What Happened to the Surplus Planes After the War-- Part 3: Why the Drive to Get Rid of Them

Both the American aviation industry and the  postwar Air Force had an interest in seeing  the planes scrapped as soon as possible.

The Air Force especially had an interest as they had seen  the hobbling effect of  WW I surplus planes had on the growth of the Army Air Service.  The next war would not be fought with B-17s or even B-24s.  New airplanes were on the horizon and existing planes would be a roadblock to their acquisition.

Plus, aluminum ingots recovered from scrapped aircraft constituted an alloy not necessarily appropriate to returning to aviation construction.  For example, a B-24 Liberator contained 13,000 pounds of aluminum.  Scrapping and melting was  estimated to recover 65% to 70% of the tonnage.

Navy aircraft scrapping in the fall of 1945 involved the manual separation of differing metals.  At Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida, about five warplanes were salvaged daily.  The costly metal separation task was done largely by prisoners of war in 1945.  With their expected return to their countries expected to happen in 1946,  the profitability of  of te Jacksonville salvage operation  was in question.

--GreGen

Monument Placed by Nazis at Chattanooga National Cemetery-- Part 3: Erected in 1935 and Dedicated in 1939

The German consul from St. Louis visited the cemetery on December 3, 1934, visited the World War I German graves and started plans for a monument to them.  The U.S. Quartermaster General at the time, Major General  L.H. Bash,  approved the plans on March  21, 1935.  The monument would be erected in the middle of the 76 German graves.

The granite monument was standing  by May 5, 1935.

It is a simple memorial with the names of  the Germans buried there etched  on the sides, along with 14 others not buried there.  Then, a message in German:  "During the war years did here far from home, and Germany will ever remember you."

It stood there as Hitler and the Nazis started all of their horrific things.

On March 13, 1939, Nazi German diplomats made a surprise visit to Chattanooga to dedicate the monument.  About 20 people were at the ceremony and a wreath was laid.

The monument then stood throughout World War II and in 1944, the cemetery was transferred to the War Department and in 1973, ownership was once again transferred, this time to the  Department of Veterans Affairs and the National cemetery Administration.

--GreGen

Italian POW Art Discovered in Nebraska

From the Feb. 19, 2021, Norfolk (Nebraska) Daily News "Minatare man  discovers art dating from World War II behind restaurant wall" by Justin Garcia.

Minatare is a town of 816 on  the western border of Nebraska.

Dennis Wecker began remodeling one of the rooms of  his bar, Broken Spoke Bar and Grill in Minatare when he discovered something he hadn't expected at all.  There was a painting of three horseman galloping across the Great Plains.  It is now out front in the room for everyone to see.

How did it get there?

He has owned the business for about four years now and said that the building was once part of a World War II prisoner-of-war camp in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  German and Italian POWs were imprisoned across the entire state during the war.  One of those prisoners was an Italian artist.

He has heard that the artist covered the entire building with art and that at the end of the war, the building was moved to Minatare.

--GreGen

 

Sycamore's German POW Camp

From the Sycamore (Illinois) History Museum.

During World War II, German prisoners were sent to POW camps throughout the United States.  Many were sent to Camp Grant in Illinois (outside of Rockford).

During harvest time, many of the POWs from Camp Grant were sent to Sycamore to help with food efforts, including the Sycamore Preserve Company.  They stayed at temporary barracks on Park Avenue (where Upstaging is located today).

They ate their meals in town and worked in the local canning factory and  harvested food at local farms.

During the last year of the war, some 300 Germans were housed here from ages of 16 to 25.  They worked harvesting sweet corn, peas and asparagus.  Then they helped  can vegetables at the Sycamore Preserve Company.

The camp ran from June 1945 to October 1945.

--GreGen

A POW Camp in Sycamore, Illinois, in 1945

From the April 29, 2020, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1945, 75 Years Ago.

"At a special meeting of the city council held Monday night, the members by a vote of five to two to provide water and sewage facilities for a proposed prisoner of war camp such labor to be used  this year for the operation of the Sycamore Preserve Works.

"A six inch sewer from 150 feet south of the end of South Avenue, and a three inch  water main from the same point for a distance of about 400 feet to the camp site, which is the old DeGraff farm, was approved by the city."

