The term "home front" covers the activities of the civilians in a nation at war. World War II was a total war; homeland military production became vital to both the Allied and Axis powers. Life on the home front during World War II was a significant part of the war effort for all participants and had a major impact on the outcome of the war. Governments became involved with new issues such as rationing, manpower allocation, home defense, evacuation in the face of air raids, and response to occupation by an enemy power. The morale and psychology of the people responded to leadership and propaganda. Typically women were mobilized to an unprecedented degree.
All of the powers used lessons from their experiences on the home front during World War I. Their success in mobilizing economic output was a major factor in supporting combat operations. Among morale-boosting activities that also benefited combat efforts, the home front engaged in a variety of scrap drives for materials crucial to the war effort such as metal, rubber, and rags. Such drives helped strengthen civilian morale and support for the war effort. Each country tried to suppress negative or defeatist rumors. The major powers devoted 50–61 percent of their total GDP to munitions production. The Allies produced about three times as much in munitions as the Axis powers. + Munitions Production in World War II(Expenditures in billions of dollars, US 1944 munitions prices) Country/Alliance Year Average1935–3919401941194219431944Total1939–44 U.S.A.0.31.54.520.038.042.0106.3 Britain0.53.56.59.011.011.041.5 U.S.S.R.1.65.08.511.514.016.056.6Allies Total2.410.020.041.564.570.5204.4 Germany2.46.06.08.513.517.053.4 Japan0.41.02.03.04.56.016.9Axis Total2.87.08.011.518.023.070.3 Source: Goldsmith data in Harrison (1988) p. 172
+ Real Value Consumer Spending Country Year 19371939194019411942194319441945 Japan100107109111108999378 Germany100108117108105959485 U.S.A.10096103108116115118122 Source: Jerome B Cohen, Japan's Economy in War and Reconstruction (1949) p 354
Allies
The Allies called themselves the "United Nations" (even before that organization formed in 1945), and pledged their support to the Atlantic Charter of 1941. The Charter stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; free access to raw materials; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as the disarmament of aggressor nations.
Belgium
The sudden German invasion of neutral Belgium in May 1940 led in a matter of 18 days to the collapse of the Belgian army; King Leopold obtained an armistice that involved direct German military administration. The King refused the government's demand that he flee with them to Britain; he remained as a puppet ruler under German control. The Belgian bureaucracy remained in place and generally cooperated with the German rulers. Two pro-German movements, the Flemish National Union comprising Flemish (Dutch-speaking) separatists and the Walloon (French-speaking) Rexists led by Léon Degrelle (1906–94), supported the invaders and encouraged their young men to volunteer for the German army.Martin Conway, Collaboration in Belgium: Leon Degrelle and the Rexist Movement, 1940–1944 (1993) Small but active resistance movements, largely Communist, provided intelligence to the Allies. During the Holocaust in Belgium, the Nazis hunted down the 70,000 Jews living in Belgium, most of them refugees, and killed 29,000 of them.Bob Moore, "Jewish Self-Help and Rescue in the Netherlands during the Holocaust in Comparative Perspective", Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis (2011) 124#4 pp 492–505.
The Germans expected to exploit Belgium's industrial resources to support their war machine. Their policies created severe shortages for the Belgian people, but shipped out far less than Germany had expected. They set up the "Armaments Inspection Board" in 1940 to relay munitions orders to factories; the Board came under the control of the German Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer in 1943, and had offices in industrial areas that were supposed to facilitate orders for material, and supervise production. However, factory production fell sharply after 1942. Although collaboration with the Nazis, especially among the Flemish, was evident in 1940, it soon faded in importance. Labor strikes and systematic sabotage slowed production, as did the emigration of workers to rural areas, Allied bombing, food shortages, and worker resentment of forced labor.José Gotovitch, La Rüstungs-Inspektion Belgien, Archives et Bibliothèques de Belgique (1969) 40#3 pp 436–448.
The Allies retook all of Belgium in September 1944 as the Germans retreated. They reappeared briefly during the hard fighting of the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, but were finally expelled in January 1945. The London‐based Belgian government in exile returned, but had to confront the resistance movements that demanded radical political change.Peter Schrijvers, Liberators: The Allies and Belgian Society, 1944–1945 (2009)
China
China suffered the second highest number of casualties of the entire war. Civilians in the occupied territories had to endure many large-scale massacres, including that in Nanjing, Jiangsu and Pingdingshan, Liaoning. In a few areas, the Japanese army also unleashed newly developed biological weapons on Chinese civilians, leading to an estimated 200,000 dead.Peter Williams and David Wallace, Unit 731: Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II (Free Press, 1989). Tens of thousands died when Kuomintang (Nationalist) troops broke the levees of the Yangtze to stop the Japanese advance after the loss of the Chinese capital, Nanjing. Millions more Chinese died because of famine during the war.
