Figure 1.--Here Queen Elizabeth and King George tour Bath during 1942. There are many images of Hitler with the German people during the good times. Once the War turned for the worse, Hitler never appeared in public. |
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Although not as dramatic as the major military campaigns, in large measure, it was on the home front that the War was decided. Combatant countries took different appraoches to the home front and the need for increased production to supply the fighting men. The Germans believing the War had been won, actually scaled back war production in 1940-41 and delayed critical work on weapons development (such at jet aircraft). Hitler was very concerned with maintaining German civilian consumption levels and that mothers not be taken out of the home to work in factories. German women were not mobilized for War work, rather slave labor was brought in from occupied countries to work in factories and on farms. The hard-pressed British in 1939-40 completely reorganized the economy for war production which included the use of large numbers of women and youths. America after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 also reorganized the economy producing staggering quantities of weapons and other war materials that the Axis could not match. The Russians managed to move many war-plants beyond te Urals Mountains out of reach of the Geramsn and as a result maintained war-production. During the Battle of Stalingrad, the Russians were actually continued building T-34 tanks in a vast factory even after the Germans had entered part of it. Youth groups also played important roles in the War, although this varied among countries.
Although not as dramatic as the major military campaigns, in large measure, it was on the home front that the War was decided. Combatant countries took different appraoches to the home front and the need for increased production to supply the fighting men.
The British were one of two countries that fought the NAZIs from the onset of the World War II (September 3, 1939). to VE-Day (May 1945). The other country of course was Poland. The experiences of the two countries were very differemt, because the NAZIs occupied Poland, dismembering the coutry and persusing genocida racial policies. Britons were not, immeiately affected by the fighting, except the children in the city were evacuated and men mobilized for the military. The War first came hime to Britain after the fall of France (June 1940). The Luftwaffee in the ensuing Battle of Britain destroyed large areas of London and other major British cities. The cost of the War and the U-boat campign in the North Atlantic resulted in increasingly strict rationing of both food and clothing. For 12 months Britain fought alone. American assistance like Lend Lease playerdca major role in keeping Britain in the War. Britain mobilized its resources as few countries had ever done. Civilian units were mobilized go support both farm and industrial production. Finally Hitler turned east, redeploying the Luftwaffe for the invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941). And American joined the War (December 1941). With Hitler's focus on the East and deployment of the American 8th Air Force to Britain, the Allies established air superiority in the West. Even so, the NAZIs with their V-1 and V-2 programs conducted two more air campaigns against Britain. While Vritin was part of the winning Allied coalition, the country paid a heavy price. Shortages and rationing continued for several years following the War.
The Chinese home front is a very difficult topic because it is such a complicated one. Our information is still very limited. There was no one China. The Japanese occupied much of China, including the costal areas and major cities. Japanese control was only nominal once one move inland. So called Free (unoccupied China) included the Nationalists in the southwest and the Communists in the northwest. The Japanese converted Manchuria into the puppet state of Manchukuo--essentially a colony. Here they promoted Japanese colonization with only limited syccess. In China proper the Japanese attempted to negotiate arrangements with military warlords in areas they occupied. Some of these war lords also had relations with Chiang creating quite a complicated situation. At this time we do not have much information on living conditions in the various regions. The War affected the Chinese economy. Many men were killed or conscripted into the various armies which affected farm production. The Japanese could be very brutal and conducted an especially dreadful repriasal campaign agains Chinese civilians after the Doolittle Raid (April 1942). Their RiceOffensives also disrupted the rural economy.
