World War II from #AtoZChallenge #NaPoWriMo – H is Home Front

WORLD WAR II FROM A TO Z

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Today’s poem for the #NaPoWriMo is not my original work.  I present the White Cliffs of Dover which had been written by Walter Kent and Nat Burton and performed by Vera Lynn.  Truly a beautiful song. You can hear the song on YouTube but I also have it imbedded in my reveal post HERE

There’ll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow
Just you wait and see

There’ll be love and laughter
And peace ever after
Tomorrow
When the world is free

The shepherd will tend his sheep
The valley will bloom again
And Jimmy will go to sleep
In his own little room again

There’ll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow
Just you wait and see

The shepherd will tend his sheep
The valley will bloom again
And Jimmy will go to sleep
In his own little room again

There’ll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow
Just you wait and see

Born in the early 1960s, I wasn’t old enough to understand what the home front meant during the Vietnam War let alone what it meant during the Second World War.  Growing up, the film Mrs. Miniver was the extent of my exposure to what it meant.

A truly remarkable film but hardly the definition of home front for everyone.  I guess the experiences were different dependent on where people lived and what role they chose to take. I bit off more than I could chew with this subject.  There are volumes of information about the home front by country available on the internet and I will include sources at the end. Here is a generalization.

The home front covers the activities of the civilians in a nation at war. World War II was a total war; homeland production (I think this means Gross National Product GNP) became even more invaluable to both the Allied and Axis powers.

•      Allied Powers
•      Allies entering after the Attack on Pearl Harbor
•      Axis Powers
•      Neutral 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 (See C is for Civil Defense), evacuation in the face of air raids (you may enjoy my flash fiction, Gracie’s Memories), and response to occupation by an enemy power.

Rationing gasoline. History.com

The Blitz (“lightning” in German) was the sustained bombing in the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and May 16, 1941.

Lord Beaverbrook’s appeal to housewives for aluminium goods brought an immediate and overwhelming response.

Evacuation Poster WWII

The morale and psychology of the people responded to leadership and propaganda. Typically women were mobilized to an unprecedented degree.

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.

Lincoln High Scrap Metal Drive, 1942

Sources to read more about the home front:

http://www.archives.gov/boston/exhibits/homefront/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_front_during_World_War_II

http://www.ushistory.org/us/51b.asp

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/us-home-front-during-world-war-ii