Voices of World War II is a new exhibit in the Rambler Legacy Gallery. The exhibit focuses on three aspects, voices of individuals discussing their personal experience during the War (via audio players with interviews of 7 individuals), the retooling of local industry to produce wartime necessities, and the home front featuring rationing, the local USO and the War Bond Drives.
The exhibit features a WWII era Willy's Jeep, WWII 37 MM Anti Tank gun on loan from the Russell Military Museum, a Pratt & Whitney "Double Wasp" 2800 Cubic Inch Aircraft Engine on loan from the EAA Air Adventure Museum in Oshkosh, WI and a 39 BSA Motorcycle with side car (English made) on loan from Morrey's Cycles Shop.
The Interviews
Seven people were interviewed about their personal experiences; George Pollard was a combat artist in the Pacific Theater, Roy Staude was a front-line medic landing at Normandy D-day +2, Don Northway was a ground crew mechanic for B-24s in England, Howard Brown was attached to Military Government in France and Germany, Joe Dolnik was on a Liberty ship hauling oil and aviation gas in the Pacific Theater, Thomasia Dolnik was a teenage girl here in Kenosha and Mary Ann Lloyd was a nurse cadet in a stateside hospital. The interview excerpts are about 6-7 minutes long. The excerpts will be changed throughout the exhibit about every month or so. With each player are two photos; one how the person looked during the War and current photo as they look today.
Industry
In September of 1939, Europe went to War, but the U.S. hoped to remain neutral. Nevertheless, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor plunged the U.S. into War. In Kenosha County, mobilization and World War II dominated the first half of the 1940's.
The War and Navy departments purchased vast quantities of supplies; together with other war agencies they accounted for 40% of Gross National Product by 1944. Automobile plants ceased production of passenger cars, creating a shortage of them in the consumer market. Major employers in Kenosha County included the American Brass, Simmons Company, Nash-Kelvinator Corporation, Snap-on-Tools Corporation, the Frost Company, and the Macwhyte Company. Wartime efforts were focused on aircraft engines to propellers. Industrial production of wartime needs was established more quickly than any time before in history; however, in many plants, periodic shortages of parts would bring the assembly lines to a halt, then require overtime from the employees (to meet quotas) when the parts arrived. The overall conversion to production of war materials was stunningly successful - from only a small base of war production in early 1941, the United States was out producing all Axis war production combined by the beginning of 1943.
The unemployment problem ended in the United States with the beginning of World War II, when stepped up wartime production created millions of new jobs. The draft also pulled young men out of the labor market creating a void.
In 1940, of the 3,800 women working in Kenosha, some 1,600 worked in manufacturing. The remainder were employed in government, services, and other types of work. Kenosha County received over $575 million in major contracts, second only to Milwaukee County. Women had to join the workforce to replace men who had joined the forces. President Roosevelt stated that the efforts of civilians at home to support the war through personal sacrifice was as critical to winning the war as the efforts of the soldiers themselves. "Rosie the Riveter" became the symbol of women laboring in manufacturing.
By 1944, the proportion of employed women working in manufacturing was well over half, and the total of such women was greater than that of all working women only four years earlier. The war effort brought about significant changes in the role of women in society as a whole. According to the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, three-fourths of Kenosha women who were working in August 1944 planned to continue to work after the war.
At the end of the war, war contracts disappeared. Women were replaced by returning veterans. Once the war ended, people wanted to put the war behind them and get on with their lives. As a result of the war, Kenosha County had long term gains in employment and would never be the same.
The Industry portion of the exhibit looks at what each of these major employers in the county produced through photos, advertisements and actual products. We have brought in a Pratt & Whitney Aircraft engine produced by Nash in Kenosha, samples of shell casings produced by the American Brass, aircraft control wire made at Macwhyte and many photos and advertisements from other industries.
The Homefront Rationing With the onset of World War II, numerous challenges confronted the American people. The government found it necessary to ration food, gas, and even clothing during wartime. Americans were asked to conserve on everything. With not a single person unaffected by the war, rationing meant sacrifices for all. In the Spring of 1942, the Food Rationing Program was set into motion. Rationing would deeply affect the American way of life for most. The federal government needed to control supply and demand. Rationing was introduced to avoid public anger with shortages and not to allow only the wealthy to purchase commodities.
Recycling In 1942, when the first scarp drives were organized, the war was far from won, and frightened civilians at all levels were anxious to do something anything to help. So, campaigns were organized to collect not just metal and rubber but kitchen waste, fat, newspapers, rags, glass, bones and clothing. These drives were extremely successful - millions of tons of material were collected. It was only afterward, contemplating the assembled mounds of junk, that those in charge of the war effort asked themselves; What are we going to do with all this scrap?
War Bonds In 1941, in an effort to raise money for the projected entry of the U.S. into the war that was raging around the world, the U.S. Treasury began marketing the new Series E Bonds U.S. Savings Bonds as "defense bonds". The first one was sold to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on May 1, 1941, by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau. After the formal entry of the United States into the war in December of that year, these bonds became known as "war bonds". These bonds were simply the latest offering of the U.S. Savings Bonds program that had begun in 1935, which replaced U.S. Postal Savings Bonds, and continues to this day. However, the mood of the nation at that time allowed the U.S. government to market Series E bonds as "war bonds" "war loans", "victory bonds", and by other names meant to appeal to a sense of patriotism.
