Fighting on the home front - Glimpses of the Past with Karen Webster

The Second World War brought drastic changes in life in Canada starting with the enlistment and deployment of forces to fight in Europe. The war was waged on the home front as well. In 1939, the government requested that citizens buy less of anything that was in short supply. When that didn’t have the desired effect, rationing by way of coupon books was initiated. The purpose of rationing was to avoid inflation and to ensure a supply of food and supplies to the military and to Britain, which was in dire need. Excluded from the rationing program were the 75,000 people living in remote areas such as the Yukon.

 

The Wartime Prices and Trade Board (WPTB), in 1942, issued 11 million ration books with numbered coupons that could be handed into a butcher or storekeeper. There were weekly notices in local newspapers stating which of the coupons were valid in periods of two weeks. Ration books were issued to almost all adults and children, except for military personnel. When people wanted a rationed item, they would exchange coupons for a specified amount of that item when they bought it. The government introduced new ration books from time to time as details of the system changed. Rationing helped free up food for other countries, especially Britain, and helped feed Allied military forces.

 

The first commodity to be rationed, starting in April of 1942 was gasoline. This was to conserve fuel for the military. During the next year, restrictions were expanded to include sugar, coffee, tea, butter and meat.

 

Weekly rations for an adult were: one cup of sugar, two ounces of tea, eight ounces of coffee, four ounces of butter and 24-32 ounces of meat.

 

By 1945, meat tokens were introduced. If purchase of meat was not in the specified quantity, wood fibre tokens were issued as “change” so that people could make smaller, daily meat purchases later in the two-week period. It is important to remember that not very many households had a refrigerator in this time period. To help stretch the groceries, hunting and fishing (which did not require rationing coupons) became popular. It was deemed illegal to have more than a two-week supply of sugar on hand, however, as a way to extend the available food stuffs available to people, extra sugar rations of 10 pounds could be obtained for making preserves. As a way of increasing the food available, many people went to bushes and roadsides to pick and preserve wild berries and other fruit. Also popular and thought of as being very patriotic was the practice of growing a Victory Garden. While meat may have been rationed, vegetables, with a little care, grew abundantly and helped stretch provisions. Obesity in this era was “reduced’ and getting six to 10 servings of vegetables was not difficult, especially in the summer.

 

There were other items that were controlled by the government in this era, such as new household appliances and automobile tires. Clothing was not exempt either as only certain styles and fabrics were allowed. Nylon, which had recently become popular for ladies’ stockings, was needed for parachutes, so creative women turned to leg paint to resemble wearing hose complete with a dark line up the back of the leg to resemble the seam!

 

Posters and radio advertisements advised, “Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without.”

 

But people will be people, especially if there is some money to be made in the process. Rationing led some folks to create a black market; a way that, if one had enough money, items such as gasoline or tires could be obtained. The operators took risks in order to profit from the misfortunes of others.

 

Rationing was not the only way that folks on the home front could contribute to the war effort. Many women began to work in factories to take the place of men who were serving in the military. Many of those factories had pivoted to producing war materials, such as the former Lucknow Furniture Factory that became the Maple Leaf Aircraft factory producing aircraft parts.
Many were the care packages of food stuffs and knitted garments that crossed the ocean to help bring comfort to those serving far away from home. Sometimes local papers carried itemized lists of how many pairs of socks each woman had contributed that month.

 

School children also added to the home front effort by collecting the “silk” from milkweed pods. This lightweight, water-repellant fibre was used to stuff life preservers, replacing the kapok that was unavailable due to Japanese control of its growing area.

 

Just last week, the June 6 anniversary of D-Day was noted. This event in 1944 has been deemed the turning point in World War II, leading up to peace being declared in Europe on May 8 and Sept. 2 1945 in Japan. These declarations did not mean that all service personnel returned home immediately, nor that the strict rationing rules on the home front in Canada ceased. On the contrary, there was much work to be done to help Europe begin to recover from the devastation it had suffered. Service personnel stayed in Europe, tasked to projects such as rebuilding damaged infrastructure. Dan McKenzie, a farmer in Morris Township, was in a unit that was guarding a fuel supply depot well into 1946. 

 

It wasn’t until May of 1946 that the residents of Walton and area were able to celebrate the homecoming of several area service men and women and to remember those who did not return. Because global food shortages persisted in the years immediately following World War II, rationing was extended to help feed war-devastated regions in Europe and did not end until 1947. 
People of all ages on the home front in Canada did their part to help win the war.