From the My Reporter Column in the Jan. 15th Wilmington Star-News.
Between February 1944 and April 1946, there were three German prisoner of War camps in the Wilmington area.
The first group of 250 Germans arrived February 7, 1944 and were held in a camp at the intersection of Carolina Beach Road and shipyard Boulevard. They had been captured in North Africa in 1943 (probably members of Rommel's Afrika Korps).
By September 1944, the camp had become overcrowded and a second one opened in a four-block area around 8th and Ann streets. During World War I it had been a Marine hospital. By October, this camp was open and all prisoners were transferred there and the first one shut down.
These prisoners were put to work in local sawmills, fertilizer plants and farms. A third group worked in the officer's mess and grounds keeping at the Bluethenthal Army Airbase, now Wilmington International Airport.
Local citizens took Sunday drives out to see the prisoners.
The Life of a German POW in the US. --Cooter
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