|
|
Post by connie on Aug 9, 2009 11:11:18 GMT -5
I have a hazy knowledge that there were POW camps located at both the places where the men of the 106th spent their last stateside days: Camp Atterbury and Camp Myles Standish.
I never heard this fact discussed by my dad. But, I imagine that the men were aware of this fact. Does anyone have first or second hand knowledge of the awareness of the presence of prisoners of war in these places?
|
|
|
|
Post by floydragsdale on Aug 10, 2009 10:29:23 GMT -5
Hello Connie:
There was a P.O.W. Camp located near Camp Adderbury. I recall seeing some of the P.O.W. work crews yet, that is about all my memory tells me. I was only there a few weeks before we were on our way overseas.
AT Camp Shelby, MS there was a P.O.W. Camp also. P.O.W. work crews were used on the base. I remember being a guard on one occasion. There were Italian P.O.W.'s in the camps also. Some of the German Prisoners could speak english very Well.
I showed them (the German Prisoners) a newspaper head line claiming an Allied Victory in Italy and they turned up their nose claiming it was only propaganda.
Floyd
|
|
|
|
Post by connie on Aug 10, 2009 20:16:24 GMT -5
Thanks, Floyd,
You help keep this board interesting! A generation removed, all that you knew and saw is foreign to us. It helps so much to see things through the eyes of someone who experienced these things first hand. The reaction of the Italian POW's is something you just can't find in history books!
Connie
|
|
|
|
Post by connie on Sept 8, 2009 13:49:25 GMT -5
I just ran across a note on Camp Myles Standish ( the camp near Taunton Massachusetts where the 106th spent the days immediately prior to shipping out). This one said that the POW's there were Italian, too.
|
|
roger
Active Member
Posts: 134 
|
Post by roger on Sept 8, 2009 14:42:30 GMT -5
A few years ago when I first started researching my father's service history I was particularly interested in the PoW camp at Remagen, Germany.....I ran across a guy from Germany who was a researcher and he was looking for info about PoW camps in the USA that housed Axis (especially German) soldiers. He mentioned that there were several in Michigan. I was quite surprised to find out there were indeed many....including one in our county!! It was located in Blissfield, MI.....the prisoners worked on area farms. There was a reported incident involving a truck carrying prisoners from the field back to camp being struck by a train. Our local historical museum published a fund raiser calendar a couple years ago featuring pictures from the camp.
Roger
|
|
|
|
Post by connie on Sept 9, 2009 9:36:53 GMT -5
Roger,
This is interesting stuff. Until I hit notes about the troop ships carrying wounded soldiers and foreign POW's on their return trips to the US, I never thought much about Prisoners of War from other countries being held in the USA. I was also blown away by a map of England showing the POW camps there. They were everywhere! I can't imagine the logistics of getting POWs to Michigan! Thanks!
Connie
|
|
roger
Active Member
Posts: 134
|
Post by roger on Sept 16, 2009 10:52:36 GMT -5
The logistics would be interesting....assume they could have come via access to the Great lakes... but, more likely by rail.
I did tour an operating LST this past summer that is docked in Evansville, IN (Ohio River). This ship was part of the Omaha Beach landing during the invasion. The tour guide pointed out that after the landing, the ship transported German PoWs to the USA. By the way....this is a museum piece well worth visiting if anyone is in the Evansville area. The ship was given to the Greek navy after the war....and eventually found, restored, made sea-worthy in Greece and returned to the USA with a crew of 29. It has battle scars from its service at Omaha Beach. It actually goes out on tour annually in August and September.
|
|
|
|
Post by connie on Sept 17, 2009 11:39:03 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Larry Heider on Sept 17, 2009 13:34:39 GMT -5
When I was in the Air Force, I was stationed at a radio/radar station located at Fort Custer, Michigan just outside of Battle Creek. There was a very large facility on the base which was served as barracks for German POWs during WWII. By the time I got there in 1966 the barracks had been converted to housing for the Job Corps program begun by the Kennedy/Johnson administration. If you do a Google search of Fort Custer POWs you will find various websites that will lead you to more information.
|
|
|
|
Post by MomsHugs on Sept 27, 2009 0:49:36 GMT -5
My late father-in-law, a doctor enlisted in the Army Medical Corp & was in Operation TORCH in North Africa & Sicily. Upon returning, he was promoted to Major & put in charge of the dispensary at the German POW camp at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. A POW was an excellent artist & gave him an oil painting for saving his life by operating on a 'hot' appendix. If anyone else was at Fort Leavenworth, my family would appreciate information.
|
|
