Fueled by year after year of federal funding, Pennsylvania's industries profited mightily during World War II. The Commonwealth's industrial plants manufactured
everything from tanks and battleships to radio crystals, parachutes, rations, and 100-octane aircraft fuel. The scale of production was staggering. Steel mills across the state churned out about one-third of the nation's steel and one-fifth of the world supply. Bethlehem Steel and its subsidiaries around the country produced more steel than the Axis powers combined, and contributed greatly to rapid construction of the two-ocean navy needed to win the war.
Important military bases and depots located in the Commonwealth, including the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the New Cumberland Army Service Forces Depot, and 21,000 acre Letterkenny Ordnance Depot, northwest of Chambersburg, helped supply the needs of a growing army and navy, and contributed to research and development of new weapons.
The wartime economy had a profound and often unpredicted impact on the Commonwealth and the nation. As millions of men nationwide entered the military, women entered the work force in record numbers; by 1945, they formed perhaps one-third of it. Nationwide, millions of Americans left their isolated rural homes for the higher wages that could be found doing factory work in cities. Internal migration brought more than two million African Americans from the South to industrial centers in the Northeast and West. Between 1940 and 1943 Philadelphia's black population and workforce exploded in size. By 1950 that city's black population was nearly 50 percent larger than it had been just ten years before.
The flood of southern blacks into Philadelphia and other Pennsylvania cities created severe housing shortages that were alleviated in part by massive government-funded public housing developments. It also heightened racial tensions. When white transit workers went on strike in August 1944 to protest the hiring of African Americans in Philadelphia, President Roosevelt ordered the Army to take over the trolleys and protect black motormen.Rationing led to shortages of some goods and ensured a thriving black market, especially around Philadelphia, where gas bootlegging was widespread. Nationwide, more than 50,000 small businesses failed. At times, labor problems led to strikes, with the participants often labeled as unpatriotic, as when Pennsylvania coal miners went out on strike in April 1943.
Almost 1.25 million Pennsylvanians served the country in the armed forces. The state was proud of top generals like George C. Marshall from Uniontown, Chief of Staff of the Army during the war; Henry "Hap" Arnold of Gladwyne, who commanded the Army Air Corps; and Carl Spaatz of Boyertown, who served as Arnold's second in command. The Chief of Naval Operations in European waters was Admiral Harold Stark of Wilkes-Barre. Newspaper readers thrilled to the exploits of soldiers like the daredevil pilot, Colonel Phil Cochran from Erie.
The state's National Guard, the 28th Infantry Division, saw extensive action in Europe, while Keystone State natives fought in every theater of operations, from the Aleutian Islands to the jungles of Burma and Guadalcanal, from North Africa to the invasions of Italy and France, and the march into Germany itself. The human cost of World War II was high. The United States suffered more than one million soldiers dead and wounded. Of the 407,316 who died, more than 33,000 were from Pennsylvania.
America supplied the men and supplies necessary to win a global war against the Axis powers. When Germany and Japan lay crushed and defeated, America generously helped rebuild those shattered countries, and many more, to engender positive postwar feelings. America's new role as a global power was one of the major effects of the world war. The three chapters that follow provide an introduction to Pennsylvania's role in World War II, and include stories of the state's preparation for the conflict, of some of the men and women who served on battlefronts around the world, and of the Pennsylvania Homefront.
everything from tanks and battleships to radio crystals, parachutes, rations, and 100-octane aircraft fuel. The scale of production was staggering. Steel mills across the state churned out about one-third of the nation's steel and one-fifth of the world supply. Bethlehem Steel and its subsidiaries around the country produced more steel than the Axis powers combined, and contributed greatly to rapid construction of the two-ocean navy needed to win the war.
Important military bases and depots located in the Commonwealth, including the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the New Cumberland Army Service Forces Depot, and 21,000 acre Letterkenny Ordnance Depot, northwest of Chambersburg, helped supply the needs of a growing army and navy, and contributed to research and development of new weapons.
The wartime economy had a profound and often unpredicted impact on the Commonwealth and the nation. As millions of men nationwide entered the military, women entered the work force in record numbers; by 1945, they formed perhaps one-third of it. Nationwide, millions of Americans left their isolated rural homes for the higher wages that could be found doing factory work in cities. Internal migration brought more than two million African Americans from the South to industrial centers in the Northeast and West. Between 1940 and 1943 Philadelphia's black population and workforce exploded in size. By 1950 that city's black population was nearly 50 percent larger than it had been just ten years before.
The flood of southern blacks into Philadelphia and other Pennsylvania cities created severe housing shortages that were alleviated in part by massive government-funded public housing developments. It also heightened racial tensions. When white transit workers went on strike in August 1944 to protest the hiring of African Americans in Philadelphia, President Roosevelt ordered the Army to take over the trolleys and protect black motormen.Rationing led to shortages of some goods and ensured a thriving black market, especially around Philadelphia, where gas bootlegging was widespread. Nationwide, more than 50,000 small businesses failed. At times, labor problems led to strikes, with the participants often labeled as unpatriotic, as when Pennsylvania coal miners went out on strike in April 1943.
Almost 1.25 million Pennsylvanians served the country in the armed forces. The state was proud of top generals like George C. Marshall from Uniontown, Chief of Staff of the Army during the war; Henry "Hap" Arnold of Gladwyne, who commanded the Army Air Corps; and Carl Spaatz of Boyertown, who served as Arnold's second in command. The Chief of Naval Operations in European waters was Admiral Harold Stark of Wilkes-Barre. Newspaper readers thrilled to the exploits of soldiers like the daredevil pilot, Colonel Phil Cochran from Erie.
The state's National Guard, the 28th Infantry Division, saw extensive action in Europe, while Keystone State natives fought in every theater of operations, from the Aleutian Islands to the jungles of Burma and Guadalcanal, from North Africa to the invasions of Italy and France, and the march into Germany itself. The human cost of World War II was high. The United States suffered more than one million soldiers dead and wounded. Of the 407,316 who died, more than 33,000 were from Pennsylvania.
America supplied the men and supplies necessary to win a global war against the Axis powers. When Germany and Japan lay crushed and defeated, America generously helped rebuild those shattered countries, and many more, to engender positive postwar feelings. America's new role as a global power was one of the major effects of the world war. The three chapters that follow provide an introduction to Pennsylvania's role in World War II, and include stories of the state's preparation for the conflict, of some of the men and women who served on battlefronts around the world, and of the Pennsylvania Homefront.