“A Call to Arms”. April 28, 2006. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/st/~cg3/pagetwo.html

• The demands put on American industry by the war machine were immense. With some ten million men at war and the rest of the male population at work, it was clear the only way America would be able to win the war was if it enlisted large numbers of women for employment. America needed it's women to go to work to build the planes, tanks, and ships needed to fight Hitler. World War II, more so than any other war, was a war based on production, and so it was time to bring American women into industry.
• So the government teamed up with industry, the media, and women's organizations in an effort to urge them to join the labor force because telling women it was their "patritoic duty" to go to work. (Left- A propaganda poster. "Women in the War, We Can't Win Without Them" But patriotism was not the only incentive that the War Manpower Commission used to lure women into the workforce. Many recruitment programs used the idea of increased economic prosperity to attract women into the workforce. In fact some posters went so far as to glamorize war work, as well as stress the importance women working in non-traditional jobs.
• Still much of the propaganda of the time used emotional appeal paired with patriotism. Women were constasntly being reminded that their husbands, sons, and brothers were in danger because they were not receiving the supplies they needed. Slogans such as "Victory is in Your Hands," "We can do it!," and "Women the war needs you!" were all used to convince women that their country's need were more important than their individual comfort.
• As a result of the propaganda American women, whether they were motivated by patriotism, economic benefits, independence, social interaction, or necessity, joined the workforce at never before seen rates. In July 1944, when the war was at it's peak over 19 million women were employed in the United States, more than ever before.
• Leila Rupp, in her book Mobilizing Women for War points out that the posters and modes of advertisement used to mobilize women into the workforce stressed the temporary and vital nature of the situation. She points out that by suggesting that the current situation was only temporary it "allowed the public to accept the participation of women in unusual jobs without challenging the basic belief about women's roles."

“The Army Nurse Corps”. April 28, 2006. http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/72-14/72-14.htm

• More than 59,000 American nurses served in the Army Nurse Corps during World War II. Nurses worked closer to the front lines than they ever had before. Within the "chain of evacuation" established by the Army Medical Department during the war, nurses served under fire in field hospitals and evacuation hospitals, on hospital trains and hospital ships, and as flight nurses on medical transport planes. The skill and dedication of these nurses contributed to the extremely low post-injury mortality rate among American military forces in every theater of the war. Overall, fewer than 4 percent of the American soldiers who received medical care in the field or underwent evacuation died from wounds or disease.
• The tremendous manpower needs faced by the United States during World War II created numerous new social and economic opportunities for American women. Both society as a whole and the United States military found an increasing number of roles for women. As large numbers of women entered industry and many of the professions for the first time, the need for nurses clarified the status of the nursing profession. The Army reflected this changing attitude in June 1944 when it granted its nurses officers' commissions and full retirement privileges, dependents' allowances, and equal pay. Moreover, the government provided free education to nursing students between 1943 and 1948.
• Military service took men and women from small towns and large cities across America and transported them around the world. Their wartime experiences broadened their lives as well as their expectations. After the war, many veterans, including nurses, took advantage of the increased educational opportunities provided for them by the government. World War II changed American society irrevocably and redefined the status and opportunities of the professional nurse.

“Rationing”. April 28, 2006. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWrationing.htm

