Maine History Online

Lasting well into the 19th century, residue from colonial conflicts impacted the very shape of Maine. It didn't help that British soldiers hung around after the war with scant objections from the United States or Massachusetts, or that poorly drawn and mislabeled maps led to prolonged boundary uncertainties.

The Revolution did not really end for parts of Maine (still part of Massachusetts) until the War of 1812 concluded decades of conflicting claims along the coast, and the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 settled the long simmering border disputes in the northeast.

These resolutions provided development opportunities for trade and lumber interests, but the latter treaty also left the Acadian community along the upper St. John River straddling two separate nations.

Many residents of Maine and other parts of the region opposed the war and especially its embargo, which negatively affected the economy of the region.

In addition, the war left parts of eastern Maine – Castine and Belfast – occupied and Hampden burned by the British. Smuggling was rampant along the coast and resulted in many in the state more interested in separating from Massachusetts.

What was clear from these constant wars on Maine soil was that the coastline was difficult – if not impossible – to defend, that Maine could not rely on outsiders to defend its shores, and that wars sometimes destroyed communities and sometimes helped create them.

Effects at Home

Even when the war is not fought in Maine, the war effort can seem close.

In August 1917, Florence Spence of Sanford and several other young women organized the Home Service Company, a group that sought to help those in uniform by raising money, among other activities.

Open to women ages 16 to 25, the group held food sales and parties, planted crops to sell to the Girls Canning Club and planned other activities.

Further showing their support of the military, the girls wore uniforms with khaki dress and military hats and bestowed military ranks on officers and members. It was one of many civilian efforts to support America's involvement in the war.

World War II found Mainers sacrificing at home, aiding soldiers and the war effort, and coping with shortages, anxieties, and a changing world. Like Americans everywhere, Mainers listened intently to war news on their radios, planted victory gardens, recycled rubber and scrap metal, and squeezed yellow food coloring into their oleomargarine.

In the absence of razors and stockings, whose materials had been diverted to the war effort, some women even sandpapered the hair off their legs, coated their limbs in pancake makeup, and drew on a fake stocking seam with an eyebrow pencil.

Maine also housed German prisoners of war in Caribou, Presque Isle, Bangor, Spencer Lake, Princeton, and elsewhere with the main camp situated at the Army Air Base in Houlton. Dozens of such camps were established over the course of the war and were scattered across the country.

Farmers had gone to war and additional food and feed were needed. Aroostook farmers, with the blessings of the federal government, turned to the POWs in their midst for help with their potato crops. Interned Japanese-Americans served a similar function in some western states.

The state's most significant contribution to the war came in the form of naval transport and defense as shipyards large and small scrambled to convert to war craft production. Between them, Bath Iron Works, including the yard at South Portland, and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at Kittery constructed iron freighters, destroyers, carriers, submarines, and Liberty ships, collectively supplying nearly a quarter of the U.S. Navy's big ships.

Smaller yards in Camden, Boothbay Harbor and elsewhere built wooden minesweepers and patrol boats. For the first time, these much-needed industries recruited and employed large numbers of women, who constituted about 18 percent of total employees.

The shipbuilding efforts were vast and successful. Maine-built destroyers like the USS Chevalier and USS Maddox fought in the Pacific against the Japanese, while Liberty ships like the Jeremiah O'Brien ferried fuel and supplies to a besieged Britain.

The destroyers O'Bannon, Nicholas, and Taylor, all built at Bath, won at least 15 battle stars each, among only nine naval ships to do so during the war. Nearly 1,400 vessels of all types and sizes were built in Maine shipyards between early 1942 and the conclusion of the war.

While shipbuilding was Maine's primary wartime industry, food production contributed much needed resources as well. Maine men and women also left the state to work in war production factories elsewhere in New England and the northeast. Others stayed put and served in civil defense preparedness for their towns, an activity particularly necessary for the state's harbor sites.

Kittery, Brunswick, and Portland housed U.S. naval stations beefing up the state's coastal defenses, but also making them a target of interest for German submarines patrolling the coast.

The government thus equipped Maine fishermen with radios to report German submarine sightings, the Coast Guard Auxiliary patrolled in donated private yachts, and the Civil Air Patrol flew regularly over the Gulf of Maine and the many harbors housed along its irregular coast.

The U.S. Army Air Force built several airfields in Maine to be used as training sites. Dow Army Air Force Base, now Bangor International Airport, included a field hospital. Most of the men trained at these bases came from outside the state, and pilots and crews studied enemy tactics and field identification along with learning how to fly combat missions.

In the 21st century, soldiers heading to and returning from Iraq and Afghanistan sometimes stop at Bangor International Airport. Volunteers gather there to warmly greet the troops and thank them for their service, further bringing the reality of the wars to Maine soil.