Using Prisoners to Help With Labor Shortages on the Home Front.  --GreGen

Wilmington's WW II Role, By the Numbers-- Part 3: Rommel's Afrika Korps and Housing

Wilmington, North Carolina

550--  German POWs from Rommel's Afrika Korps

3,500--  Estimated number of uniformed soldiers hosted by the USO each week from 1941-1945.

5,495--  Public Housing units constructed to help deal with the population surge.

100,000--  County population by late 1943.    Three years later, it was 43,000 in peace time.

Information from Wilbur Jones

--GreGen

Wilmington's WW II Role, By the Numbers-- Part 2:

During World War II, Wilmington was known as "The Defense Capital of the State."  Today, there is a movement to declare Wilmington as a "World War II Heritage City" largely led by Wilbur D. Jones.

The city also had a huge impact on shipbuilding for the war efforts.  It also hosted USOs, five military branches, a fighter plane training area and the headquarters of a railroad company.

Here are some NUMBERS to go with the city's contributions:

2--  Congressional Medal of Honor recipients from New Hanover County:  Charles Murray and William Halyburton.  A Wilmington middle school is named for Murray and the road to it is named for Halyburton. 

In addition, two pilots from Wilmington received the Navy Cross for helping sink a Japanese carrier at the Battle of Midway.

3-- Prisoner of War camps from February 1944 to April 1946.  They were located at Shipyard Boulevard and Carolina Beach Road, then moved to Robert Strange Park (at 8th and Anne streets) and a detachment at Bluethenthal Field (now Wilmington International Airport).

191--  New Hanover County men who died in service, plus 57 with an area connection.  Three were killed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

242--  Vessels (mostly Liberty Ships) built by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company (now the State Port).  At its height the company employed 23,000 people.

--GreGen

Wilmington, North Carolina's Role in WW II: By the Numbers-- Part 1

From the May 16, 2020, Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News  "Wilmington facts, figures from World War II" by Owen Hassel.

Accompanied by pictures of  a German POW camp marker, WW-II era hangar at Wilmington International Airport, picture of a farm where German POWs were held and a picture of Liberty Ships being built by the N.C. Shipbuilding Company.

**  The POW Sign:  Photo of its unveiling at Robert Strange Park at 10th and Anne streets.  From October 1944 to April 1946, 550 members of Rommel's Afrika Korps were held here in the main camp.  There were also two other German POW camps in Wilmington.

**  Legislation to make Wilmington the first "America City of World War II" has languished in Congress for a decade now.

**  Wilmington International Airport was the site of an active war airport, Bluethenthal Field for anti-submarine patrols and P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft training.

**  Echo Fields dairy farm was one of the places German POWs being held in Wilmington were put to work.

--GreGen

Camp McCoy, Wis. --Part 5: Prisoner of War Camp

In addition, the previous CCC  discharge and reception center on South Post, was converted into a relocation and prisoner of war camp.  The camp was the largest Japanese prisoner of war camp in the Continental United States and also housed several thousand German and Korean prisoners.

Camp McCoy is unique in American history because it was both a relocation camp for West Coast Japanese Americans as well as European and Japanese prisoners captured in World War II.

--GreGen

Camp McCoy, Wisconsin-- Part 3: Served As a POW Camp and In Korean War

The South Post of the Camp had served as a Civilian Conservation Center before the war, but during World War II, that was converted into a prisoner of war and Japanese-American relocation camp.  It was the largest holding facility for Japanese POWs in the Continental United States and also housed several thousand German and Korean prisoners.

I had never heard of Korean prisoners of war in World War II.  Koreans who fought for Japan.

The camp was briefly deactivated after World War II, but the Korean War saw its reactivation as a training center until 1953 when it was again deactivated.  In 1973,  the Army reactivated Camp McCoy  as a permanent training center and the following year officially redesignated it as Fort McCoy.

So, it was Camp McCoy until 1974.  Today, it trains some 100,000 troops a year as a Total Force Training Center. It is also the headquarters of the Navy's Mobile Construction Battalion- 25  (Spades and Clubs).

--GreGen

Camp McCoy, Wisconsin-- Part 2: Role in World War II

During World War II, Fort McCoy was used early on as a detention camp for 170 Japanese and 120 German and Italian-Americans arrested as potentially dangerous "enemy aliens" in 1942.  After they were transferred to other camps, McCoy was used a s a training facility for soldiers from across the country preparing to enter combat.

One of these units was the segregated all-Nisei 100th Infantry Battalion.

