World War II, Homefront

The home front is the name given to the non-military activities of a nation during wartime, including politics, society, culture and the economy. Life on the home front during World War II was a significant part of the war effort for all participants, and had major impact on the outcome of the war.

Overview

The major powers devoted 50–60% of their total GDP to war production at the peak in 1943. The Allies produced about three times as much in munitions as the Axis powers.

Munitions Production in World War II

Country/Alliance	Year
	1935-9 ave	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	Total 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

Source: Goldsmith data in Harrison (1988) p. 172

Real Value Consumer Spending

Country	Year
	1937	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945
Japan	100	107	109	111	108	99	93	78
Germany	100	108	117	108	105	95	94	85
USA	100	96	103	108	116	115	118	122

Source: Jerome B Cohen, Japan's Economy in War and Reconstruction (1949) p 354

Allies

Poland

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, conquering it in six weeks, as the Soviets invaded the eastern areas. During the German occupation there were two distinct uprisings in Warsaw, one by Jews in 1943, the other by Poles in 1944. Rutherford (2007) looks at the Wartheland region in a study of efforts to "Germanize" areas of western Poland. There were four major deportation operations between December 1939 and March 1941. Action taken against non-Jewish Poles was linked to the Nazis' later policy of Jewish annihilation.

Jews in Warsaw Ghetto: 1943

The first took place in an entity, less than two square miles in area, which the Germans carved out of the city and called "Ghetto Warschau." Into the thus created Ghetto, around which they built high walls, the Germans crowded 550,000 Polish Jews, many from the Polish provinces. At first, people were able to go in and out of the Ghetto, but soon the Ghetto's border became an "iron curtain." Unless on official business, Jews could not leave it, and non-Jews, including Germans, could not enter. Entry points were guarded by German soldiers. Because of extreme conditions and hunger, mortality in the Ghetto was high. Additionally, in 1942 the Germans moved 400,000 to Treblinka where they were gassed on arrival. When, on April 19, 1943, the Ghetto Uprising commenced, the population of the Ghetto had dwindled to 60,000 individuals. In the following three weeks virtually all died as the Germans fought to put down the uprising and systematically destroyed the buildings in the Ghetto.

Warsaw Uprising of 1944

The uprising by Poles, ordered by the government in exile in London, began on August 1, 1944. The Polish underground "Home Army," seeing that the Soviets had reached the eastern bank of the Vistula, sought to liberate Warsaw. However, Stalin had his own group of Communist leaders for the new Poland and did not want the Home Army or its leaders (based in London) to control Warsaw. So he halted the Soviet offensive. The Germans suppressed the rebellion ruthlessly. During the ensuing 63 days, 250,000 Poles in the Home Army surrendered to the Germans. After the Germans forced all the surviving population to leave the city, Hitler ordered that any buildings left standing be dynamited and 98% of buildings in Warsaw were destroyed.

Britain

Britain's total mobilization during this period proved to be successful in toppling the Axis Powers, but carried a steep cost postwar. Public opinion strongly supported the war, and the level of sacrifice was high. The war was a "people's war" that enlarged democratic aspirations and produced promises of a postwar welfare state.

Munitions

In mid-1940 the R.A.F. was called on to fight the Battle of Britain but it had suffered serious losses. It lost 458 aircraft—more than current production—in France and was hard pressed. In order to speed output the government decided to concentrate on only five models in order to optimize output. They were Wellingtons, Whitley Vs, Blenheims, Hurricanes and Spitfires. They received extraordinary priority. Covering the supply of materials and equipment and even made it possible to divert from other types the necessary parts, equipments, materials and manufacturing resources. Labour was moved from other aircraft work to factories engaged on the specified types. Cost was not an object. The delivery of new fighters rose from 256 in April to 467 in September—more than enough to cover the losses—and Fighter Command emerged triumphantly from the Battle of Britain in October with more aircraft than it had possessed at the beginning.