France followed Britain into the War after thev invasion of Poland. There were not as many had expected German bombing raids targetting French cities. France has a substantial agricultural industy. Thus apart from calling the men up for military service, the impact on civilians was limited. This changed with the German Westrern offensive (May 1940). Within in weeks, France capitulated and signed and armistice with the NAZIs (June 1940). France was divided into an occupied and unoccupied zone (Vichy). Hitler disatisfied with the Vichy resistace to the Allied Totch invasion of North Africa, ordered the occupation of the unoccupied zone (November 1942). As part of te armistice, France had to pay repriations to Germany. This essetially was covder for the NAZI looting of the French economy. Food, raw materials, and food was sipped in large quantities to Germany. Food was strictly limited and gradually became more and more difficult to obtain. The NAZIs targeted the Jews, but did not behave barbarically agauinst the non-Jewish French. Thus Marshall Petain and the Vichy regime was a first fairly popular. This began to change with German miliray reversals and the conscription of French civilians for war work in the Reich.
The Germans believing the War had been won, actually scaled back war production in 1940-41 and delayed critical work on weapons development (such at jet aircraft). Hitler was very concerned with maintaining German civilian consumption levels and that mothers not be taken out of the home to work in factories. German women were not mobilized for War work, rather slave labor was brought in from occupied countries to work in factories and on farms. The hard-pressed British in 1939-40 completely reorganized the economy for war production which included the use of large numbers of women and youths.
Japan was the most industrialized country in Asia, but the country's industrial capacity was a fraction of that of America and Britain. And the country had to import raw material, including vital resources like petroleum. Nor was the country self-production in food production. The Militarists who made the decession for War calculated that Japan could seize the resources it needed in a quick war and that the Americans and Eutropeans would not be willing to wage a costly war to recover the lost territory. That was essentially the gamble made at Pearl Harbor. That gamble was lost at Midway. Not only did Japan suffer that disastrous defeat, but it suffered it at a time that the Imperial Navy was still dominant in the Pacific and before American industrial production had decisively shifted the ballance of forces. The Japanese militarists absolutely controlled the press in Japan. Only news of Japanese victories were allowed in the press and for the first 6 moths there were plenty of those. When Japanese defeats began to occur, they were strictly prohibited in the press. When the sailors and surviving air men returned from Midway (June 1942) they were held incomunicano least news of the disastrous defeat leaked out. Even Army commanders were not fully informed.) We are not sure when the Japanese people began to realize that their country was losing the War. In fact Japan lost very little territory until 1944. And the fighting was very distant from Japan. The militarists believed that the NAZIs in Europe would occupy America's military and thus Japan's smaller industrial output would be suffient for a short war. Japan mobilized the country's industrial capacity. Women and children were ordered to work in factories as well as on farms. Japanese industry, however, proved totally incapable of matching America production in quantity or quality. The Japanese did succeed in seizing vital natural resources in Oceania and Southeast Asia, including oil and rubber (1942). Unfortunately for the Japanese the U.S. Navy was successfully waging a sunmarine campaign that made it impossible to ship these resources to Japanse factories (1943). Worse still the Americans took the Marianas which brought Japanese industry within the range of the new American B-39n bombers. The losses of the tiny attols and islands in the central Pacific, however, brought the Japanese Home Islands within reach of the new American B-29 bombers. The strategic bombing of Japan was a disaster that could not be hidden by control of the press. These raids must have come as a huge shock and may well have been the first infication to the Japanese people that the War had turned into a national disaster. The first raids were of marginal effectiveness, but by 1945 the U.S. Arny Air Firce was burning the heart out of one Japanese city after another--including Tokyo. There was also a poor harvest which combined with the destruction of the Japanese merchant marine meant that there were growing food shortages. Rationing reduced rice and other food purchases to 1,500 calories--subsistence levels. But as the war continued into 1945 even that amount was often not available. The stategic bombing campaign had by mid-1945 destroyed Japan's transportation system. Had Japan not surrendered (August 1945), Japanese civilians would have starved in large numbers during the Winter of 1945-46.
