Camp Sharpe

Not to be confused with the 1912 Camp Sharpe of Delaware, Ohio.

Camp George M. Sharpe
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in United States
Camp Sharpe Location of Camp Sharpe in Adams County, PA
Coordinates	39°48′58.723″N 77°14′8.916″W
Type	Training facility POW Camp
Site information
Owner	Department of Defense (during operations) National Park Service (after closure)
Operator	United States Army
Open to the public	Yes
Site history
Built	May 1944 (1944-05)
Built by	War Manpower Commission[1]
Fate	Removed and land absorbed into the Gettysburg NMP
Demolished	1947 (1947)
Events	World War II
Garrison information
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.[1]

Further reading

• Florian Traussnig: Die Psychokrieger aus Camp Sharpe: Österreicher als Kampfpropagandisten der US-Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg, Böhlau 2020, ISBN 9783205210191

References

1. "Tells How War Prisoners Are Treated Here". Gettysburg Times. No. 38. 14 July 1944. p. 4. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
2. Ford, Tom (12 January 2007). "Good Ol' Times: Readers Reminisce About Days Gone By". Gettysburg Times. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
3. "Here and There". Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Star and Sentinel. 22 July 1944. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
4. Hutchinson, Peter. Stefan Heym: the perpetual dissident. p. 39. Retrieved 31 January 2010. (see also Stefan Heym)
5. "Fire Company Has Trouble With Truck". 19 October 1946. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
6. Edel, Leon (January 2000). The visitable past: a wartime memoir. p. 22. ISBN 9780824824310. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
7. "Teen-Canteen gets USO Room to January 1". Gettysburg Times. 13 December 1944. Retrieved 1 February 2010.