--- description: To high-minded, non-slicing WPBers it was just a routine order: no more sliced bread for the duration, a consequent yearly saving of 100 tons of slicing-machine alloy steel. But to U.S. housewives it... title: U.S. At War: Trouble on the Bread Line image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # U.S. At War: Trouble on the Bread Line by [TIME](/author/time/) Feb 1, 1943 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Feb 1, 1943 4:00 AM CUT To high-minded, non-slicing WPBers it was just a routine order: no more sliced bread for the duration, a consequent yearly saving of 100 tons of slicing-machine alloy steel. But to U.S. housewives it was almost as bad as gas rationing—and a whale of a lot more trouble. They vainly searched for grandmother’s serrated bread knife, routed sleepy husbands out of bed, held dawn conferences over bakery handouts which read like a golf lesson: “Keep your head down. Keep your eye on the loaf. And don’t bear down.” Then came grief, cussing, lopsided slices which even the toaster refused, often a mad dash to the corner bakery for rolls. But most housewives sawed, grimly on—this war was getting pretty awful. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6781620/u-s-at-war-trouble-on-the-bread-line/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6781620/u-s-at-war-trouble-on-the-bread-line/"},"headline":"U.S. At War: Trouble on the Bread Line","datePublished":"1943-02-01T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T15:53:58.869Z","description":"To high-minded, non-slicing WPBers it was just a routine order: no more sliced bread for the duration, a consequent yearly saving of 100 tons of slicing-machine alloy steel. But to U.S. housewives it...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6781620/u-s-at-war-trouble-on-the-bread-line/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6781620/u-s-at-war-trouble-on-the-bread-line/","name":"U.S. At War: Trouble on the Bread Line"}}]}] ```