There is a problem with webpack-dev-server that makes so that all calls that are not root (/) goes to the backend and produces a 404 error. The solution is to redirect all calls to index.html.

Redirecting all requests to index.html

// The snippet below achieves in a Node backend what 
// "historyApiFallback: true" flag achieves on a webpack-dev-server environment.

// By redirecting all requests to index.html, the routing contained in the frontend app
// takes care of redirecting to the right place 

const viewRouter = require('./routes/view');
app.use('/',viewRouter);
router.route('/*')
  .get((req,res)=>res.sendFile(path.resolve(__dirname, '../dist', 'index.html')));