To record the ‘Home Front’ memories of local men and women from WW2
Mackay Country
Home Front Oral History Project
Life on the Home Front during WW2
Wartime At Home
Anderson shelters, blackout curtains, gas lights, mangles, washboards….
Click on the link below to discover what these items are that were commonplace in a wartime home.
Mend and Make Do
During the war there were shortages of clothes due to the lack of imports from abroad. The government also needed the fabric that was available for making uniforms and parachutes.
Clothes rationing was introduced in May 1941. Everyone was issued with a ration book that had 66 clothing coupons that had to last for a year. Each item of clothing was worth a certain number of coupons. People had to give the correct number of coupons when buying clothes. For example, when buying a dress, 11 coupons had to be given.
The 'Make do and Mend' campaign was introduced by the government to help people get as much use out of their existing clothes as possible. Information was made available about how to do this and how to make new clothes out of worn out old ones, instead of throwing them away.
Click here to read about fashions of WW2
Everyone Doing Their Part
The government wanted to make sure that everyone did their part to contribute to winning the war on the Home Front. Publicity about food and clothes rationing and salvaging materials such as aluminium was produced. Sacrifices were encouraged to make sure that there would be enough to go around. Salvaging was encouraged so that all spare resources would go in to the war effort.
It was not easy to keep to the rationing requirements, and there were many complaints about how difficult it was to get certain types of clothes. Substitute foods such as dried egg powder, and liquid paraffin instead of cooking oil, had to be used instead of the real thing. People hated these substitutes.
Housewives were advised to tell their families what had gone into their dinner only after they had eaten it!
There was a certain element of people that did try to get round rationing, buying extra clothes and food on the 'Black Market' from people known as 'Spivs'. Forged ration coupons were also sold on the Black Market at high prices so that some people could get more than their fair share.
Salvage
At the start of WW2 most of the fuel, food and raw materials used in Britain was imported via ships. This caused big problems at the start of the war. German submarines and aircraft tried to weaken Britain's defences by attacking the ships and destroying essential supplies as they were being imported from abroad.
Campaigns were used to encourage people to make better use of resources at home. These campaigns were similar to the ones we have today to encourage us to be environmentally friendly by saving electricity and recycling. The government tried to make the country as self-sufficient as possible – the fewer imports required meant that there would be fewer sailors risking their lives.
'Saucepans for Spitfires' was one of the most famous campaigns. People were asked to give their aluminium pans so that they could be melted down to make parts for aircraft. In doing this people felt that they were making a valuable contribution to the war effort and this helped to keep up the nation’s morale.