Camp Sharpe Explained

Camp George M. Sharpe
Location:Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Country:United States
Type:Training facility
POW Camp
Coordinates:39.8163°N -77.2358°W
Pushpin Map:USA Pennsylvania
Pushpin Map Caption:Location of Camp Sharpe in Adams County, PA
Pushpin Relief:yes
Pushpin Label:Camp Sharpe
Open To Public:Yes
Builder:War Manpower Commission[1]
Fate:Removed and land absorbed into the Gettysburg NMP
Events:World War II
Past Commanders:Capt. Laurence Thomas (1944-45)
Capt. James W. Copley (1945-46)
Occupants:2nd-5th Mobile Radio Broadcast Cos., Psychological Warfare Division (1944–1945)[2] (several hundred soldiers,[3]

Camp Sharpe was a World War II military installation located on the Gettysburg Battlefield that trained soldiers for psychological operations (e.g., morale operations)[4] in the European Theater of Operations (see Operation Cornflakes & Frontpost newspaper).

History

Adjacent to Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp NP-2 in McMillan Woods,[5] Camp Sharpe used camp CCC NP-1 and was located "in a muddy hollow at the bottom of a slanting road".[6] A USO facility for Camp Sharpe soldiers was located at the former Hill house on Chambersburg Street in nearby Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

After Camp Sharpe closed in 1944, USO operations were moved sometime around January 1945 to "the recreation center for the guards" of the Gettysburg POW camp.[7] The former camp was used for migrant workers in the summer of 1945.https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mY0lAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vfIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6501,2234355&dq=camp-sharpe+gettysburg

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. News: Tells How War Prisoners Are Treated Here. 27 September 2015. Gettysburg Times. 38. 14 July 1944. 4.
  2. Web site: Ford . Tom . 12 January 2007 . Good Ol' Times: Readers Reminisce About Days Gone By . Gettysburg Times. 2010-02-04.
  3. Web site: 22 July 1944 . Here and There . Gettysburg, Pennsylvania . Star and Sentinel . 2010-01-31.
  4. Book: Hutchinson, Peter . Stefan Heym: the perpetual dissident . 39 . 2010-01-31. (see also Stefan Heym)
  5. Web site: 19 October 1946 . Fire Company Has Trouble With Truck . 2010-02-01.
  6. Book: Edel, Leon . Leon Edel . The visitable past: a wartime memoir . January 2000 . 22 . 9780824824310 . 2010-01-31.
  7. Web site: 13 December 1944 . Teen-Canteen gets USO Room to January 1 . Gettysburg Times . 2010-02-01.