Many of those who served the war effort did so on the home front. New draftees trained at hundreds of newly built domestic bases before shipping to distant overseas fronts. Servicemen guarded Prisoners of War, and sadly, interned Japanese-Americans. Air and naval forces protected the coasts against submarine attacks.
Military and civilian personnel were instrumental in developing new weapons stateside, particularly the atomic bombs that would ultimately end the war.
Civilians were mobilized in the war effort like never before. America was the only major industrial power untouched by destruction, and its factories and farms supplied not just U.S. forces, but those of Allied nations as far away as the Soviet Union and India.
Women when to work in war industries in numbers never before seen, Women in the service fulfilled vital non-combat duties, flew aircraft and nursed the wounded at stateside hospitals. The women who served formed the core of a later wave of female empowerment in American society.
It was on the home front that families waited for the return of their loved ones from the fighting. Many faced the terrible news of the loss or wounding of a son, brother, husband or friend.
The stories of service members and civilians on the home front are as vital to understanding World War II as the stories of combat and heroism.
These are just a sampling of stories from the Home Front. Nearly all of this generation are now gone. It’s imperative that their stories survive.
John Atkinson entered the service and went overseas just as World War II was winding down and feels that just being a year or two younger than many of his high school classmates might have saved his life.
John Atkinson
For the loved ones of Americans held as POWs by the Germans, information about their well being was slow in coming, but Peg Ball says there were ways to keep in contact with her then-boyfriend Bob Ball.
Peg Ball
World War II provided the first opportunity for many people to travel to different parts of the country for the first time. Brooklyn-born Sophie Bellino followed her husband to an air base in Texas, where she also got a job in a war production factory.
Sophie Bellino
Radio was the way most people heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Jim Bennett describes how small-town America found out the country was suddenly at war.
Jim Bennett
A former college basketball player, Murray Brown was tasked with the duty of getting new recruits in top physical condition for combat. Though the training was hard, he found that the men were willing to work.
Murray Brown
Front line troops get most of the credit, but Clarence Edmonds knew the importance of the troops behind the lines who seldom got the credit they deserve.
Clarence Edmonds
Pauline Edmonds discusses moving to Oak Ridge, Tennessee where her entire family was employed in the Manhattan Project. Those who thought they could dodge the draft there soon found out otherwise.
Pauline Edmonds
Women in the armed forces have far more opportunities to serve than when Sally Guy joined the Army in World War II. Now, she takes pride in how the women of her era made it possible for the servicewomen of today to succeed.
Sally Guy
Ed Kirsch spent the war as an armaments trainer, teaching fighter pilots and bomber crews on the use and maintenance of machine guns. He tells that accidents involving inexperienced users could be deadly.
Ed Kirsch
Bernie Langfield’s husband was killed in the battle for Aachen, Germany in 1944. She tells of how the widows of fallen soldiers were notified, and of receiving a gift that arrived after her husband’s death.
Bernie Langfield
Rio Lucas was already stationed at Denver’s Lowry Air Force Base early in World War II when he became one of the first servicemen stationed at a brand new facility then being constructed, Buckley Field.
Rio Lucas
Louise Lyon treated German POWs at a camp in Louisiana while her own brother was being held as a POW in Germany. She recounts one incident where the differences between America and Germany at the time became apparent to her.
Louise Lyon
Before fighting in Korea, a young Jim Madrid witnessed history outside his hometown of Alamogordo, New Mexico when early one morning, he unexpectedly viewed one of history’s pivotal events.
Jim Madrid
Most aircraft mechanics stayed on the ground, but Leonard McKinney was fortunate enough to find a pilot who would let him join the crew and fly on the planes that he prepared and repaired.
Leonard McKinney
Before facing the dangers of combat, young bomber crews faced the unique dangers of training. Daniel Oredson tells about one training flight that ended comically, but could have been deadly.
Daniel Oredson
Art Peterson was announcing live on the radio when the bulletins came down the wire for both the start and end of World War II. Hear him describe the differences between the reports of Pearl Harbor and V-J Day.
Art Peterson
Russ Warmack spent most of World War II in high school, and was eager to enter the service right after graduation, but escaped the dangers that many of his older classmates faced…and seldom talked about.
Russ Warmack
Training to take off and land on an aircraft carrier was risky for inexperienced pilots, who sometimes had to witness accidents among their classmates, then confront their own doubts and continue with their training.