• Before the Second World War started Britain imported about 55 million tons of food a year from other countries. Understandably, the German government did what they could to disrupt this trade. One of the main methods used by the Germans was to get their battleships and submarines to hunt down and sink British merchant vessels. With imports of food declining, the British government decided to introduce a system of rationing. This involved every householder registering with their local shops. The shopkeeper was then provided with enough food for his or her registered customers.
• In January, 1940, bacon, butter and sugar were rationed. This was followed by meat, fish, tea, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, milk and canned fruit. Rationing was popular with the people and a Gallup Poll showed over 60 per cent in favour of this system.
• However, many small shopkeepers complained about the strategy used by food inspectors of employing people to encourage the breaking of the law. In December 1940, Isabella Tompsett was employed in Stepney to visit butchers' shops and attempt to buy meat without coupons. As a result three butchers in one road were heavily fined for this offence. These undercover officials acting as agents provacateurs, were severely criticised in the press.
• Food inspectors in Hendon were also criticised for using a team of women who tried to trick shop assistants into selling goods without coupons. The scheme involved the customer handing over her ration book and asking for two ounces of tea. When the shop assistant had almost finished serving her, the customer changed her mind and asked for four ounces. If the shop assistant forgot to take out a second two ounce coupon, they would be charged with breaking rationing restrictions. In a short period 59 Hendon shopkeepers were successfully prosecuted for this offence.
• It was announced that in March 1941, under the Food Control Order, the system of rationing, 2,141 prosecutions were brought and there were 1,994 convictions, a success rate of 93.1 per cent. The following month this had increased to 2,300 prosecutions and 2,199 convictions (95.6 per cent). The General Secretary of the National Association of Outfitters complained that small traders had become the "most persecuted class in the whole of the country".
• In the summer of 1940 the government established a committee of nutritional experts to advise the War Cabinet on food policy. The committee issued a report claiming that each citizen could survive on twelve ounces of bread, a pound of potatoes, two ounces of oatmeal, an ounce of fat, six ounces of vegetables and six-tenths of a pint of milk per day, supplemented either by small amounts of cheese, pulses, meat, fish, sugar, eggs and dried fruit. Winston Churchill was concerned by the implications of this proposal and the advice was not published.
• Some people considered food rationing to be very unfair. Eggs, butter and meat could be obtained fairly easily without coupons in rural areas. By the summer of 1941 greengrocers were taking their lorries into the country to buy vegetables direct from growers.
• The open-air markets at Romford soon developed a reputation for being a good place to buy black market goods. Traders relied on tic-tac men to signal the approach of the police or known trading inspectors. Local newspapers published stories of market-traders doing a great trade in selling goods without coupons

“The Home Guard”. April 28, 2006. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/home_guard.htm

• The Home Guard was originally known as the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV). This was considered too much of a title and it became the Home Guard, though the label 'Dad's Army' did stick because a number of the men in the Home Guard were considered to be elderly.
• The Home Guard had a number of purposes. They made those in it feel as if they were doing something constructive in the war effort. The Home Guard was not simply for older men past conscription age. Those young enough to be conscripted but who did not pass the military's medicals could join the Home Guard. Men between 17 and 65 years could join it. The government had expected 150,000 volunteers in total but within 24 hours of Anthony Eden's radio broadcast, 250,000 had joined. By August 1940, over 1.5 million men had volunteered.
• On May 14th, the Minister of War, Anthony Eden, made the following national announcement:
• The authorities were completely unprepared for the number that did respond. Within 6 weeks of the announcement by Eden, ten times more men had volunteered than the War Office had expected in total. To begin there were simply not enough official forms for men to apply - local police simply resorted to making a list of names.
• With such a response, the War Office was faced with a number of problems. The primary ones were supplying sufficient uniforms for so many volunteers and the necessary weapons if Britain was to be properly defended. All available weaponry had, understandably, been handed to the regular military and a vast amount was to be lost by the BEF at Dunkirk. The Home Guard was ordered to find whatever it could to defend itself and occasionally men in the Home Guard were referred to as the 'Broomstick Army', the result of being seen drilling with broomsticks. Even six weeks after Eden's broadcast, there was only one rifle to every six men in the Home Guard. When rifles did arrive, they were American P17's and P14's from World War One.
• They trained in the evening in such things as weapons handling, unarmed combat and basic sabotage. However, complaints were made that too much time was spent on drill as opposed to learning about proper soldiering. Despite Churchill's demand that the Home Guard be issued with proper weapons, the War Office issued 250,000 pikes - bayonets welded onto metal poles. Local Home Guard commanders initially received little guidance from the War Office as to training and it was left to them to develop their own tactics that were relevant to their own locality. However, with little professional support, a man in the Home Guard was four times as likely to die in an accident during training than a regular soldier.
• However, training in the Home Guard was transformed in July 1940 by a veteran of World War One and the Spanish Civil War, Tom Wintringham. During the Spanish Civil War, Wintringham had developed an expertise in guerilla fighting. Using various contacts, Wintringham set up the first guerilla warfare school at Osterley Park to the west of London. Hundreds of Home Guard volunteers turned up.
• At Osterley Park, these volunteers were taught how to fight an enemy. Most of Wintringham's teachers were veterans of the Spanish Civil War including Basques who specialised in explosives. Training in guerilla warfare for the Home Guard volunteers started within 20 minutes of arrival and in the first three months Wintringham and his men had trained 5,000 volunteers. They were simply taught what they needed to know. The fame of Osterley Park was such that journalists from America did reports on it.
• However, Wintringham never received the full support of the government as he had fought for the Communists in the Spanish Civil War and some in government believed that he was covertly training an army that would one day be used against the government. Though an absurdity, such a belief needs to be taken in the context of the time. In 1940, Stalin's Russia was not an ally and had, with Hitler's Germany, attacked Poland in September 1939. Suspicion about communists did not just start in 1939 - Lenin's Bolsheviks had  executed the Russian royal family in 1918 and pulled Russia out of World War One, thus freeing up thousands of German soldiers for the Western Front.
• After just three months in charge, Osterley Park was taken over by the military and Wintringham and his men were pushed aside. However, the War Office recognised the value of such training camps and set up three more of them across the UK, based on how Osterley Park was run.
• The Home Guard acted as sentries during the day and night and became extra 'ears and eyes' for the full-time military. They checked that people were carrying their Identity Cards. Those caught without one could be arrested and handed over to the police.
• Local Home Guard units would know who lived locally and any strangers to an area would be subject to a check, especially as there was a genuine fear of Fifth Columnists. The Home Guard was also responsible for taking down road signs and any local clues that might help the enemy should they invade.