Women

Most women who volunteered before the war went into civil defense or the Women's Land Army. The main civil defence services were Air Raid Precautions (ARP), the fire service and Women's Voluntary Services (WVS). Initially, the women mainly carried out clerical work, but their roles expanded to meet demand, and female pump crews became commonplace. Women joined branches of the forces, which were revived in 1938-39: the Army’s Auxiliary Territorial Service , the Women's Royal Naval Service (Wrens), and the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (Waafs).

Conscription for all women was introduced in 1941 for women of 21 in that year. They had to join the armed forces or the land army or be assigned other war work.

The WVS was the largest single women's organisation at this time. It was formed to support civil defence and to provide services not provided locally by other organizations, and had over one million members. "Typical WVS contributions included organising evacuations, shelters, clothing exchanges and mobile canteens" . The Women's Land Army/Scottish Land Army was reformed in 1938 so that women could be trained in agricultural work, leaving male workers free to go to war. Most WLA members were young women from the towns and cities. Annice Gibbs, who worked for the WLA Timber Corps, remembers an encounter with Italian prisoners of war (POWs). "After our training, we soon got used to heavy work, such as lifting pit-props and cutting them into various lengths for the coal mines" . There were no mechanical devices used then and every pit-prop was cut by hand. "...the Italian POWs worked to measure the trees. They were very well looked after and we were amazed to see them erecting field ovens. They cooked bacon and cabbage for their lunch and brewed delicious hot coffee ... and we sat under a tree eating beetroot sandwiches ... We were fortunate - they gave us some of their coffee and food" .

With the onset of war, everything changed. If fathers joined the armed forces, or were sent away to do vital civilian work, mothers often ran the home alone - and had to get used to going out to work, as well. Young single women, often away from home for the first time, might be billeted miles from their families.

Flexible working hours, nurseries and other arrangements soon became commonplace to accommodate the needs of working women with children. Before long, women made up one third of the total workforce in the metal and chemical industries, as well as in ship-building and vehicle manufacture.

They worked on the railways, canals and on buses. Women built Waterloo Bridge in London. Nellie Brook left the munitions factory where she worked due to poor health, and was assigned to aircraft manufacture. "I was told my services were needed at A V Roe at Yeardon, where they made Lancaster bombers. That was like something out of science fiction. To get there, we were taken out into the country. When you arrived you would never have thought there was a factory there, it was so well camouflaged; great big grass hillocks and once you went inside it was amazing. No windows, all these hundreds of people of both sexes all working away like ants. All doing different jobs that finished up producing one of Britain's finest planes" .

Rationing

Food, clothing, petrol, leather and other such items were rationed. Access to luxuries was severely restricted, though there was also a significant black market. Families also grew victory gardens, and small home vegetable gardens, to supply themselves with food.

Evacuation

From very early in the war it was thought that the major cities of Britain, especially London, would come under air attack, which did happen. Some children were sent to Canada. Millions of children and some mothers were evacuated from London and other major cities when the war began, but they often filtered back. When the bombing began in September 1940 they evacuated again. The discovery of the poor health and hygiene of evacuees was a shock to Britons, and helped prepare the way for the Beveridge Plan. Children were only evacuated if they're parents agreed but in some cases they didn't have choice. The children were only allowed to take a few things with them including a gas mask, books, money, clothes, ration book and some small toys.

Soviet Union

After rapid German advances in the early months of the war reaching the city of Moscow, the bulk of Soviet industry and agriculture was either destroyed or in German hands. But in one of the greatest logistics feats of the war, thousands of factories were moved beyond the Ural Mountains along with well over a million workers. In general the tools, dies and machines were moved, along with the blueprints and skilled engineers.

The whole of the Soviet Union become dedicated to the war effort. Conditions were severe. In Leningrad, under German siege, over a million died of starvation and disease. Many factory workers were teenagers, women and old people. Despite harsh conditions, the war led to a spike in Soviet nationalism and unity. Soviet propaganda toned down socialist and anti-religious rhetoric of the past as the people now rallied by a belief of protecting their motherland against hated German invaders. Ethnic minorities thought to be collaborators were moved into exile.

Religion, which was previously shunned, became an acceptable part of society.

United States

See World War II, Homefront, U.S.

