everything from Train Rides to Cooking Fat

Victory Gardens

Germany• Strict rationing did not begin until later in the

war• More ration stamps were supposedly given to

men in industrial work whereas Jews and Poles got less

• According to a 1997 post by Walter Felscher to the Memories of the 1940's e-mail list (from wikipedia):

• "For every person, there were rationing cards for general foodstuffs, meats, fats (such as butter, margarine and oil) and tobacco products distributed every other month. The cards were printed on strong paper, containing numerous small "Marken" subdivisions printed with their value – for example, from "5 g Butter" to "100 g Butter". Every acquisition of rationed goods required an appropriate "Marken", and if a person wished to eat a certain soup at a restaurant, the waiter would take out a pair of scissors and cut off the required items to make the soup and amounts listed on the menu. In the evenings, shop-owners would spend an hour at least gluing the collected "Marken" onto large sheets of paper which they then had to hand in to the appropriate authorities."

England

• Food rationing began January 8, 1940– Rationing of food,

clothing, gasoline, and leather

– Sweets and fruits were not rationed (they would spoil)

– Victory Gardens were a big thing

Japanese Rice Production During WWII

Year 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945

Domestic production 9,928 9,862 10,324 9,107 8,245 9,999 9,422 8,784 6,445

Imports 2,173 2,546 1,634 1,860 2,517 2,581 1,183 874 268

All rice 12,101 12,408 11,958 10,967 10,762 12,580 10,605 9,658 6,713

Problems for Civilians

Poland – Warsaw Ghetto

• Over 550,000 Polish Jews were forced into an area of less than 2 square miles in the city of Warsaw. Access and leave were severely restricted and many died from the terrible conditions.

• By April 1943 there were only 60,000 left (many had died and over 400,000 were sent to an extermination camp at Treblinka) and they began an uprising. The Nazis worked to stop the uprising by destroying the buildings in the Ghetto

Bengali Famine of 1943

• A combination of events caused a famine that killed approximately 3 million Bengalis– England confiscated boats, motor vehicles,

and even elephants on the Burmese border to prevent the Japanese from getting them – this caused fishermen to not be able to fish

– Couldn’t get rice from Burma anymore– Rationing put into place that limited rice– Cyclone– Hoarding and panic

China

• 2nd highest number of casualties in the whole war

• Corruption caused problems with the distribution of aid money from America

• Floods, famines, and massacres killed millions of civilians

Internment of Japanese Americans

• On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that set up a line along the West Coast of America

• Anyone of Japanese descent that lived West of this line had to be relocated to internment camps for the duration of the war = 120,000 men, women, and children

• Included both Issei (Japanese immigrants) and Nisei (1st generation American born)

Blackouts

• Blackout conditions begin in England September 1, 1939

• America instituted Blackout conditions in all cities– Really as a means to engage civilians in

“doing something” for the war since no German plane was going to reach Iowa…

USA - Double V Campaign and Race Riots

• Many African Americans moved to urban areas during the war to work in munitions factories

• This led to increased racial tensions which caused the race riots of 1943 in Chicago, Detroit, and Harlem

• The Double V Campaign was started by African Americans for Victory over fascism abroad and Victory over discrimination at home

England - Relocation• Children, mothers with very young

children, pregnant women, and the disabled were moved out of London and other major industrial cities in the south and most were sent to northern England. Some were privately relocated to Canada, Australia, or the USA

• The children traveling alone could carry only a gas mask, books, money, clothes, ration book and some small toys with them

• Over 3.5 million people were moved out of London

Germany - Relocation

• By 1942-1943, Allied air raids of German cities were becoming problematic for the civilians

• Mothers could volunteer to register their children ages 3-14 to send them to the countryside

Women in WWII

Women on the Homefront

• Women worked in factories (Rosie’s), in agriculture, in government jobs, and even in making their own victory gardens

• In Canada by 1944 the number of women working full time was twice what it was in 1939

• Factsheet about American women in WWII

Women in the Armed Forces

• In Allied countries and Finland, women were allowed to serve in non-combat roles in the military– 350,000 women served in the American

military and 16 were killed in action

• In Poland women did see combat with the resistance forces

• In England women could volunteer for combat duty with anti-aircraft guns on the ground

• Women were also often used as spies

Canada: “I’m making bombs and buying bonds. Buy Victory Bonds” American woman working on Liberty Ship

American pilot

Australia

Juggling Act• In America 6

million women worked in war jobs during WWII.

• Many of these women were mothers and the government had to set up approximately 3,000 day care centers across the country!

Two Views of Rosie

J. Howard Miller’s RosieNorman Rockwell’s Rosie

Women Finish Bomber Noses