13.3 Keeping the Home Fires Burning

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe life on the home fronts in World War II
• Explain how the war affected women’s lives in the Axis and Allied nations
• Describe how new technologies developed during World War II and affected its outcome

Those left behind on the home front during the war followed the fates of their absent loved ones wherever they were. They often coped with shortages of needed items and new workloads as the conflict continued year after year. Research also continued at home as the countries engaged in the war sought to gain an advantage over one another. As a result, new technologies and scientific understandings emerged that affected not only the war and its outcome but the postwar global society as well.