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re: Did you know that German POWs were housed in Ruston La during World War II?
Posted on 5/30/19 at 3:54 pm to Tiger Ree
Posted on 5/30/19 at 3:54 pm to Tiger Ree
If you aren't subscribed to that youtube channel you should be. Quick stories and they often bring a smile. Guy is a great storyteller too.
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Posted on 5/30/19 at 3:59 pm to Tiger Ree
Yeah. A lot of them stayed after the war.
Posted on 5/30/19 at 4:02 pm to Dire Wolf
quote:
Shocking that the south would welcome free labor
I read an account of a German work detail being guarded by black troops. At lunchtime the Germans got to go into a cafe and eat. The soldiers had to stay outside.
Posted on 5/30/19 at 4:02 pm to Tiger Ree
My great grandfather ran one of the camps down in Terrebonne parish. My grandmother told me stories of how kind the Germans were.
Posted on 5/30/19 at 4:08 pm to Tiger Ree
Some were used as workers at Bayou Pigeon to excavate a breach in the flood control levee.
eta: I wasn't there. My neighbor (elderly gent) at Pigeon told me all about it a few years ago.
eta: I wasn't there. My neighbor (elderly gent) at Pigeon told me all about it a few years ago.
This post was edited on 5/30/19 at 4:10 pm
Posted on 5/30/19 at 4:09 pm to Tiger Ree
Houma la had some German pows as well.
Posted on 5/30/19 at 4:13 pm to Tiger Ree
Port Allen as well.
They were literally all over the US.
ETA: Thorough paper done on the use of German POW labor in Louisiana.
36 of the 64 parishes had at least one POW camp.
They were literally all over the US.
ETA: Thorough paper done on the use of German POW labor in Louisiana.
36 of the 64 parishes had at least one POW camp.
This post was edited on 5/30/19 at 4:20 pm
Posted on 5/30/19 at 4:13 pm to DeafJam73
quote:
Yeah. A lot of them stayed after the war.
I was in Weatherford Texas in the late 80's early 90's and met a chick there. One day I met her father who was in town shopping. We saw him and she pointed him out. I thought he was one BIG dude who was the most country looking redneck I had ever seen. Coveralls, boots. cowboy hat, the works.
So she introduced us and he smiled and shook my hand and just stared at the ground while she talked. I just asked him a question about town or farming or something. He looked at me and then her. She just laughed and told me that he doesn't speak English that a lot of the residents around there don't.
I thought it was strange that she was born in the US and it was her father and he couldn't say more than a few words in English.
I never knew of the German camps. I guess they may have been there because of a POW. Just strange that at that time he would have been a 2nd generation child and did not speak his country's language. Always thought that was strange.
Posted on 5/30/19 at 4:16 pm to Tiger Ree
There were a shitton of them at Camp Shelby just outside Hattiesburg. There's like a 20'x20' swastika and an arrow carved into the ground out in the middle of the woods on the Camp. The story is that the German POWs carved it into the ground in case the Germans ever were able to invade the U.S. The idea is that they'd fill them with gas or diesel and set it on fire so German pilots could see it as they flew overhead. The swastika would alert the pilots to the POW presence and the arrow pointed to their barracks so the Germans wouldn't bomb them when they bombed the Camp and would know where to go to free them.
If you go out to where it is, it's plain as day, but it's in the woods, so with the tree cover, you can't really see it on satellite views.
If you go out to where it is, it's plain as day, but it's in the woods, so with the tree cover, you can't really see it on satellite views.
This post was edited on 5/30/19 at 4:17 pm
Posted on 5/30/19 at 4:40 pm to TigerstuckinMS
On Sallier St., in Lake Charles , near the port. They were used in the port & on farms
Posted on 5/30/19 at 4:52 pm to dirtsandwich
quote:
LINK
Bama has the largest one in the southeast. Mainly Afrika Corps. Over in Aliceville.
I hunt there (and in Gainsville, where Nathan Bedford Forest surrendered).
Many of the germans remained there after the war. While prisioners they dug a sewage line from Aliceville to the Tombigbee river and there were man hole covers through where we used to hunt. My father in law told me that if I ever hurt or cheated on his daughter he would kill me and dump me in one of those manholes.
I have never strayed or raised a hand to her.
Posted on 5/30/19 at 5:05 pm to Emteein
quote:
Port Allen as well
Yep. My grandpa told us stories of delivering papers to the guards and actually talking to the prisoners through the fence.
Posted on 5/30/19 at 5:07 pm to Tiger Ree
The D Day museum had a map of pow camps in Louisiana. Had one on st Charles st in houma
Posted on 5/30/19 at 5:11 pm to TigerstuckinMS
Cant see an arrow but apparently this is the swastika
Posted on 5/30/19 at 5:30 pm to Tiger Ree
Camp Claiborne in Rapides Parish also housed German and Italian POW's.
quote:
During 1943 Camp Claiborne got some new and interesting residents. Both German and Italian Prisoners of War (POWs) were housed at the camp. With the base filled to capacity with American Army units, 2 compounds were built to house these prisoners. One compound was for the Germans and the other for the Italians. They were separated because the hard core German Nazi POWs did not get along with their Axis Allies, the Italians! These POWs were used on many army projects and on many farm and lumber operations throughout the Central Louisiana area.
Posted on 5/30/19 at 5:49 pm to ForLSU56
Thanks for the PDF... I like that. Informative..
Yup, Lots of WWII POW camps around the USA. And almost all were Afrika Korp.. German and Italians.
In Oklahoma there are a few and one is Fort Reno. FR was used as a Army Quartermaster Remount Station raising Horses and Pack Mules for the Army in WWI and WWII.
The POW's built the Chapel there at the Fort. POW's were also paid I believe $0.80 per day for work either on the fort or in the fields for the farmers.
Interesting at Fort Reno is the Cemetery. They have buried POW's there. But they sectioned them off and build a wall to divide them from the rest of the graves.. That way they were not buried under the US Flag that flies over the cemetery.
The biggest complaint from the them.. The Oklahoma Summers.
Also in the Texoma area they housed POW's too. They were used to harvest Lumber before The Lake Texoma area was flooded when they dammed the Red River.
I have some pics... But I can't quite figure out how to upload them to this sight.
Yup, Lots of WWII POW camps around the USA. And almost all were Afrika Korp.. German and Italians.
In Oklahoma there are a few and one is Fort Reno. FR was used as a Army Quartermaster Remount Station raising Horses and Pack Mules for the Army in WWI and WWII.
The POW's built the Chapel there at the Fort. POW's were also paid I believe $0.80 per day for work either on the fort or in the fields for the farmers.
Interesting at Fort Reno is the Cemetery. They have buried POW's there. But they sectioned them off and build a wall to divide them from the rest of the graves.. That way they were not buried under the US Flag that flies over the cemetery.
The biggest complaint from the them.. The Oklahoma Summers.
Also in the Texoma area they housed POW's too. They were used to harvest Lumber before The Lake Texoma area was flooded when they dammed the Red River.
I have some pics... But I can't quite figure out how to upload them to this sight.
This post was edited on 5/30/19 at 5:50 pm
Posted on 5/30/19 at 6:08 pm to Tiger Ree
I have a strange feeling that our prison camps were thousands of times better than Germany’s.
Posted on 5/30/19 at 6:11 pm to Fat and Happy
(no message)
This post was edited on 11/22/20 at 4:28 pm
Posted on 5/30/19 at 7:03 pm to Tiger Ree
I learned this from Morgan Peoples.
Posted on 5/30/19 at 7:23 pm to Jim Rockford
You saw that in a movie bro
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