China

China suffered the second highest amount of casualties of the entire war. Civilians in the occupied territories had to endure many large-scale slaughters. In a few areas Japanese forces also unleashed newly developed biological weapons on Chinese civilians leading to an estimated 200,000 dead . Tens of thousands are thought be have died when Nationalist troops broke the levees of the Yangtze to stop the Japanese advance after the loss of the capital, Nanking. Millions more Chinese died because of famine during the war.

Millions of Chinese moved to the Western regions of China to avoid Japanese invasion. Cities like Kunming ballooned with new arrivals. Entire factories and universities were often taken along for the journey. Japan captured major coastal cities like Shanghai early in the war; cutting the rest of China off from its chief source of finance and industry.

The city of Chongqing became the most frequently bombed city in history.

Though China received aid from the United States, China did not have sufficient infrastructure to properly arm or even feed its military forces. Much of the aid was also funneled away through corruption.

Communist forces led by Mao were generally more successful at getting support or killing opponents than Nationalists. They were based mainly in Northern China, and built up their strength to battle with the Nationalists as soon as the Japanese were gone.

In occupied territories under Japanese control, civilians were treated harshly.

Axis

Germany

Germany had not fully mobilized in 1939, nor even in 1941. Not until 1943 under Albert Speer did Germany finally redirect its entire economy and manpower to war production.

Economy

Although Germany had about twice the population of Britain (80 million versus 40 million), it had to use far more labour to provide food and energy. Britain imported food and employed only a million people (5% of labour force) on farms, while Germany used 11 million (27%). For Germany to build its twelve synthetic oil plants with a capacity of 3.3 million tons a year required 2.4 million tons of structural steel and 7.5 million man-days of labour; Britain brought in all its oil from Iraq, Persia and North America. To overcome this problem Germany employed millions of forced laborers and POWs; by 1944 they had brought in more than five million civilian workers and nearly two million prisoners of war—a total of 7.13 million foreign workers. The workers were unwilling and inefficient, and many died in air raids.

Rationing

For the first part of the war, there were surprisingly few restrictions on civilian activities. Most goods were freely available in the early years of the war. Rationing in Germany was introduced in 1939, slightly later than it was in Britain, because Hitler was at first convinced that it would affect public support of the war if a strict rationing program was introduced. The Nazi popularity was in fact partially due to the fact that Germany under the Nazis was relatively prosperous, and Hitler did not want to lose popularity or faith. Hitler felt that food and other shortages had been a major factor in destroying civilian morale during World War I which led to the overthrow of the Kaiser and other German monarchies at the end of the war. However, when the war began to go against the Germans in Russia and the Allied bombing effort began to affect domestic production, this changed and a very severe rationing program had to be introduced. The system gave extra rations for men involved in heavy industry, and lower rations for Jews and Poles in the areas occupied by Germany, but not to the Rhineland Poles.

The points system

Walter Felscher recalls: 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. also created a cut in the amount of rationed bread, meat and fat.

Labor

Women were idealized by Nazi ideology and work was not felt to be appropriate for them. Children were expected to go to houses collecting materials for the production of war equipment. The Germans brought in millions of coerced workers , called Arbeitseinsatz from the countries they occupied, along with prisoners of war.

