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, 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

Remembering D-Day-- Part 2: What They Said

"The first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive....  For the Allies as well as Germany, it will be the longest day."

--Ervin Rommell, German field marshal

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"Only two kinds of people are going to be on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die."

--Col. George A. Taylor, commanding the 16th Infantry Regiment on Omaha Beach.


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"These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc.  These are the men who took the cliffs.  These are the champions who helped free a continent.  These are the heroes who helped end the war."

--President Ronald Reagan, 40th anniversary of D-Day.

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"They were the fathers we never knew, the uncles we never met, the friends who never returned, the heroes we can never repay.  They gave us our world.  And those simple sounds of freedom we hear today are their voices speaking to us across the years."

--President Bill Clinton, 50th anniversary of D-Day

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--GreGen

Weather As A Force at D-Day-- Part 2: What's In A Forecast?

Group Captain James Stagg of the RAF met with Eisenhower on the evening of 4 June and told the commander that weather conditions on the 6th would be good enough for the invasion.  The next dates that would be good for the landings would be two weeks later from 18-20 June.

Waiting until then, however, would mean recalling  the men and ships already in position to cross the English Channel.  Plans of the invasion then might get out to the Germans, not to mention major grumbling  on the part of the men.

After much discussion, Eisenhower decided to go ahead with June 6.  Hood thing because a major storm battered the Normandy coast June 19-22.  The landings could not have occurred.

Allied control of the Atlantic Ocean also meant that German meteorologists had less information than the Allies about the weather.  The Luftwaffe meteorological center in Paris had predicted two weeks of stormy weather.  German military leaders left their posts and unites were sent home on leave.

Overall German commander, Gen. Erwin Rommel  returned to Germany for his wife's birthday and to meet with Hitler about obtaining more Panzer tanks.

--GreGen

Irish Lighthouse World War II: Blacksod Lighthouse, Critical in D-Day

Located on the West coast of Ireland.

The lighthouse keeper gave the weather forecast that enabled General Eisenhower to make the decision to land Allied forces in Normandy, France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Some meteorologists had predicted a week of bad weather for France at the beginning of June.  The Germans believed this forecast and Field Marshal Rommel left the front lines in France to visit his family in Germany.

The observer at Blacksod Bay predicted a mid-week break and Eisenhower acted on that prediction.  This was a big reason for Allied success that day.

--GreGen

World War II Skiers-- Part 5: Based on the Finnish Army

The American ski corps was based on that of the Finnish Army and it recruited from the best skiers in the United States.

Recruiting was helped by the movie "Sun Valley Serenade" which featured skiing.  Later, two war movies were made at Camp Hale:  "Mountain Fighters" in 1943 and "I Love a Soldier" in 1944.

By 1944, Camp Hale was training as many as 14,000 soldiers at a time.  It also housed about 400 members of Rommel's Afrika Korps.

The base was closed in November 1945.  In 2003, the Army Corps of Engineers began cleanup of unexploded ordnance.

Today, the camp is located in the White River National Forest and part of it has camping.  Several markers and plaques about its World War II use are located there.

--GreGen