The post was also used as a prisoner-of-war camp, holding 4,000 German and Japanese prisoners.  Fort McCoy's prisoners were featured in the 2001 movie "Fort McCoy."  This movie was not widely released.

--GreGen

German POW Camp in Wilmington, N.C.

From the April 2, 2018, Wilmington (NC) News-Journal "Rotary learns about local prison camp" by Wilmington Rotary.

Kay Fisher from the Clinton County History Center spoke about the World War II German POW camp in Wilmington.  German prisoners included Nazis and some who opposed the Nazi doctrines.  There were also Italian  and Japanese prisoners.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed 155 prison camps and 511 branch camps across the United States (actually a lot of those were camps previously used by the CCC).  Anywhere between 250 to 750 prisoners were in each camp.

In Wilmington, the POW camp was on the Hubert Barrett property on Doan Street.  It housed 250 prisoners who were guarded by 50 U.S, military personnel.

There was fear that if enemy prisoners were mistreated that would lead to American prisoners receiving the same treatment.  Actually, from what I have read, if you had to be a prisoner in World War II, being held in a prison in the U.S. was not bad at all.  Indeed, many former German prisoners, on release, returned home, settled their affairs and moved to the United States.

German prisoners were first processed in Casablanca.  U.S. POW camps ended October 13, 1945.

--GreGen

The Hemp Industry in Illinois-- Part 3: "Hemp for Victory"

The U.S. government even produced a film "Hemp for Victory."  The plant was needed to make "shoes for millions of American soldiers,"  "parachute webbing for our paratroopers," fire hoses and millions of feet of rope for our battleships.

There are farmers who claim hemp still grows along railroad tracks where it fell off cars during World War II.

From Hempology

The pilot hemp plant was built in Polo, Illinois.

The need for hemp came about when U.S. supplies of it from Asia were cut off during the war.

The first harvest was in 1943.  Camp Grant had many German POWs captured in North Africa.  They were  brought in by the busload to harvest.

On January 6, 1944, 52 truckloads of hemp was harvested.  As the war wound down, the government began closing plants because of the availability of supplies of hemp from Central America.

--GreGen

Tennessee in World War II-- Part 6: Axis POWs

Camps Forrest, Tyson and Campbell also served as prisoner of war camps for German, Italian and Austrian POWs through 1946.  Prisoners were also held at Tellico Plains, Crossville, Memphis, Lawrenceburg and Nashville.

At Camp Forrest, which was the headquarters for several permanent and temporary POW camps in five southeastern states, approximately 68,000 prisoners were processed.

Prisoners in the camps worked at prison hospitals and area farms, cut pulpwood and drained malarial swamps.  Several POW groups produced their own German newspapers, performed plays, wrote poetry and often became the object of curious Tennesseeans.

Again, a Whole Lot better to be a German in an American Prison Than the Other Way Around.  --GreGen

Wilmington, N.C. in the War-- Part 2: U-boat Attack at Kure Beach

Other parts of Wilmington's role in the war can be found at The Wilmington Railroad Museum and the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science.

Wilbur D. Jones was a U.S. Navy captain who came back home in 1977 and he has a two-hour tour that he gives to showcase Wilmington's World War II sites.  He was seven when Pearl Harbor was bombed.  His father and mother were active volunteers during the war.

The first stop ion his tour is Robert Strange Park, the site of a German POW camp where about 550 members of Rommel's Afrika Korps were imprisoned.

Then they go to Fort Fisher, an old Civil War fort that saw use as as an anti-aircraft training site.  The famous Bazooka guns were tested here.

Then, it is on to U-boats at Kure Beach.  A cottage on Atlantic Avenue is believed to be the site of the only German attack on the U.S. eastern seaboard.  On a night in July 1943, a U-boat surfaced off Kure Beach in view of a couple sitting out on the cottage's front porch and fired several shells from its deck gun at the Ethyl-Dow chemical plant, 1/2 mile away where an aviation component fuel was manufactured.

The shots missed, but a few days later a German submarine was sunk about 20 miles offshore.

The final stop is at the Hannah Block Historic USO.

--GreGen

Remembering Maryland's World War II History-- Part 1

From the June 4, 2010, Baltimore Sun by Jacques Kelly.

There is an air raid shelter in downtown Baltimore.  Other sites from World War II where people could take shelter in case of an air raid were the Bromo Seltzer Tower, the Two O'Clock Club, Yale Underwear Factory on Hanover Street and the Horn & Horn restaurant on East Baltimore Street.