Japan

Japanese Rice Supply

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

Source: Cohen, Japan's Economy in War and Reconstruction (1949) p 368-9

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Bibliography

General

• WWII Homefront - Collection of color photographs of the homefront during World War II
• 10 Eventful Years: 1937-1946 4 vol. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1947. Highly detailed encyclopedia of events in every country.
• Beck, Earl R. The European Home Fronts, 1939-1945 Harlan Davidson, 1993, brief
• Brandt, Karl. The reconstruction of world agriculture (1945) online edition
• Costello, John. Love, Sex, and War: Changing Values, 1939-1945 1985. US title: Virtue under Fire: How World War II Changed Our Social and Sexual Attitudes
• I.C.B. Dear and M.R.D. Foot, eds. The Oxford Companion to World War II (1995), detailed articles on every country
• Harrison, Mark. "Resource Mobilization for World War II: The U.S.A., UK, USSR and Germany, 1938-1945". Economic History Review (1988): 171-92.
• Higonnet, Margaret R., et al., eds. Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars Yale UP, 1987.
• Loyd, E. Lee, ed.; World War II in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, with General Sources: A Handbook of Literature and Research Greenwood Press. 1997. 525pp bibliographic guide
• Loyd, E. Lee, ed.; World War II in Asia and the Pacific and the War's aftermath, with General Themes: A Handbook of Literature and Research Greenwood Press, 1998
• Marwick, Arthur. War and Social Change in the Twentieth Century: A Comparative Study of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States 1974.
• Milward, Alan. War, Economy and Society 1977 covers homefront of major participants
• Noakes, Jeremy ed., The Civilian in War: The Home Front in Europe, Japan and the U.S.A. in World War II Exeter, UK: University of Exeter, 1992.
• Schultz, Theodore, ed. Food for the world (1945) online edition
• Wright, Gordon. The Ordeal of Total War 1968., covers all of Europe

Australia and New Zealand

• S.J. Butlin and C.B. Schedvin, War Economy 1942–1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1997
• Darian-Smith, Kate. On the Home Front: Melbourne in Wartime, 1939-1945. Australia: Oxford UP, 1990.
• Saunders, Kay. War on the Homefront: State Intervention in Queensland, 1938-1948 (1993)
• The Home Front Volume I by Nancy M. Taylor NZ official history (1986)
• The Home Front Volume II by Nancy M. Taylor NZ official history (1986)
• Political and External Affairs by Frederick Lloyd Whitfeld (1958) NZ official history

Britain

• Brivati, Brian, and Harriet Jones, ed. What Difference Did the War Make? The Impact of the Second World War on British Institutions and Culture. Leicester UP; 1993.
• Calder, Angus . The People's War: Britain 1939-45 (1969)
• Corelli, Barnett. The Audit of War: The Illusion and Reality of Britain as a Great Nation. 1986.
• Hancock, W. K. and Gowing, M.M. British War Economy (1949) official history
• Hancock, W. K. Statistical Digest of the War, (1951) official history
• Marwick, Arthur. The Home Front: The British and the Second World War. 1976.
• Postan, Michael. British War Production, 1952. official history
• Rose, Sonya O. Which People's War?: National Identity and Citizenship in Wartime Britain 1939-1945 (2003)
• Titmuss, Richard M. Problems of Social Policy(1950) official history

Canada

• Granatstein, J. L. Canada's War: The Politics of the Mackenzie King Government. Oxford UP, 1975.
• Granatstein, J. L., and Desmond Morton. A Nation Forged in Fire: Canadians and the Second World War, 1939-1945 1989.
• Keshen, Jeffrey A. Saints, Sinners, and Soldiers: Canada's Second World War (2004)
• Pierson, Ruth Roach. They're Still Women After All: The Second World War and Canadian Womanhood. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986.

China

• Eastman Lloyd. Seeds of Destruction: Nationalist China in War and Revolution, 1937- 1945. Stanford University Press, 1984
• John Fairbank and Albert Feuerwerker, eds., Republican China 1912-1949 in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 13, part 2. Cambridge University Press, 1986.
• James C. Hsiung and Steven I. Levine, eds. China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945 M. E. Sharpe, 1992
• Ch'i Hsi-sheng, Nationalist China at War: Military Defeats and Political Collapse, 1937–1945 University of Michigan Press, 1982

France

• Gildea, Robert. Marianne in Chains: Daily Life in the Heart of France During the German Occupation (2004)
• Jackson, Julian. France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944 (2003)
• Paxton, Robert O. Vichy France 2nd ed. (2001)

Germany

• Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich: A New History (2000)
• Hagemann, Karen and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum; Home/Front: The Military, War, and Gender in Twentieth-Century Germany Berg, 2002
• Kalder N. "The German War Economy". Review of Economic Studies 13 (1946): 33-52.
• Victor Klemperer. I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years (2001), memoir by partly-Jewish professor
• Milward, Alan. The German Economy at War 1965.
• Overy, Richard. War and Economy in the Third Reich Oxford UP, 1994.
• Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs 1970.

