What many people do not understand is that Canada, almost from Day One, was MUCH closer to the concept of "Total War" than Germany would get, even in 1944.
In Canada, food supplies were rationed strictly because Canada, with its 12 million or so people, had a million in the Forces and another million in War industries AND was trying to feed Great Britain (with over FIFTY million people) as well. The Federal Government, for one thing, seized control of the vital Grain industry early in the War and only has released most of that "emergency War-time" control in the last couple of years. That control was used originally to keep grain and thus food prices here LOW and also to assure a LOW price for vital supplies to Britain. Churchill had an arrangement whereby the Canadian farmers would be milked solidly DURING the War and then, once the War was over, prices would rise to ABOVE the going rate in order to repay them for their help. The problem was that Churchill was voted OUT in the first post-War election in Britain, LABOUR was installed and Labour said, in effect, 'Thanks for the cheap lunch, Canada, now SCREW YOU!' The Federal Government held onto the absolute marketing power over Canadian grain for another 65 years because it provided jobs for a wonderful Liberal-based bureaucracy, gave the Feds more control over Canadians right down the line, and also allowed the Government to use Canadian food for political purposes..... when the Wheat Board bureaucrats weren't forgetting to attend the annual markets.... and then selling Canadian Number 1 wheat for Feed prices. It also worked out very well when our good friend Nikita screwed-up his New Lands project and Canadian food, at half price, subsidized by the Canadian taxpayer, paid for through huge 'loans' to Russia, was used to avert Russia's FOURTH great famine of the 20th Century. Russia at that time was the world's largest producer of platinum, diamonds and possibly gold..... but your grandfather paid for Nickie's lunch.
Back to Canada in Wartime. Money was free and easy, there were lots of job and they paid well. All those war-bond drives and war loans and War Savings certificates - and the rapidly-escalating taxes - were for one purpose: to get money OUT of circulation. Inflation is caused by one thing: too much MONEY chasing too few GOODS.... and Wartime Canada had LOTS of money and VERY few goods. Even with the strongest measures which could be implemented safely, Canada had 30% inflation during the period of the War. It was bad. How bad? Well, used cars could sell, later in the War, for the value of their TIRES. I learned all about filling a used tire with rags before I was 12 years old! And by the time I was 14, I knew all about de-sulphating a battery, something which the eco-freaks have rediscovered recently. There were NO batteries..... unless you knew somebody who could get you an illegal one from the Army..... or one that was being replaced for a Doctor, Ambulance, Police car or Fire Engine. Otherwise, there were NONE, period. RUBBER there was a-plenty for tires for Aircraft, Army trucks, Military motorcycles, Tank tracks and the like.... but I cut my first teeth on a little Owlhead .32 Short 5-shot revolver with the grips wrapped in (stolen) green Scotch instrument tape..... because there was NO rubber available for a teething-ring for a baby.
GASOLINE was available but the supplies were very short. We lived on 88th Street in Edmonton and my Dad was Chief Inspector (Instruments) at Aircraft repair on 107th.... and even HE could not get enough gas to get to work in his '31 Marquette. Result? A '29 Harley 30.50 single turned up (with GOOD tires and a blown engine), I was evicted from my room (first time: second time was much more interesting because I was older).... and Dad could run the 80-mpg Harley to work..... in 30 below.
But there WAS some black-marketeering at times, although generally not a lot because the penalties were vicious. Dad WAS able, though connections at the aircraft plant, to obtain 4 cans of Orange Juice from the American PX..... and that was the ONLY juice my Mom saw in the final year and a half of the War. When my parents were married (October, 1943) in Vancouver, there was some VERY serious black-marketing. Ration coupons had to be detached from their Book in the actual PRESENCE of the store-keeper, as an anti-forgery and anti-black marketing precaution. With the aid of a friendly storekeeper who was willing to look the other way, all of my Mom's friends got together and donated Ration Coupons..... and so my parents were able to have a real WEDDING CAKE - not very big (I have a photo) but it was REAL - that October 2. I emphasize that my folks' Wedding Cake was REAL because so many of the War-time Wedding Cakes were decorated CARDBOARD; the tiny slivers passed out to guests at the Reception were cut from small cakes baked by friends of the bride, each one different according to what they could spare from their Ration Book. MONEY was not the problem: the problem was COUPONS which were worth MORE than money because you could not spend the money if you didn't have the Coupons.
In GERMANY, despite all of the bluster about "TOTALISCHE KRIEG", many factories kept right on producing consumer goods through most of the War period which Canadians cheerfully would have KILLED to get their hands on. In 1944, about the time I was getting born, you could still buy a brand-new Leica IIIC camera, the finest rangefinder 35mm in the world.... or even a brand-new Praktica 35mm Single-Lens REFLEX: the world's most advanced focal-plane-shutter camera. I would really like one of those, but I only have the 1938! Works fine, too. No, the problem in Germany was not fine consumer goods: it was FOOD and CLOTHING. The famous WINTERHILFSWERKE which saw the German Army sporting fur coats through that terrible Winter in Russia was NECESSARY because the Wehrmacht had NO HEAVY WINTER COATS: the War simply would have been over by then, so the coats were never ordered! The Canadian Army, OTOH, was without doubt the BEST-clothed in the world. I still have a Wartime "issue" overcoat and have worn it in 35 below (F) on many occasions and, despite pretty serious circulation troubles from the Polio I had when I was 3, I am still staggering around. Those were GOOD coats! And the Officers' version was as soft as a kitten. QUALITY. American gear came nowhere close.
When I started working, I did some time in a Bakery. The Baker himself was a displaced Dresdener whose family had moved to Berlin. Harry joined the Hitler-Jugend in order that he could get the special Ration Card which was available only for Nazi Party purposes. With that, he got his Hitler Youth uniform, which he wore whenever he possibly could justify it. That saved his (one) decent set of clothes for Church. He worked in a Bakery in Berlin and recounted how the man from the Bread Board would come around and determine if they were using the right amount of SAWDUST in the Rye-flour. By the end of the War, it was up to FIFTY percent Sawdust, the other half actual food. Despite even these precautions, my friend Axel Thunstrom (a neutral Swede working internationally for the ICRC as a KZ/POW Camp Inspector) told me that, "In the Spring of 1945, the German Army was starving..... and they got the best." All he would say about the camps was that "It was bad..... really bad."
But so many more people than in modern society were Farmers. One would THINK that farmers should have it easier.... and, should you KNOW a Farmer, you would be much better-off. That was a good IDEA but that was about all. In Canada, having an unpapered Pig or Steer might net you a heavy, nasty fine but, in Germany, the same thing could net you a BULLET if the Government found you out.
Most definitely, there was enough misery and deprivation to go around. Let's hope we don't have to do it again.
Tony
