Life on the Homefront

1. Life on the Homefront

2. What is the homefront?

3. The Homefront • Refers to civilian activities during wartime • NOT soldiers! • Total war: when a country mobilizes all available resources and population.

4. Helping the war cause

5. War Bonds • Government needed money to purchase equipment and pay soldiers. • People could buy War Savings Certificates or Victory Bonds. • WSC paid back $5 for every $4 invested after 7 years. • VB varied in interest rates and years to mature. • About half of the Canadian war cost was covered by these bonds.

7. Stamps • War Savings Stamps allowed people to contribute in smaller amounts than a bond. • Stamps could be collected and later traded in for a bond.

9. Volunteering • Women volunteered in recycling programs, the Red Cross, or in military canteens. • Organized packages to be sent to Allied POWs in Axis countries.

11. Children help out

12. Children’s Work • Children salvaged materials to recycle: • Rubber, scrap metal, glass, paper, and fat.

13. Children’s Work • Children wrote letters to soldiers overseas, and helped pack Red Cross boxes for them. • Girl Guides and Boy Scouts ran fundraisers, salvage drives, and sold war stamps. • Girls knit socks and hats, and made quilts to send to the evacuated children in Britain.

14. rationing

15. Rationing • Goods needed to go to the war effort. • Coupon booklets were issued to buy rationed goods. • Rationed goods included: sugar, tea, coffee, butter, meat and gasoline. • Public transit became overloaded when people couldn’t afford gas for their cars.

16. Rationing • Rationing made some products difficult to find, so people needed to find replacements. • Nylon was limited, so women’s stockings became scarce. • People grew gardens to produce their own extra food.

17. “Roll up your sleeves for victory!” Women in the workforce

18. Joining the Workforce • To encourage women to fill jobs left by men, the government offered free child-care and tax breaks. • By 1944, the women in the workplace had doubled. • Unemployment disappeared.

20. Women in the forces

21. Corps for Women • Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC) • Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division • Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Services (WRENS)

22. Women’s Roles in the Forces • Not allowed to join active combat. • Worked support jobs to free up men for combat. • In clerical, administrative and communicative areas. • Over 45,000 women enlisted during war. • 1 in 9 enlisted women served overseas.

23. Working in rural canada

24. Agricultural • Agriculture is extremely important during times of war, especially for: • Soldiers • Civilians near the front line • Farmers’ sons and farm workers were not given compulsory military service. • Rural children helped out on farms.

25. Working Women • Women ran the farm while their husbands or fathers were away. • Worked in forestry as ‘lumberjills.’

26. Training in canada

27. British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) • Britain was not a good place to train because: • Bad weather • Chance of bombings • Airfields being used by active pilots • Canada was an ideal location because of: • Good weather • Large open spaces to train • Not too close to the European or Pacific fronts • A joint training program between Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

28. British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) • WLMK saw this as a chance to keep Canadians safe at home. • Over 167,000 students graduated between 1940 and 1945 as: • Pilots • Navigators • Air gunners • Bomb aimers • Wireless operators • Flight engineers

29. Camp x and intrepid

30. Camp X • Officially named Special Training School 103. • Trained Canadian, British and American agents who were to be dropped behind enemy lines as spies and saboteurs. • Trained over 2000 Allied recruits, many who graduated and continued training in Britain.

31. Hydra • Hydra was a sophisticated telecommunications centre in Camp X. • Coded Allied messages and decoded German messages. • Handled most of the secret Allied messages that came across the Atlantic Ocean.

32. Hydra

33. Camp X Spies • The Camp X pupils were taught: • Silent killing • Sabotage • Recruitment methods for resistance movements • Demolition • Map reading • Use of various weapons • Morse code

34. “Intrepid” • “Intrepid” is the wartime intelligence codename for Sir William Stephenson. • Ran the British Security Coordination (BSC) in New York, before establishing Camp X. • He was the senior representative for British Intelligence in North America during WWII.

35. “Intrepid” • James Bond is rumoured to be based on Sir William Stephenson, and Sir Ian Fleming likely trained at Camp X.