Didn't want to post this under the comment section as I have already been chided once for long comments there, and point taken.
Re Crash Ryan's post. Rationing happened in England and became important defence wise for a few reasons. First England is comparatively small and didn't supply all of its food needs. A lot came from the 'Colonies' through trade. Also when you call up serious numbers of men you take trained people away from agriculture and then you have to feed them at the front.An Army marches on its stomach. So, many working on farms were volunteers, many were 'Farm Girls'. England was very much a manufacturing nation, (they invented manufacturing) but don't forget the NAZI's targeted factories for bombing by air. The UK needed the convoys from the US to survive, (food, manufactured items and fuel) they couldn't supply their own forces fast enough. That's why the saboteurs in the US targeted industry there. The US is a huge country with good soil and many climate zones, disrupting food supply in the US was never going to work.
Stories like the Buck Ryan stuff are useful for letting us get an idea what things were like 'on the ground' for civilians at the time.
Cheers.