Savannah in World War II: 1.25 Million Tons of Supplies for the Allies

Between the spring of 1943 and V-E Day in May 1945, more than 1.25 million tons of war supplies passed through the port of Savannah, Georgia, in a steady stream of Victory and Liberty ships bound for Britain, France, the Mediterranean and North Africa. The War Department's Transportation Corps, the War Shipping Administration and the British Ministry of War Transport had chosen the port to help supply Britain and its allies. Savannah and Chatham County are now recognized as an American World War II Heritage City.

What went through the port

Shipments also included guns, ammunition, newsprint and prefabricated bridges.

A community at war

The Port of Savannah became a military cargo port for Lend-Lease goods, and local industries made paper, asphalt, naval ships and much more. Along the waterfront, citizens volunteered in civilian and military organizations, among them the Savannah-Chatham County Defense Council and the U.S. Coast Guard Temporary Reserve's Volunteer Port Security Force. The Park Service's series on Savannah also covers the city's shipyards, Hunter Army Airfield and the paid and volunteer work of its civilians.

Why Heritage Cities

In 2018 a House report on the bill creating the American World War II Heritage City program (H.R. 6118) explained its purpose: to have the Secretary of the Interior designate at least one city each year to recognize the home front's contribution.

• The scale of service. Sixteen million Americans, mostly young working-age men, served in the military, out of a population of 113 million.
• The arsenal. At the same time, the country drastically expanded war production to supply its own forces and its allies — what President Franklin Roosevelt called "the Arsenal of Democracy."
• A nation on the move. The war brought the largest internal migration in U.S. history, as families moved to industrial centers for well-paid jobs and out of patriotic duty. Boomtowns grew at phenomenal rates: Richmond, California, went from under 24,000 people to over 100,000.

Georgia was critical to that effort: more than 300,000 Georgians served in the military, thousands of civilians worked in fast-growing war industries, including the state's two Liberty shipyards, and new jobs opened for women, African Americans and others.

Sources

Based on "(H)our History Lesson: Savannah and Chatham County, Georgia: Comparing and Connecting WWII Home Front Cities," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The lesson draws on the City of Savannah Research Library and Municipal Archives' "World War II on the Savannah Waterfront" (2008), House Report 115-998 (2018) and the Georgia World War II Heritage Trail.