Homefront activities in Wake County during World War II

On September 1, 1939 the armies of Nazi Germany rolled across the borders of Poland in Hitler's quest for more "Lebensraum"—living space— for the German people. By September 3, France and Britain, having guaranteed to come to Poland's aid in case of attack, were drawn into the war as well. The Poles, in the words of historian B. H. Liddell Hart, "...still pinned their trust to the value of a large mass of horsed cavalry, and cherished a pathetic belief in the possibility of carrying out cavalry charges."1 They were defeated before the month was out. The French, too, proved to be no match for the German "blitzkrieg" and Paris fell in June 1940. The British fought valiantly, and alone, until June 1941 when Hitler disavowed his own non-aggression pact and turned his invading forces to the east toward Russia. In the United States there was a strong desire to remain neutral; however, this neutrality diminished somewhat as Congress amidst a fierce argument enacted a Lend-Lease program which guaranteed Britain supplies. The introduction of Lend-Lease meant that American industries, whose output had been sorely reduced by the depression, were operating on ever-increasing schedules improving the arsenal at home. Although the citizens of the United States had a strong desire to stay out of the war, they also had a very real fear that they would not be able to do so. In 1939 Congress enacted the first peacetime draft in the nation's history. On December 7, 1941 Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor making the Americans' two-year-old fears a reality. America joined the war on the side of Britain and Russia against Germany, Japan, and Italy