Home Front

Home Front — page 5
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