Have you ever heard the saying "We are all in this together?" during this COVID-19 crisis?
Well the same idea was on full display during World War II as everyone united to support the war effort.
Did you know that during World War II Americans of every race, color, and age group came together
and participated in scrap drives like the ones shown here to collect materials for the war effort?
At this scrap drive we see children and adults unloading scrap from trucks and throwing it on top
of a large pile in the middle of an empty field. Their effort is much like ours today as we all
do our part to fight climate change by recycling and by helping to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Children like yourselves played a very important role in the fight for a better tomorrow.
In this photo we can see school children placing scraps they brought from home into a pile on the floor of their gym.
Resources were limited during the war effort so everyone pulled together
to gather scrap items to be converted into supplies.
The U.S. Government used colorful posters to show Americans the kinds of things they were helping to build.
Jeeps were a popular vehicle that everyone knew so they were often shown in the posters.
This poster shows soldiers riding in a jeep downhill from a factory with the slogan
"Buy a part of our jeep. Back the attack."
Since people also recognized airplanes they were featured in posters and were often called "flying jeeps."
The poster we see here shows an airplane flying over soldiers with the text "Schools-at-war Jeep Campaign." "Help send our soldiers flying jeeps."
This simple conversion chart shows a few of the items that were collected and how they were
converted into other items. For example, we see that a flat iron could be made into two steel helmets.
Lawn mowers could be converted into ammunition and old rubber tires could be made into 12 gas masks.
Now look closely at this photo of children pulling a load of scrap in a wagon. The load is so heavy
and the wagon is so large that it takes the combined effort of six boys to move it.
The wagon is loaded with scrap metals and aluminums as well as two rubber tires and pieces of wood.
Okay, question time.
After looking at the photo, how many gas masks do you think could be made from the wagon load?
3, 12, or 24?
The answer is 24!
The conversion chart from before showed us that one car tire alone could be made into 12 gas masks.
Since we can see that this wagon is carrying two car tires, the correct answer would be 24.
Students would sometimes use a printed booklet like the one you
see here called the "Boy Scout Scrap and Salvage Guide."
These guides would list possible locations where students could find scraps to help support the war effort.
Using the guide, the three students in the photo found precious scrap
in an old barn. From the photo, we can see that they have climbed close to the roof on ladders
and that they are trying to bring down a metal pulley that had been abandoned and left behind.
Children were also very creative and used their imagination to make collecting scraps easier.
Sometimes they even got their pets to help them.
The child in this photo is using his dog to help him pull a small wooden wagon full of paper that would be recycled.
Students were very proud of helping the war effort because they felt they were fulfilling their patriotic duty.
These students from Bayard Junior High were so proud they held a parade
to ask their community to support the scrap drive.
Here we can see the students walking down the street holding a banner that says "Scrap is our goal"
while other children and adults at the parade happily watch from the sidewalk.
Have you ever heard this tapping sound before?
(Telegraph Morse Code Sounds)
That's the sound a telegraph machine makes when a message is being sent or received.
Here we can see a soldier receiving a message through a teletype machine.
These machines were used during World War II, to receive messages via Morse Code which is a series
of dots and dashes that can be translated into letters by the person that receives the message.
The telegram message you see here was sent to Delaware's Governor during World War II,
Walter Bacon, from the chairman of the United States Production board.
Telegrams were used to communicate just how important it was that every man woman and child help the war effort.
You can think of sending a telegram like sending and receiving a text message on your phone today.
As you can see in this photograph the telegram's message worked.
Here you can see Boy Scouts loading piles of paper into a truck that's parked in front of a school.
In the second photo you can see how proud the children are of all the paper they collected.
The children have gathered and are posing for the photo at the back of
the truck you can see just how full the back of the truck is.
A simpler way that children also contributed to the war effort was
by taking part in patriotic activities at school and in their communities.
These drawings were drawn by school children like yourself.
The first one shows a classroom with the words "Wednesday is war stamp day" written above the chalkboard.
This second drawing shows a ship with an American flag raised high as it travels in the seas towards an overseas destination.
Now that you've seen how everyone helped with the war effort during World War II, please take
some time to think about how you can help your community today. In times like these we must all do
our part and make sacrifices for the greater good because in the end, "We Are All In This Together."