— Robert Linden, Washington
Of the greater than 425,000 Axis prisoners shipped to the US throughout World Conflict II — Germans, largely, however some Italians and Japanese — about 13,000 got here to Maryland. They have been saved in 19 prisoner of battle camps. (There have been POW camps in Virginia, too.)
The prisoners began arriving in massive numbers in 1943, after the Allies defeated Hitler’s Afrika Corps. Holding services have been scant in North Africa. And transferring POWs to Europe ran the danger that they could rejoin their models ought to they escape.
Lots of Maryland’s prisoners arrived at Fort Meade earlier than being distributed throughout the state, together with to regional work camps in Gaithersburg, Fort Washington, Smith Level, Flintstone, Pikesville, Frederick and Westminster. They lived in barracks or tents and have been paid — 80 cents a day in scrip — to work for native farmers. (Enlisted males have been required to work; it was non-compulsory for officers.)
Situations have been good. POWs have been fed effectively, not together with the extras that farm households usually bestowed on them. Within the camps, prisoners might indulge their hobbies and take courses. Fort Meade prisoners took extension programs from Johns Hopkins College, these at Holabird from St. John’s Faculty.
Most camps — Holabird included — had craft rooms the place prisoners might create handiworks. Periodic craft gala’s have been open to civilians, who flocked to buy fascinating memento paintings created by the enemy combatants.
In a 1981 article about Maryland’s POW camps, The Publish’s Eugene L. Meyer recounted the story of 1 German prisoner tasked with portray murals of air fight on the partitions of a espresso store at Andrews Air Pressure Base, then generally known as Andrews Subject. When somebody seen that his design featured a disproportionate variety of Allied planes being shot down, he was taken off the job.
Earlier than delivery off to Vietnam in 1967, Bob Damage handed by way of Fort Holabird. He took the Military’s Primary Officers Intelligence course there. Whereas a scorching battle raged in Southeast Asia, the Chilly Conflict percolated practically in every single place else on this planet, as the US and its allies sought to counter the Soviet Union.
“The Military had an ideal many civilian ‘spies’ that we had recruited in Europe,” wrote Bob.
At Holabird, second lieutenants reminiscent of Bob got a common orientation on intelligence, together with how one can detect and counter Soviet brokers. They have been additionally taught how one can preserve “discreet surveillance” in a European setting. In a single train, three second lieutenants in civilian garments got a photograph of a “goal” who would cross by way of a particular intersection in Baltimore inside a specified time window.
“Thence our little crew was to observe this man (at all times a man) with out him recognizing us,” Bob wrote. “We might rotate which of the three was closest behind our goal so he wouldn’t establish us, with the others keeping track of our colleague so we might shift. This was at all times in downtown Baltimore. I can’t think about we might be laborious to identify — three 22-year-olds with quick hair and black plain-toed footwear within the hippy period.”
Issues often began off easily sufficient, Bob mentioned, however then sustaining the tail would change into tougher because the goal went right into a division retailer full of customers or bought onto a crowded elevator.
“The goal can be a specially-trained enlisted man who was in all probability torn between boredom or the enjoyable of constructing three lieutenants look incompetent,” Bob wrote. “Typically these expeditions deteriorated into fairly a scene. I used to be instructed that the Baltimore police had quite a lot of calls from individuals who witnessed close to wrestling matches by the pissed off lieutenants.”
In a supreme irony, Juan Gallastegui, the director of the Rockville Live performance Band — the topic of Thursday’s column — has examined optimistic for covid. Which means the March 13 live performance can be performed by Len Morse and won’t embody “The Yr 2020,” the composition written by Johan de Meij in honor of these misplaced to covid. That piece of music can be a part of the band’s April 10 efficiency.