Nostalgia & History > From WWII

In 1944-45  German POW's were in Ft Worth Tx doing railroad work (and probably other types of work)  See this Ft Worth Star-Telegram article. The picture was made at the Quarter Master Depot which was responsible for furninshing anything our troops needed.  It had a large railroad yard and many sidings going to many buildings and had its own switcher.  It was served by the Santa Fe and the MKT.  During WWII and the Korean War it was a busy, busy place.

The two railroads would bring in their cars and leave them in the yard and then pick  up  the out bound cars.  The depot's own switcher did all the rest.

This was also the place where x-Texas & Pacific  2-10-4 # 610 was housed in the late 1970's to early 1980's before going to Palestine Tx.
 

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Interesting stories of German POW's in Huntley here outside of Chicago.  They worked at canning factories.  Mostly Africa Corp.  They would do woodwork on the side in exchange for chocolate or cigarettes.  Sundays they would march out of camp and go pretty much on their honor to different churches.  A story of POW very fluent in English who helped local student in his English.
Many came back later to visit friends they made.  They idolized Rommel but generally were not poitical.

Bob

Most, if not all of the German POW's sent here to the U.S. were taken by train across country to their ultimate detention facilities. Travel was almost all by train. They were amazed at the industrial cities they passed and became suddenly aware of America's inductrial capability, a point that was unknown to them, and probbably withheld by the German hierarchy. They knew then that Germany had little chance of defeating America.

rev66vette Wrote:
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> Most, if not all of the German POW's sent here to
> the U.S. were taken by train across country to
> their ultimate detention facilities. Travel was
> almost all by train. They were amazed at the
> industrial cities they passed and became suddenly
> aware of America's inductrial capability, a point
> that was unknown to them, and probbably withheld
> by the German hierarchy. They knew then that
> Germany had little chance of defeating America.

Many Afrika Korps soldiers and some Italian prisoners were assigned to work in the sugar cane fields of south Florida, around Clewiston and Belle Glade. They also had unsupervised liberty on Sundays, and would often go for lunch, etc in town.  The irony that they could eat in the restaurants and their Black US Army guards could not eat in these restaurants was noted by the locals.

Some of the prisoners died in Florida. They are buried in the German and Italian military cemeteries at Fort Gordon in Georgia, along with prisoners taken later in the war.

We used to have a regular rider on our steam excursions who had been a German detainee in the US. 
He told me he was so happy he was captured as when he came to the US he got a new pair of shoes.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

A fair number of the German and Italian POW's immigrated to the US after the war. I guess they liked what they saw.

PHall Wrote:
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> A fair number of the German and Italian POW's
> immigrated to the US after the war. I guess they
> liked what they saw.

I've heard the same about the Calgary area.

TAW

And you wonder why the BLM movement is still going on today ?  This is an ongoing shame in this country !   

mrsaxtonsr Wrote:
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> And you wonder why the BLM movement is still going
> on today ?  This is an ongoing shame in this
> country !   

I surely agree, i.e the BLM movement is DEFINITELY a "shame in this country"! 

Never fear, there is plenty of shame to go around in our America.  We did not invent shame or shameful behavior, it's as old as time itself.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Many camps in California....

http://militarymuseum.org/PWcamps.html

Another good Ft Worth story and picture.
Bill in Ft Worth

Fort Wayne had them too, held in a camp right next to the PRR Piqua Yard after the railroad battalions based there were sent overseas.  Fort Wayne has always had a large German population, and I believe some of the locals would make care packages for the prisoners.   Just to illustrate the difference in how prisoners were treated, My father-in-law and his brother were in the German Army late in the war.  My father-in-law was captured by the Russians, held for slave labor for seven years after the war ended and was nearly starved to death.  His brother was captured by the British, had quite the easy time of it and was released to go home soon after the war ended.  Both emigrated to the US with other family members in 1956. They had ended up on the wrong side of the wall after the war.

As Tom said, the Quartermaster Depot had its own switcher.   As the war was winding down, the switcher was former Claiborne-Polk 4-6-0 #7, a former T&P D-9 #333 photographed on August 22, 1945

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Saw on line news today that two people defusing WW2 bombs were recently killed. They were from Australia and New Zealand.

Put yourself in the position of a Black GI returning from fighting for his country during WWII, only to find that many of the great American restaurants, hotels and, yes, even railroad cars were resered for Whites Only.

HotWater Wrote:
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> mrsaxtonsr Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > And you wonder why the BLM movement is still
> going
> > on today ?  This is an ongoing shame in this
> > country !   
>
> I surely agree, i.e the BLM movement is DEFINITELY
> a "shame in this country"! 

Your point would be well taken if BLM had ANYTHING to do BL.  BLM is just a front for radical anti-American socialists, and they don't really hide that fact.  Two of the founders of the organization admitted to being devout Marxists in an interview a couple of years ago.  Sorry for the "political content" but I didn't want that one to go unchallenged.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/20 10:00 by junctiontower.

Why the hell are we talking about BLM on Train Orders?
You guys want to argue about it, take this to your favorite political "discussion" board.
Most of come here to get away from politics and stuff for a while.

"Most of come here to get away from politics".
Correct.
Bill in Ft Worth

Overview of German POWs in Texas. Fort Crockett in Galveston housed a large number and when the camp was downsized after the war a housing development was built where the POW tents were...a friend of mine's house sits on the site.


https://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/when-afrika-korps-came-texas-world-war-ii-pows-lone-star-state

My friend works for NOAA Fisheries where her lab isin one of thelast buildings left of the fort. She sent me this picture that was in an employee newsletter of wartime workers at Fort Crockett. She recognized the Chessie calendar on the wall since I give her a Chessie calendar each Christmas (obviously we both have cats). Interestingly the month highlighted has one of my favorite wartime drawings.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/20 11:04 by TikiOwl.

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