“Home Front During World War II”. April 28, 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_front_during_World_War_II

• The wartime effort brought about a coalition of the government and industry that became an important power in its own right, and President Eisenhower warned about the danger of too much power in the Military-industrial complex in the following decade.
• In the United States and Canada, women also joined the workforce to replace men who had joined the forces, though in fewer numbers. Franklin D. Roosevelt stated that the efforts of civilians at home to support the war through personal sacrifice was as critical to winning the war as the efforts of the soldiers themselves. "Rosie the Riveter" became the symbol of women laboring in manufacturing. The war effort brought about significant changes in the role of women in society as a whole. Upon the end of the war, many of the women were replaced by returning veterans.
• Labor shortages were particularly felt in agriculture. At the same time many agricultural commodities were more needed for the military and for the civilian populations of allies. In some areas with specialty crops, such as potatoes or apples, schools were temporarily closed at harvest time to enable students to work.

• In the US, the Civil Air Patrol was established, which enrolled civilian spotter in reconnaissance. Towers were built in coastal and border towns, and spotters were trained to recognize enemy aircraft, so as to report if any were seen. Civilian aircraft were also used as spotters for submarines, and in a few cases, actually armed with depth charges and bombs, which did attack subs on occasion and sometimes succeeded in destroying them. Blackouts were the common civilian response when warnings of potential enemy attack came. All lighting had to be extinguished to avoid helping the enemy in targeting at night.
• Many commodities, such as sugar, gasoline, and tires were rationed, and this was generally supported by the civilian population, although there was some black marketing.

 

• Because metal parts of weapons were coated with a protective layer of beeswax to prevent oxidization while en route on ships, at one point the United States government considered confiscating the nation's beehives to melt down for additional wax. However, after consultation with the department of agriculture, the pollination loss was understood with corresponding loss of crop production. Beekeepers were simply encouraged to expand, and given preferential treatment in some areas, including draft deferment, and extra ration coupons.

• Automobile plants ceased production of passenger cars, creating a shortage of them in the consumer market. Wartime efforts were focused on trucks and tanks. Industrial production of wartime needs was established more quickly than any time before in history, however in many plants, periodic shortages of parts would bring the assembly lines to a halt, then require overtime from the employees (to meet quotas) when the parts arrived.

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