Italy

• Absalom, R, "Italy", in J. Noakes (ed.), The Civilian in War: The Home Front in Europe, Japan and the U.S.A. in World War II. Exeter: Exęter University Press. 1992.
• Tracy Koon, Believe, Obey, Fight: Political Socialization in Fascist Italy 1922-1943 (U North Carolina Press, 1985),
• Morgan, D. Italian Fascism, 1919-1945 (1995)
• Wilhelm, Maria de Blasio. The Other Italy: Italian Resistance in World War II. W. W. Norton, 1988. 272 pp.

Japan

• Cohen, Jerome. Japan's Economy in War and Reconstruction. University of Minnesota Press, 1949. online version
• Cook, Haruko Taya, and Theodore Cook. Japan at War: An Oral History 1992.
• Dower, John. Japan in War and Peace 1993.
• Duus Peter, Ramon H. Myers, and Mark R. Peattie. The Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931-1945. Princeton UP 1996. 375p.
• Havens, Thomas R. Valley of Darkness: The Japanese People and World War II. 1978.
• Havens, Thomas R. "Women and War in Japan, 1937-1945." American Historical Review 80 (1975): 913-934. online in JSTOR

Philippines

• Agoncillo Teodoro A. The Fateful Years: Japan's Adventure in the Philippines, 1941-1945. Quezon City, PI: R.P. Garcia Publishing Co., 1965. 2 vols
• Hartendorp A. V.H. The Japanese Occupation of the Philippines. Manila: Bookmark, 1967. 2 vols.
• Lear, Elmer. The Japanese Occupation of the Philippines: Leyte, 1941-1945. Southeast Asia Program, Department of Far Eastern Studies, Cornell University, 1961. 246p. emphasis on social history
• Steinberg, David J. Philippine Collaboration in World War II. University of Michigan Press, 1967. 235p.

Poland and Ukraine

• Berkhoff, Karel C. Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule. Harvard U. Press, 2004. 448 pp.
• Dallin, Alexander. Odessa, 1941-1944: A Case Study of Soviet Territory under Foreign Rule. Portland: Int. Specialized Book Service, 1998. 296 pp.
• Davies, Norman. Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw (2004)
• Gross, Jan T. Polish Society under German Occupation: The Generalgouvernement, 1939-1944. Princeton UP, 1979.
• Gross, Jan T. Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia (1988).
• Gutman, Israel. Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1998)
• Redlich, Shimon. Together and Apart in Brzezany: Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians, 1919-1945. Indiana U. Press, 2002. 202 pp.
• Rutherford, Phillip T. Prelude to the Final Solution: The Nazi Program for Deporting Ethnic Poles, 1939-1941, (University Press of Kansas; 2007) 328pp.
• Vallin, Jacques; Meslé, France; Adamets, Serguei; and Pyrozhkov, Serhii. "A New Estimate of Ukrainian Population Losses During the Crises of the 1930s and 1940s." Population Studies (2002) 56(3): 249-264. Issn: 0032-4728 Fulltext in Jstor. Reports life expectancy at birth fell to a level as low as ten years for females and seven for males in 1933 and plateaued around 25 for females and 15 for males in the period 1941-44.

Russia

• Barber, Bo, and Mark Harrison. The Soviet Home Front: A Social and Economic History of the USSR in World War II, Longman, 1991.
• Braithwaite, Rodric. Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War (2006)
• Thurston, Robert W., and Bernd Bonwetsch (Eds). The People's War: Responses to World War II in the Soviet Union (2000)

Scandinavia

• Andenaes, Johs, et al. Norway and the Second World War (ISBN 82-518-1777-3) Oslo: Johan Grundt Tanum Forlag, 1966.
• Nissen, Henrik S. Scandinavia During the Second World War (1983) (ISBN 0-8166-1110-6)
• Salmon; Patrick (Ed.) Britain and Norway in the Second World War London: HMSO, 1995.