OSPREY Elite PUBLISHING T he US H o me F r o nt 1 9 4 1 - 45 Alejandro de Quesada • Illustrated by Stephen Walsh CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 • The impact of World War II: public mood - saving and recycling - rationing - clothing - employment - sports - internment ENEMY ACTION & HOMEGROWN FASCISM 9 • U-boats - Japanese shelling, bombing and balloons ALEJANDRO DE QUESADA, • The German-American Bund a Florida-based military history writer, is an experienced researcher and HOME DEFENSE & PRE-MILITARY TRAINING 13 collector of militaria, photos • Office of Civil Defense - Reserve Officers Training Corps - and documents and runs an archive as a secondary Civilian Military Training Camps business, with a strong • State Defense Forces Hispanic-American content. He has written 12 books and over 50 articles, including PATRIOTIC SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 19 Elite 137: The Mexican • United Service Organizations - Daughters of the Defenders of Revolution 1910-20. He is a leading authority on the Republic - American Women's Voluntary Services - Bundles Spanish-American subjects. for America - National Security Women's Corps - National Women's Council of the Navy League HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS 25 • American Red Cross - Public Health Service - American Women's Hospitals Reserve Corps - Women's Ambulance 8c Defense Corps of America - Junior American Nurse Ine - American Field Service MARITIME SERVICES 31 • Army Transport Service - Coast & Geodetic Survey - STEPHEN WALSH studied Merchant Marine - US Coast Guard Auxiliary art at the North East Wales Institute. Since then he AERONAUTICAL SERVICES 45 has worked mainly for the American historical board- • Air Transport Command - British Flying Training Schools - game market, fulfilling Civil Air Patrol - Relief Wings Ine - Women's Auxiliary Ferrying a lifelong interest in historical Squadron - Women's Airforce Service Pilots subjects. His American works include the best-selling Settlers of Catan. He has THE WORKFORCE 51 also produced many pieces • Civilian Conservation Corps - "Rosie the Riveter": Women of artwork inspired by JRR Tolkien. He is married with Ordnance Workers - Women's Land Army two children and lives in Macclesfield. CHILDREN AT WAR 54 • Boy & Girl Scouts - Victory Corps SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 57 PLATE COMMENTARIES 59 INDEX 64 Elite • 161 The US Home Front 1941-45 Alejandro de Quesada • Illustrated by Stephen Walsh Consultant editor Martin Windrow First published in Great Britain in 2008 by Osprey Publishing, Acknowledgments Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford 0X2 OPH, UK 443 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016, USA I would like to thank the following individuals and E-mail: [email protected] institutions who have contributed to making this book possible: Jack and Maggie Grothe, Tony Petruso, Marc © 2008 Osprey Publishing Ltd. Kohlbaum, Alex Solera, Mark Kasal, Martin Windrow, AdeQ Historical Archives, Jefferson Barracks, The American Red All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Cross, The American Field Service, Civil Air Patrol, United Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in States Coast Guard Auxiliary, National Archives, United a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, States Public Health Service, Pinellas County Historical electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, Commission, Walt Disney Productions, United Services without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Inquiries should be Organizations (USO), National Geodetic Survey, The Boy addressed to the Publishers. Scouts of America, The Girl Scouts of America, National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni, and A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library The Company of Military Historians. ISBN: 978 1 84603 208 0 Photographic credits Editor: Martin Windrow Page layout by Ken Vail Graphic Design, Cambridge, UK Unless otherwise indicated, all images are from the Typeset in Helvetica Neue and ITC New Baskerville collections of AdeQ Historical Archives Inc. Index by Glyn Sutcliffe Originated by PPS Grasmere, Leeds, UK Printed in China through World Print Ltd. Artist's note 08 09 10 11 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Readers may care to note that the original paintings from which the color plates in this book were prepared are A CIP catalogue record for this book available for private sale. All reproduction copyright is available from the British Library whatsoever is retained by the Publishers. All inquiries should be addressed to: FOR A CATALOGUE OF ALL BOOKS PUBLISHED BY OSPREY MILITARY AND AVIATION PLEASE CONTACT: [email protected] NORTH AMERICA Osprey Direct, c/o Random House Distribution Center, 400 Hahn Road, The Publishers regret that they can enter into no Westminster, MD 21157 correspondence upon this matter. E-mail: [email protected] ALL OTHER REGIONS Osprey Direct UK, P.O. Box 140 Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2FA, UK E-mail: [email protected] Osprey Publishing is supporting the Woodland Trust, the UK's leading woodland conservation charity, by funding the dedication of trees. Buy online at www.ospreypublishing.com TITLE PAGE A typical patriotic display in a store window. The sale of War Bonds provided a crucial source of revenue for the war effort. Instead of relying upon "passive" selling, the federal government sponsored public stunts - including celebrity auctions featuring personalities such as movie stars and decorated war heroes - to actively sell the war to the American people. THE US HOME FRONT 1941-45 INTRODUCTION T *he rapid fall of France to the German Blitzkrieg invasion of May-June 1940 shook but did not destroy the strong isolationist, even pacifist sentiment among the American public. Suddenly, Great Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany, and looked toward the United States for support - which was given, in the form of vitally needed supplies shipped on a "buy now, pay later" basis. As early as 1939 patriotic and service organizations had begun to spring up across the United States in anticipation of the war spreading, and these efforts redoubled as the reports of the Battle of Britain and the bombing of British cities were reported by American radio correspondents into American homes. