Home front

[1] It is commonly used to describe the full participation of the British public in World War I who suffered Zeppelin raids and endured food rations as part of what came to be called the "Home Front".

This continuity of "military effort" from fighting combat troops to manufacturing facilities has profound effects for the concept of "total war".

By this logic, if factories and workers producing material are part of the war effort, they become legitimate targets for attack, rather than protected non-combatants.

This military view of civilian targets has effects on the equity of applied legal principles on which the prosecution of crimes against humanity are based.

However even given this, in feudal societies the income of estates and nations, and therefore the wealth and power of monarchs and aristocrats, was proportional to the number of commoners available to work the land.

According to Adam Tooze this view was influenced by the post-war reports from Albert Speer and SS Wirtschaftsführer (economy leader) Hans Kehrl [de], which were not free from own interests.

The " We Can Do It! " poster was widely seen on the United States home front during World War II ; it became popular in the 1980s. Today, it is often associated with the cultural icon Rosie the Riveter , although it does not actually depict her.
"I am a good war hen, I eat little and produce a lot." French poster from World War I .
Women at work in the machine shop of the Handley Page aircraft factory at Cricklewood, London (1942).