World War II in Wilmington, NC

Again, of all the cities and communities in the United States, I doubt that there is any that is doing more with their World War II heritage than Wilmington, North Carolina. They even have a group that concentrates on it called the Wilmington Homefront Heritage Coalition which recently installed a German POW sign in the lobby of the USO Building located at 10th and Ann streets..

It was painted on the mess hall by German prisoners and originally in the Swift and Co. fertilizer plant across the Cape Fear River on US-421. The plant closed in the early 1970s and was donated to the Coalition earlier this year. When the building was torn down, it was saved.

These Germans were part of Rommel's Afrika Korps and among 550 prisoners interred in and around Wilmington during the war. None tried to escape and they were returned to Germany in 1946.

The Little-known US Homefront. --Cooter