LIFE DURING WARTIME
- Prices in the 1940s -
Daily Newspaper - 3 cents, Sunday 10 cents
Rent (4 room apt in NY) - $105 per month
Average Ticket to Broadway Show - 55 cents
Average Ticket For a Movie - 35 cents

- Statistics -
1940 World Population: 2.3 billion
1940 US Population: 131,669,275 in 48 states
1940 US Unemployed: 8.12 million
US National Debt $43 Billion
US Minimum Wage: $.43 per hour
Average US Annual Salary: $1,299, Teacher $1,441
US Life Expectancy: 68.2 female, 60.8 male
US Auto deaths: 34,500
1940 US Divorces: 264,000
55% of U.S. homes had indoor plumbing
24% of American adults completed high school
5.5% of U.S. adult males & 3.8% of females had college diplomas.

- In 1940 Oldsmobile introduced the first completely automatic transmission in any American made automobile, changing forever the way people drive.
- During the 1940's Antarctica was discovered to be a continent.
- Nobel Prizes were not awarded during most of World War II.

By the end of the war the United States had provided the following aid to Allied countries:

Great Britain...............$31 billion
Soviet Union...............$11 billion
France........................$ 3 billion
China........................$1.5 billion
Other European.......$ 500 million
South America.........$400 million

The amount totaled: $48,601,365,000.
    A wartime USAAF Parachute Doll made from oilcloth with a handpainted face, scarf, minature pilot wings and silk parachute. Dolls like these were often sent home by aviation cadets to their younger siblings.

(From The Collection of Channon D. Hupp)
- OTHER RELATED TOPICS -
The Links Above Do Not Open The Specified Pages, They Are Here Only To Show The Added Content of This Section of the CD-ROM. Most Of These Pages Contain Rare Video Clips Like The One Seen At Top Right.

Post-war footage of some of the devastation suffered by Germany during the war. In Berlin the rubble of an estimated 400,000 buildings were deposited together in what would later become known as "Teufelsberg", or "Mont Klamott" (meaning Mount Rubble), it later became the site of a Cold War Allied intelligence gathering post.


During World War II, copper was needed to make shell casings for bullets. In order to conserve copper for the war effort, the U.S. government minted pennies in steel-coated zinc. These were only produced for one year due to public complaints that they were too easily confused with dimes in change.

- WORLD WAR II BY THE NUMBERS -

- ESTIMATED NUMBER OF DEATHS WORLDWIDE: 53,477,000. US Military: 292,131.

- PEAK STRENGTH OF MAJOR COMBATANTS: Soviet Union: 12,500,000 ; United States: 12,364,000; Germany & Austria: 10,000,000; Japan: 6,095,000; France: 5,000,000; China: 5,000,000; United Kingdom: 4,683,000; Italy: 4,500,000.

- DIRECT ECONOMIC COSTS: Worldwide: $1.6 Trillion; US: $288 Billion; Germany: $212.3 Billion; Japan: $41.3 Billion.

- PRISONERS OF WAR: (Held By Allies) German, 630,000; Italian, 430,000; Japanese, 11,600. (Held By Germans) French, 765,000; Italian, 550,000; British Commenwealth, 200,000; Yugoslav, 125,000; American, 90,000 (Held By Japanese) British Commonwealth, 108,000; Dutch, 22,000, American, 15,000.

- KILLED IN ACTION: 8.6 out of every 1,000 American servicemen; Dead From Other causes: 3 in 1,000; Non-mortal Injuries: 17.7 in 1,000.

- AMERICAN FORCES THAT WERE DRAFTEES: 61.2 Percent. Prospective Soldiers Rejected As Physically or Mentally Ill: 35.8 percent.

- AVERAGE DURATION OF SERVICE: 33 Months.

- AVERAGE BASE PAY: Enlisted Personnel: $71.33 per month; Officers: $203.50 per month.

- WEAPONRY PRODUCED: Aircraft: 443,031; Guns (Rifles to Artillery): 49,319,492; Ammunition: (Bullets to Bombs) 82,352,314,472; Ships: (Naval & Merchant) 79 Million Tons; Vehicles: (Jeeps to Tanks) 5,157,458.

 
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