HOME FRONT HELP BRITAIN Industry DEFEND AMERICA More than any previous conflict World War depended on industrial production All countries involved dedicated their factories to manufacturing the goods needed for victory The most important products included aircraft and tanks artillery weapons and ammunition But countries also needed huge numbers of ships and military vehicles along with goods to make sure that civilians on the home front lived reasonably well SPEED PRODUCTION Industry in the United States In the United States the demands of the war finally ended the effects of the Great Depression that had begun in 1929 When the war started in Europe in September 1939 more than 15 per cent of U S workers were still unemployed a normal unemployment rate today is about 5 per cent Even before the United States entered the war some Americans wanted U S industry to help the Allies Britain France and others in Europe LIBERTY SHIPS When German U boats sank British cargo ships U S shipyards produced thousands of vessels to replace them These so called liberty ships were manufactured in a process that engineer Henry Kaiser based on assembly lines in the car industry The ships had standard parts that could be put together by workers with little experience induding many women The speed of assembly rose quickly by the middle of 1942 it took only 80 hours to build a ship and three were being completed every day The Allies were building cargo ships far quicker than the German navy could sink them The liberty ships 2 700 were produced in all helped ensure that the British would not be starved into surrender Liberty ships near completion at a shipyard in California in 1943 The ships panels were joined by welding which was far quicker riveting 6 than
INDUSTRY BIG GURS OF THE HOME FRONT ACTION STATIONS Everyone This poster was created to encourage industrial workers in Canada Before the United States entered the war in December 1941 Canada was Britain's main supplier of war 7 materiel
HOME FRONT Millions of men were called into the military and the economy was put on a war footing By 1943 unemployment had tumbled to 1 per cent the lowest level ever measured in the United States As the demand for weapons and ammunition grew U S companies stopped making consumer goods Car makers such as General Motors and Ford adapted their factories to make military equipment The assembly lines that had turned out cars now produced tanks and torpedo bombers New ways of working let's give him Enough and On Time RESOURCES This poster was painted by the U S artist Norman Rockwell It reminds factory workers at home how much the soldiers on the front line depend on them sped up production The new M 3 machine gun for example was made of simple parts stamped out of sheets of metal It was built by companies that used to make car headlights and jukeboxes All combatants relied on natural resources such as coal iron or food Germany and Japan both aimed to raise supplies from captured territory Britain relied on imports from the United States and Canada which had ample supplies of resources Digging for Coal While Britain relied on imports of arms and other goods it had valuable resources of its own such as coal Although coal Flying Fortress bombers are assembled at a Boeing aircraft factory in the United States During the war many companies switched from making consumer goods to equipment 8 military
INDUSTRY More metal more arms says this poster aimed at encouraging Russian workers Soviet industry increased its output rapidly In 1941 factories made 6 590 tanks the next year the total was nearly four times as many 24 446 tanks miners were excused from military service there were not enough of them to meet demand So in December 1943 the minister for labor Ernest Bevin came up with a new plan He drafted young men to work in the mines in the same way that men were drafted into the services These Bevin's Boys faced great danger there were many accidents and deaths and received low wages They went on strike in protest Coal production in Britain actually fell between 1942 and 1945 Many of the Bevin's Boys felt that their contribution to the war effort was often overlooked compared to that of those drafted to the military even though they had no choice in how they served We need 720 000 men employed in this industry That is where you boys come in ERNEST BEVIN ON BRITISH COAL MINES 99 Eyewitness HOWARD LEE BALL JNR Howard Lee Ball was a young man in a town in New Jersey which was used to test gunpowder weapons He recalls the day a new weapon was tested for the first time Soviet Industry In the Soviet Union agriculture and industry were under the control of the communist government long before war began Soviet agriculture was based on a policy called collectivization The government forced farmers to group together into collectives to try to increase crop production Soviet industry was organized by the dictator Joseph Stalin in a series of five year plans Each plan set out production targets for factories The policy seemed to work By the time Germany invaded in 1941 the Soviet Union was one of the strongest powers in the world in terms of military equipment We were used to all different kinds of explosions At three thirty in the afternoon before after and during the war they would test the various things We'd hear machine guns You'd hear a machine gun Rat tat tat tat tat Then you'd hear Ka boom and it'd be something else and then another big boom and then it would be over But when this thing went off and it was about the same time of day that it went off it scared the pants off everybody and of course secrets were secrets They had the big signs up all around Loose Lips Sink Ships and especially here in a powder town and of course we were afraid of saboteurs that they would blow the plant up We were very careful that 9 about
