WORLD WAR TWO: The HOME FRONT

Reflections

This author grew up near New York City during World War II and recalls quite vividly many of the things that were taken for granted as part of the war situation.  For example, people on the East Coast were concerned about the possibility, however remote, that we might be attacked from the air by Germany.  A submarine was spotted off the coast of Long Island, and although the Germans did not have aircraft carriers, the possibility of an air raid was taken seriously.

Thus I recall regular air raid drills in our neighborhood.  Responsible citizens would be designated air raid wardens, and when the sirens went off at the village firehouse, people were obliged to either turn off all their lights or completely pull down opaque shades that would prevent light from escaping.  The warden, wearing a protective helmet, would patrol the neighborhood on foot with a flashlight (all streetlights were turned off) and politely correct all those who perhaps allowed a small beam of light to escape from a window.  During warm weather the neighbors on our block would sit on their porches smoking cigarettes and listening to the latest news on the radio.  (Everybody smoked, and television had not yet arrived.)

Automobiles were allowed to drive during air raids, but the top halves of all automobile headlights had to be painted black. And there were, in fact, very few automobiles on the road in those days.  With gasoline and rubber tires strictly rationed, people drove as little as possible.  Many good citizens simply put their automobiles up on blocks for the duration of the war and did not drive them again until it was over.  I recall driving with my uncle, who would turn his engine off and coast every time he was moving downhill in order to save a few drops of gasoline.

Meat, butter, sugar, and certain other commodities were rationed because the fat content was needed to make explosives or provide for other war-related needs.  Recycling was big during World War II, a phenomenon that disappeared for a few decades until environmental issues came to the fore.  In my home town we saved newspapers, tin cans, and all sorts of scrap metal—collections were held regularly by boy and girl scouts and other groups to gather in these vital materials. Freight cars were parked on railroad siding for us to fill. Ration books were issued to families, and stamps were required in order to purchase rationed commodities.  People were encouraged to economize by all possible means—nothing was to be wasted.  We had meatless Tuesdays and Fridays, and “victory gardens” grew everywhere.

Although the United States was fighting against what it saw as totalitarian regimes, the level of control that the government tried to exercise over the American people was nevertheless astounding.  The War Department had a motion picture section that was designed to influence what filmmakers could or could not put on the screen that might affect the war effort.  In those pre-television days people got their visual news from newsreels in movie theaters preceding the main attraction. At the direction of the government, newsreels were not to show any pictures of American battlefield casualties until late in 1943.  If all that can be seen as thought control, the American people generally understood that it was for a good cause.

Huge rallies were held in theaters and parks for the sale of war bonds.  Patriotic announcements in movie theaters preceded most films, asking people not to discuss troop movements; to buy war bonds; and to give blood and offer moral support their fathers, sons, and husbands who were serving overseas.  It was even considered unpatriotic for a woman to end a romantic relationship with a soldier overseas, lest it damage his morale.  A popular song written with servicemen in mind proclaimed that their women were being “good as gold” because all the men back home were “either too young or too old.”  As schoolchildren we purchased savings stamps with our quarters, and when we had $18.75 pasted into our stamp books, we took them to the bank or post office to exchange for a $25 war bond.

Cartoons of Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini were commonly seen alongside patriotic posters proclaiming that “Uncle Sam wants you!”  It was a total war, and the entire population was involved.  Because of the huge demand for workers in automobile, steel, and other plants that were vital to the war effort, workers in those industries were exempt from the draft.  For a time the government contemplated drafting men to go to work in factories, but the idea was abandoned because it might be a violation of civil rights, a rather curious decision when one considers that there was no hesitation to draft a man into the armed forces where he might be killed in combat.

American Industry at War

Historians have pointed out that World War II was won not only on the battlefields of North Africa, Europe, the Pacific Islands, and Asia, but that it was also won in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Birmingham, St. Louis, on the West Coast, and in all the other areas where the war industries were congregated.  Beginning in the spring of 1942, factories ran twenty-four hours a day, six or seven days a week.  Unemployment during the war dropped to slightly more than 1 percent of the working age population.  The government spent twice as much money 1941–1945 as in all of American history to that point put together, and by 1944 almost 90 percent of government spending went to the war cause.

Between 1942 and 1945 the production of consumer goods slowed to a trickle, as the Singer Sewing Machine Company made machine guns, and Ford and General Motors made trucks, tanks, and armored vehicles.  Goods such as washing machines and other appliances were in short supply.  Between 1942 and 1945 hardly any new civilian automobiles were built at all as the motor companies work around the clock to turn out military vehicles and aircraft.

The quantity of goods and the speed with which they were produced astonished observers. The aircraft industry produced 324,750 planes during the war, with ever increasing efficiency.  In 1941, production of a B-17 required 55,000 individual worker hours.  By 1944 the figure was down to 19,000 hours.  The Kaiser shipbuilding company turned out ships with amazing speed, and in one exercise just to prove a point, they actually constructed a vessel from the keel up in 4 days, 15 hours and 30 minutes.  The ship, the SS Robert E. Peary, sailed seven days after the keel was laid.

The Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress” was one of the great aircraft of World War II.  With a crew of ten, the B-17G—one of the later models—could fly at up 300 miles per hour at 30,000 feet, carrying a bomb load of 8,000 pounds over a range of 1,850 miles.  The aircraft could defend itself with thirteen .50-caliber machine guns, but bomber squadrons were generally accompanied by fighters for additional protection.

While the stout B-17 airplane could sustain considerable damage and keep on flying, more than 4,000 were lost from enemy action and other causes such as accidents in the European theater alone.  One raid on Schweinfurt, Germany, in 1943 resulted in 60 bombers lost and 30 more damaged beyond repair.  The highly trained crews were as hard to replace as lost aircraft, especially given the policy that after twenty-five missions over enemy territory, airmen would return to the States to train others.

Although there were those who profiteered from those sorts of things, and although a black market existed (a grocer in our village was happy to provide an extra ration of meat in exchange for a few extra dollars), most Americans simply accepted things as they were.  Since silk and nylon had disappeared from stores—they were going into parachutes—women put makeup on their legs and traced with an eyebrow pencil what was meant to look like a seam on the back of their “stockings.”

Such was the devotion of the American people toward the war cause that one phrase frequently uttered when some thoughtless person was observed doing something not in the best interest of the country was:  “Don’t you know there’s a war on?!” It was everybody’s war, and one can readily say that if a family existed that wasn’t touched in some way or other by the enormous effort put forth to win World War II, that family was probably very isolated from the rest of American society.

Reflections on Memorial Day in my Home Town.

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