At the end of the war Japan was bombed with two atomic bombs and surrendered. Japan had captured major coastal cities like Shanghai early in the war, cutting the rest of China off from its chief sources of finance and industry. Millions of Chinese moved to remote western regions to avoid invasion. Cities like Kunming ballooned with new arrivals. Entire factories and universities were relocated to safe areas so society could still function. Japan replied with hundreds of air raids on the new capital, Chongqing.
Although China received much aid from the United States, China did not have sufficient infrastructure to properly arm or even feed its military forces, let alone its civilians.
China was divided into three zones, with the Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek (Chiang or Jiang) the southwest and the Communists led by Mao Zedong (Mao) in control of much of the northwest. Coastal areas were occupied by the Japanese, and civilians were treated harshly; some young men were drafted into the puppet Chinese army.
France
After the stunningly quick defeat in June 1940, France was knocked out of the war; part of it, with its capital in Vichy, became an informal ally of the Germans. A powerful Resistance movement sprang up, as the Germans fortified the coast against an Allied invasion and occupied the northern half of the country.Rod Kedward, Occupied France: Collaboration And Resistance 1940–1944 (1991) The Germans captured 2,000,000 French soldiers, and kept them as prisoners of war in camps inside of Germany for the duration of the war, using them as hostages to guarantee French cooperation. The Vichy French government cooperated closely with the Germans, sending food, machinery and workers to Germany. Several hundred thousand Frenchmen and women were forced to work in German factories, or volunteered to do so, as the French economy itself deteriorated. Nevertheless, there was a strong Resistance movement, with fierce anti-resistance activities carried out by the Nazis and the French police. Most Jews were rounded up by the Vichy police and handed over to the Germans, who sent them to death camps.Matthew Cobb, The Resistance: The French Fight against the Nazis (2009)Julian Jackson, France: The Dark Years, 1940–1944 (2003)
War wives The two million French soldiers held as POWs and forced laborers in Germany throughout the war were not at risk of death in combat, but the anxieties of separation for their 800,000 wives were high. The government provided a modest allowance, but one in ten became prostitutes to support their families.Sarah Fishman, We Will Wait: Wives of French Prisoners of War, 1940–1945 (1991). Meanwhile, the Vichy regime promoted a highly traditional model of female roles.Miranda Pollard, Reign of Virtue: Mobilizing Gender in Vichy France (1998) After the war, France gave women the vote and additional legal and political rights, although nothing on the scale of the enfranchisement that followed World War I.
Food shortages Women suffered shortages of all varieties of consumer goods and the absence of the men in POW camps.Hanna Diamond, Women and the Second World War in France, 1939–1948: Choices and Constraints (1999) The rationing system was stringent and very badly managed, leading to pronounced malnourishment, black markets and hostility to state management of the food supply. The Germans seized about 20% of the French food production, which caused severe disruption to the household economy of the French people.E. M. Collingham, The Taste of War: World War Two and the Battle for Food (2011) French farm production fell by half because of the lack of fuel, fertilizer and workers; even so, the Germans seized half the meat and 20% of the produce.Kenneth Mouré, "Food Rationing and the Black Market in France (1940–1944)," French History, June 2010, Vol. 24 Issue 2, pp 272–273
Supply problems quickly affected French stores, which lacked most items. The government responded by rationing, but German officials set the policies and hunger prevailed, especially affecting young people in urban areas. In shops, the queues lengthened. Some people—including German soldiers who could take advantage of arbitrary exchange rates that favored Germany—benefited from the black market, where food was sold without coupons at very high prices. Farmers diverted meat to the black market, so there was much less for the open market. Counterfeit food coupons were also in circulation. Direct buying from farmers in the countryside and barter against cigarettes became common. These activities were strictly forbidden, and carried the risk of confiscation and fines. Food shortages were most acute in the large cities. Vitamin deficiencies and malnutrition were prevalent.Mattapan. 2010. Vitamin D. Available from:
Advice about eating a healthier diet and home growing produce was distributed. Slogans like "Digging for Victory" and "Make Do and Mend" appeared on national posters and became a part of the war effort. The city environment made these efforts nearly negligible.British Library. 2005. 1900s food. Available from: https://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/booksforcooks/1900s/1900sfood.html In the more remote country villages, however, clandestine slaughtering, vegetable gardens and the availability of milk products permitted survival. The official ration provided starvation-level diets of 1,300 or fewer calories a day (5400 kJ), supplemented by home gardens and, especially, black market purchases.Mouré, Food Rationing and the Black Market in France (1940–1944), pp 262–282
Netherlands