Camp Beale POW camp

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

Camp Beale was founded in 1942 it consisted of 86,000 acres of grassland and rolling hills. The camp was home for the 81st and 96th Infantry Divisions during World War II (WWI) over 60,000 soldiers. Camp Beale also housed a 1,000-bed hospital and prisoners of war.

Images

POW

Prisoners of War Canteen

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

During World War II the American military captured enemy soldiers and made them prisoners of war (POW). A prisoner of war is a person who is captured and held by an enemy during war, especially a member of the armed forces otherwise know as POW's. Having prisoner's of war called for areas where members could be contained. These areas were called prisoner of war camps.

Camp Beale opened a German prisoner of war camp. To start off the camp they turned dormitories and storehouses into camps. The amount of prisoners held by the base grew up 1200 German prisoners. The camp had seventeen barracks, four mess halls, a canteen, six storehouses and a chapel. All German POW's at Beale also provided manpower for all of the base operations.

By July 1946, all camps were closed.

Sources

http://www.beale.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=3938