The home front as an industrial effort
When the United States entered the Second World War in December 1941, factories across the country were redirected toward military needs. Production for civilians was cut back or stopped, and government contracts shaped what plants made. The region around Camden and Philadelphia, with its mix of shipyards, machine shops, electrical firms and food processors, was well placed to contribute.
The Delaware Valley is often described as one of the major industrial regions of the war years. How much of any particular output came from Camden itself is hard to state precisely, and published totals differ. What can be said is that the city’s yards and plants were part of a wider regional system that included the Philadelphia Navy Yard, other shipyards on both banks of the river, and many supplier firms.
What was made
Ships. The most visible contribution was naval construction. The Camden shipyard of the New York Shipbuilding Corporation built large warships, including aircraft carriers and cruisers, during the war years. Details of its history are in the article on shipbuilding yards. Ship construction required steel, engines, electrical systems and weapons, which meant demand spread across a large network of suppliers.
Electronics and communications. Companies with a background in radio and electrical equipment, including the RCA firm that grew out of the Victor Talking Machine Company, worked on military electronics. The kind of equipment included communications gear and related devices, though the specific products of any one plant are best checked in company histories. The earlier history of the industry is in the article on talking machines.
Food and supplies. Armies and navies needed preserved food in large quantities, and food processors adjusted production to government orders. The general background of the sector appears in the article on food manufacturing. Textiles, leather, metal goods and chemicals also went to military purposes.
Repair and maintenance. Ports and shipyards repaired damaged vessels and serviced merchant ships. The capacity of the port facilities mattered here, because a vessel needed a berth and skilled crews to be turned around quickly.
The workforce
Industry needed more labor even as millions of men entered the armed forces. Employers hired women into jobs that had often been closed to them, including welding, assembly and machine work. Black workers and others who had faced barriers found new, though still unequal, openings, and migration from the South and from rural areas increased. Many of the same newcomers’ stories echo those described in the article on immigrant workers, even though the groups involved were different.
Employers expanded shifts, and around-the-clock operation was common in important plants. Overtime was available, and wages in many war industries rose compared with the Depression years. At the same time, work could be hard and dangerous, and accidents occurred. Housing shortages were a recurring problem in industrial regions, since the rush of new workers outpaced the supply of rooms and apartments.
Rationing and civic life
On the home front, civilians experienced shortages and controls. The government rationed items such as gasoline, tires, sugar and meat, and families used ration books and stamps. Scrap drives collected metal, rubber and paper. War bond campaigns encouraged people to lend money to the government. Civil defense measures, including blackouts and air-raid wardens, were practiced in coastal and industrial areas, given the strategic value of ports and plants.
Community life revolved around the war effort. Churches, clubs and unions organized collections and volunteer work, and families kept track of relatives overseas. The social life of working neighborhoods is discussed in the article on factory work.
After the war
When the war ended in 1945, orders were canceled or reduced, and plants reconverted to civilian products. Many returning veterans looked for jobs, and some used housing and education benefits created by federal legislation. The immediate postwar years brought high demand for consumer goods, which supported some manufacturing for a time.
Over the longer term, however, many of the region’s older plants lost ground. Companies built new facilities elsewhere, the shipyard eventually closed, and the postwar suburbs drew population out of older cities. These trends are covered in the pieces on deindustrialization and suburban flight. For the city’s later path, the overview of twentieth century Camden gives context.
Limits of the record
Wartime secrecy and the dispersal of records mean that some details of production are incompletely documented in popular accounts. Individual stories of workers are best recorded through oral history projects, and company and government records are held in archives. Readers should treat round numbers and sweeping claims with caution unless they cite a source.