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was criticized by many as a war-monger for his patient efforts to carry the people with him in turning the United States into the "great arsenal of democracy" during 1940 and 1941; but at the stunning news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941 patriotic feeling soared in American society, and the United States became fully committed to the war against the dictatorships. Americans' willingness to carry out blackout and civil defense drills; to save everyday materials for recycling; to work longer hours, while having fewer consumer goods to buy with their salaries - all these demonstrated the nation's strong support for the war. There were more fundamental changes than these habits of thrift: World War II brought about a political, psychological and economic shift to the right in the United States. The preparations for waging a world war brought new life into depressed and dormant communities across the country. The outbreak of World War II saw enormous numbers of new military airfields and other bases established in many states. The Southeast region became the main focal point for training fighter and bomber aircrews, and the need for more airfields forced the military to convert many sleepy county airports into functioning military facilities. World War I veterans of the American Legion and the Canadian Legion are reunited in St Petersburg, Florida, for a patriotic fundraiser. (Pinellas County Historical Commission) For instance, at the beginning of 1940 there were just eight military installations in the state of Florida; by 1943 there were 172. The federal government encouraged Americans to conserve and recycle all materials that could be used for wartime production. It turned out that lots of everyday household trash had value: kitchen fats, old metal shovels, even empty metal lipstick tubes. The federal government also compelled Americans to cut back on foodstuffs and consumer goods, and ration cards became necessary to purchase such staples as coffee, sugar, and meat. The rationing of gasoline and vehicle tires was particularly shocking in a nation of huge distances and a tradition of freedom to travel. Virtually all kinds of manufactured metal goods became hard to replace. These wartime shortages caused a mounting frustation, since they came at a time of high levels of employment: for the first time in years people had money to spend, but there were few goods available for purchase. When the war finally came to a close in 1945 and industries returned to consumer production, Americans would go on a buying spree of unprecedented proportions. The necessities of war even influenced American fashion. In the spring of 1942 the War Production Board became the nation's premier clothing consultant by dictating styles for civilian apparel that would conserve cloth for the war effort. For example, menswear rid itself of vests, elbow patches on jackets, and cuffs on pants. Women's clothing was also redesigned to use fewer materials, and skirts became shorter and narrower. De rigueur for patriotic women were efficient, two-piece bathing suits, which created the biggest public stir since Mrs Amelia Bloomer; Mr Marcus of the famous Nieman-Marcus department store called these swimsuits "patriotic chic." The nation at work The war provided an excuse to abolish segments of the New Deal. Conservative politicians had fought against these agencies for years, but now that President Roosevelt was focusing on winning a war instead of reforming society, they could slash funding for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Projects Administration (WPA), and National Youth Administration (NYA). Congress had always intended these programs to help those Americans who suffered job discrimination, even during favorable economic conditions, so their demise was especially hard on African Americans, women, and the elderly. With the elimination of many New Deal programs, poverty increased for many Americans even at a time of rising wages. Still, for a great part of the working population the wartime economy brought about full employment and, in doing so, achieved what New Deal programs had been unable to do. In 1940, 8 million Americans were unemployed; during that year, however, this surplus almost disappeared. The high wages offered by many rapidly expanding industries sucked in workers from other parts of the country, particularly from poor rural areas; this, in combination with military enlistments, left these sectors suffering from serious shortages of labor, with dire consequences for many farming families - even though the government was purchasing enormous quantities of some foodstuffs. Another hardship was the chronic lack of housing for the new workers, which meant that many men who found work in war production factories planted in formerly small communities in other states were unable to bring their families with them. Wives and families Despite these movements of population, some industries were still short of vital hands, and this led to more and more women taking up factory jobs that had once been reserved for men by the labor unions. "Rosie the Riveter" became a popular American icon, and by 1945 women June 1942: a housewife gives a pound weight of