We do not know a great deal about the Soviet home front yet. The most significant aspect of the home front was Soviet war production. The Soviets were able to maintain and even expand war production despite the huge area conquered by the Wehrmacht during Operation Barbarossa. The NAZIs did not fully understand this. What the NAZIs failed to appreciate was that much of the areas conquerred were the non-Russian areas of the western Soviet Union (the Baltics, eastern
Poland, Bylorussia, and the Ukraine). Enormous damage occurred n the occupied areas and the three great cities (Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad) targetted by the NAZIs. Other areas of Russia were largely undamaged by the War. The Luftwaffe did not have a long0-range fleet of heavy bombers with which to conduct a strategic bombing campaign. Children cntinued to attend schools, although all supplies including teachers were in short supply. We have little information on the rationing system. Nor are we sure how Russia survived without the Ukranian bread basket. America provided substantial food supplies, but this was primarily used for the military. One huge problem encountered was large numbers of displaced children. This problem was especially severe in the occupied areas and had to be addressed when they were liberated.
Stability did not bring economic prosperity to Spain. The Spanish economy was devestayed by the Civil War. The economy recovered only slowly from the damage to the country's physical infrastructure. There were severe food shortages following the Civil War that persisted throughout World War II. More than 80 food products were rationed. Milk for children in particular was in short supply. The Franco regime found a variety of excuses for the poor economy: Civuil War damage and drought. The principal reason, however, was mismanagement of the economy by Franco's bureaucracy heavily staffed with military officers with no background or great interest in economic matters. Franco also persued Fascist policies of autarchy and sponsored expensive and ultimately unsuccessful programs aimed at making Spsain self-sufficient in all economic sectors. Another problem was that skillked workers and engineers, which had largely supported the Republic, were politically suspect
and thus largely excluded from giovernmental processes. The poorly run state-controlled economy proved so inefficent that the black market became a flourishing economic sector.
American children were not affected by World War II like children in Europe and Asia. The Atlantic and Pacicific Oceans acted as an affected barrier to the Germans and Japanese. Many American children lost their fathers, but unliked European children were not orphaned or displaced. American children, however, did particiapte in a variety of war-time
activities to support the war effort. Children studied current events. Air raid
drills and alerts were common. Both children and their families were involved with conservation and recycling of goods. The Scouts and other youth groups were actively involved in may home-front activities. Children often worked in sponsored rallies, parades and cultural events (such as dances) to raise money to buy war stamps and bonds to finance the war. Some children were more adversely affected by the war. Although not separated from their patents, Japanese Americans in Pacific coast states were interned in concentration camps. Italian and German families were also interned, but only those who parents were believed to have been involved in subversive activites. America after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 also reorganized the economy. There was some resistance on the part of industry, but for the most part industry and labor cooperated im producing staggering quantities of weapons and other war materials that the Axis could not match. America agriculture was also an important factor, not only feeding the Americam military, biy Allied armies as well. Rationing was introdced in the Unites States, but it was not nearly as severe as in Britain or Germany. Many Americans remember the blue and gold stars in the windows.
The War required such a gargantian national effort on the part of the principal combatents that it was necessary that everybody did what was in their power to support the war effort. The most prominent way most countries accomplished this was by rationing. Rationing was a method used by the government to ensure that everybody was able to receive equal amounts of raw materials. This way, enough material was used for the war effort, but the public could still have access to these items. To circumvent rationing and price controls, World War II black marketeers traded in clothing and liquor in Britain and meat, sugar, and gasoline in the United States.
One interesting question concerniung World War II is wghat was going on in the schools of the various combatant countries. Here we are interested in what went on the schools leading up gto the War. We are interested in what the children were told in the schools about the War. We recall some children recalling teachers who kept maps in their classroom to mark the various locations were battle took place. The schools in Britain and Germny were used to organize evacuar=tion of children because of the strastegic bombing campaiogns. The NAZIs in some occupied countries closed the schools and arrested teachers. Here we have countries in which there was a free press, but of course restrictions on how the War news was reported. There were also schools in countries without a free press. Then there were sdchools in countries occupied by both the Axis coubntries and the Soviets. There were a variety od activities in schools. School children were used to collect material needed in the war effort. American schools sold War Stamps as part of the effort to finance the War and dampen inflation. Our information here is very limited, but we are interested in collecting information on this subject. We would be very interested in any inforfmation readers may have.
Youth groups also played important roles in the War, although this varied among countries.
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