There were 20 POW camps in Maryland for captured Germans.  Some were at Fort Holabird, Logan Field in Dundalle, Westminster, Edgewood and Pikesville at what had been the Old Confederate Home and Armory. 

Fort Meade had three political internee camps: one for those of Japanese ancestry, one for German and Italian soldiers and one for German sailors from the commerce raider Odenwald captured by the crew of the cruiser USS Omaha in Puerto Rico.  The Germans and Italians complained that they were not allowed beer or wine.

Poor Guys.  How Can You Get By in a POW Camp Without Alcohol?  --GreGen

German POWs in Texas

From the Dec. 14, 2009, Palestine (Tx) Herald Press.

The public library was hosting a traveling exhibit "Held in the Homefront: POWs in the U.S. 1943-1946." This is a follow up to the "Vanished: German-American Civilian Internment 1941-1948."

During the war, 425,000 German, Italian and Japanese POWs were imprisoned in the U.S. at 660 base and branch camps.

Texas had 78 camps, many located in the eastern part. Millions more were held in other camps around the world. Obviously, not many were Japanese who often elected suicide before surrender or to fight to the death.

The U.S. Army ran the camps in the U.S. where 372,000 Germans were held. During the day, most would leave the camp to harvest and process crops, build roads and waterways, fell trees, roof barns, erect silos, work in light non-military industries, lay sewers, construct tract housing and wash U.S. Army laundry among other jobs.

They felt at home also because many Americans were of German descent and had come over between the 1850s to World War Ii and could speak German. Friendships were formed (many romantic) and many even emigrated to the U.S. after the war. Some even dated local girls and sneaked out to bars and saw movies.

All in All, It Was better to Be a German POW in the U.S. Than an American One in Germany. --GreGen

German POWs Held in Michigan

From the Dec. 13, 2009, Detroit Free Press by Zlati Meyer.

More than 5,000 German POWs were held in Michigan during the war. With the distance from both coasts it was determined that escape would be that much more difficult. The best-known camp was Fort Custer near Battle Creek.

The Upper Peninsula had five camps, Camp Evelyn and Camp AuTrain were in central Alger County. Camp Sidnaw and Camp Pori were in western Houghton County and Camp Raco was in eastern Chippewa County.

Camp Lake View in Alleghenny County was by Lake Michigan and 250 Germans captured in North Africa were held there loving in an old CCC camp near the middle of the county. Several of these Germans later became US citizens and married local women.

Two POWs escaped from Camp Owosso in Shiawassee County on what used to be the Owosso Speedway ran off from a local business where they worked during the day with the help of two local women in a car. They were caught the next day.

At the end of the war, the Germans were sent home, but 25 are buried at the Fort Custer Cemetery.

One comment on the story told of another camp south of Howell in Livingston County. One of the prisoners was a U-boat captain who stayed after the war, became a citizen and lived by the water off Pettysville Road. He died a few years previous.

Today, Many Americans Do Not Know of the German Prisoners Among Us. --GreGen

German POW Camp at Louisiana, Missouri-- Part 3

Local resident of Louisiana, Harry Elliott lived four blocks from the camp. he and his friends would bicycle over to it and talk with the guards and sometimes the Germans would come over and talk to them, "We could understand them a little bit."

Prisoners sent to Louisiana were considered low-risk.

Another resident, Frances Beck, remembers her parents threatening her with her life if she went near the camp. She did anyway.

There were even some complaints among locals of the Germans being "coddled." Elliott remembers working alongside them in the summer and the Germans were served "hot lunches" while "we were eating out of our lunch bucket."

Even so, "they weren't mean to us and we weren't mean to them."

American Prisoners Sure Didn't Live As Well. --GreGen

German Prison in Louisiana, Missouri-- Part 2

Stark Brothers needed workers as so many of the men they had were in the military. Co-owner Lloyd C. Stark had been Missouri governor from 1937 to 1941. Manual labor was needed and the Germans provided it.

Around 425,000 German, Italian and even some Japanese were held in 660 POW camps around the United States.

The camp closed March 31, 1946 when the remaining prisoners were sent to Fort Leonard Wood before being processed and sent home.

The Louisiana prison was classified as a branch camp of Fort Leonard Wood and sometimes referred to as the Louisiana Stark Nursery.

Most People Today Don't Know of These Prisons. --GreGen