salvaged, sieved cooking fat back to her butcher for recycling. (Photo Ann Rosener; Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division) made up 36 percent of the nation's total workforce. The new freedoms and temptations of wartime led to many family breakdowns, illegitimate births, hasty marriages and divorces. A more positive consequence is less often remembered: when men answered the military draft or traveled to where the work was to be found, many left behind wives who had to fend for themselves. These women often pooled their efforts in raising their families, forming into groups and sharing such chores as cooking, housework, and laundry. Many who had young children shared apartments and houses in order to save time, money, utilities and food. If both worked, they worked different shifts so they could take turns babysitting. For many, this sharing and cooperation born out of the demands placed on the women of World War II created life-long bonds among them. Life on the home front brought special challenges as those left behind by the disruption of families had to cope with rationing and shortages; many everyday necessities were scarce or simply unobtainable. Families with children were constantly worried about their little ones falling sick; if they were in work, they might be better able than ever before to pay doctor bills, but illnesses that were readily treatable during normal times often became serious because of a general shortage of pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies diverted for military use - particularly antibiotics such as penicillin. But support for the soldiers overseas never lagged. Some people got rich from the wartime boom, but the great majority simply kept working patiently, all of them making their contribution to the eventual victory. In the process, they changed the American workplace forever. The war threatened the harmony and morale of Americans, and government authorities had to figure out what they could do about it. During the early days of the war baseball hardly seemed a priority, but it was judged to be important for public morale by President Roosevelt. On January 15, 1942 the President issued the "Green Light" letter and informed Baseball Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis that the 1942 major league baseball season should proceed. (However, injuries and military service decimated the rosters of many major league teams.) When the ballplayers went off to fight, many women entered baseball when the All American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was formed. The women kept baseball alive at a time when public interest would otherwise have waned because of the war. Eventually, training camps for the A Japanese-American US Navy league were established in Havana, Cuba, and Fort Lauderdale, veteran of World War I defiantly Florida. The AAGPBL ceased to exist after 1954, but in recent years wears his old uniform and there has been some increase in the public's awareness of women's American Legion cap as he reports to federal officials role in baseball because of the 1992 film A League of Their Own. for relocation and internment A permanent exhibit highlighting the role of women in baseball now in the aftermath of Pearl stands in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Harbor. Many Nisei families lost everything during their internment; family businesses The internment of the Nisei collapsed, and they were forced The saddest aspect of life in the United States was the internment to sell up their properties at of Japanese-Americans - a harsh measure which few other Americans short notice for whatever they challenged in the atmosphere of paranoia immediately following Pearl could get. (National Archives) Harbor. In February 1942 the US government forced the relocation of all Japanese-Americans from the West Coast, a region that Roosevelt and other political and military leaders considered vulnerable. The government established ten internment camps in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, which held a total of 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, many of whom were United States citizens. After his reelection in 1944, Roosevelt canceled the evacuation order and the government closed the camps, but much of the human damage was irreversible. The growth of executive power During the war there were changes in the composition of the federal bureaucracy. As the federal government continued to cut funding for social programs, many idealists in Roosevelt's "brains trust" became disillusioned and left their posts. Business executives with good managerial skills, but little interest in social reform, quickly filled this political vacuum in FDR's administration: the priorities now had to be production and organization for the war effort. The magazine Business Week reported cheerfully: "The war has placed a premium on business talents rather than on 'brain-trusters' and theoreticians. Businessmen are moving up in the New Deal Administration and are replacing the New Dealers as they go." From 1940 to 1945, the number of civilian employees working for the federal government rose from 1 million to nearly 4 million. The war also accelerated the growth of executive power. At war's end, the President and his advisors, more than Congress, seemed to drive the nation's domestic and foreign agenda. Furthermore, the Supreme Court refused to hear cases that challenged this increase in executive authority. With a minute number of individual exceptions, the only way Wehrmacht servicemen got onto US soil was as prisoners of war shipped back to camps in America - like this class photographed during an English lesson at Camp Blanding, Florida. Most POWs were decently treated, though US government inquiries did identify a number of cases of serious abuse. (National Archives)