Camp Ritchie: Difference between revisions
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=== Pacific === | === Pacific === | ||
Camp Ritchie also trained more than '''500''' Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) soldiers for document work connected with the Pacific war, including PACMIRS (Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section). '''Nisei women''' in the Military Intelligence Service likewise completed rigorous Japanese military-language training and were often assigned to PACMIRS at Camp Ritchie to work captured Japanese documents. Captured Japanese materials were studied at the camp; one well-known episode involves [[Yamane, Kazuo E. (30101877)|Kazuo E. Yamane]] identifying Japanese armory meeting notes among crates of documents from Saipan, which helped the War Department locate and strike armories. (See also the 2017 film ''Proof of Loyalty: Kazuo Yamane and the Nisei Soldiers of Hawaii''.) A 1946 MISLS yearbook states that of '''35''' WAC graduates at the November 1945 commencement, '''21''' were transferred to Camp Ritchie (with remaining graduates following when the WAC Detachment deactivated in February 1946)—matching Wikipedia’s note that about twenty-one MISLS women translator graduates went to PACMIRS work there (see [[Nisei and Pacific#MISLS WAC Detachment and Camp Ritchie|Nisei and Pacific]]). In 1945 the camp also formed '''Mobile Intelligence Training Units''' (MITU) for Army Ground Forces redeployment training: small teams in which Nisei demonstrated Japanese squad tactics and took part in orientation plays (some teams included veterans of the 442nd Combat Team). See [[Nisei and Pacific#Mobile Intelligence Training Units (MITU), 1945|Nisei and Pacific]]. | Camp Ritchie also trained more than '''500''' Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) soldiers for document work connected with the Pacific war, including PACMIRS (Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section). '''Nisei women''' in the Military Intelligence Service likewise completed rigorous Japanese military-language training and were often assigned to PACMIRS at Camp Ritchie to work captured Japanese documents. Captured Japanese materials were studied at the camp; one well-known episode involves [[Yamane, Kazuo E. (30101877)|Kazuo E. Yamane]] identifying Japanese armory meeting notes among crates of documents from Saipan, which helped the War Department locate and strike armories. (See also the 2017 film ''Proof of Loyalty: Kazuo Yamane and the Nisei Soldiers of Hawaii''.) A 1946 MISLS yearbook states that of '''35''' WAC graduates at the November 1945 commencement, '''21''' were transferred to Camp Ritchie (with remaining graduates following when the WAC Detachment deactivated in February 1946)—matching Wikipedia’s note that about twenty-one MISLS women translator graduates went to PACMIRS work there (see [[Nisei and Pacific#MISLS WAC Detachment and Camp Ritchie|Nisei and Pacific]]). In 1945 the camp also formed '''Mobile Intelligence Training Units''' (MITU) for Army Ground Forces redeployment training: small teams in which Nisei demonstrated Japanese squad tactics and took part in orientation plays (some teams included veterans of the 442nd Combat Team). See [[Nisei and Pacific#Mobile Intelligence Training Units (MITU), 1945|Nisei and Pacific]]. | ||
== Training methods (wartime MITC) == | |||
Early classes (1942) trained '''generalist''' intelligence soldiers—map work, weather and terrain, interrogation, and aerial photography—often while the post was still being expanded from National Guard use. After experience from North Africa, the curriculum shifted toward '''specialists''' (for example dedicated photo interpreters), longer hours on enemy culture and unit identification, and more realistic training aids: mock German / Italian / Japanese sectors, a staged “Nazi rally” arena, a cut-away farmhouse for document-search demonstrations, and (by 1944) Japanese tactics courses using captured gear and Nisei demonstrators. Local Maryland and Pennsylvania towns were used for mapping and war-game “invasions.” See also [[The Stories/Life in Camp Ritchie|Life in Camp Ritchie]] and [[Nisei and Pacific]]. | |||
== Prisoners of war and the Hill Project == | == Prisoners of war and the Hill Project == | ||
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* John Whiteclay Chambers II, “OSS Training Areas in the National Park Service” (footnote 121) — MITC formally activated 19 June 1942; cites trainee accounts including Richard Warren Seltzer, Sr., and Lewis Bloom | * John Whiteclay Chambers II, “OSS Training Areas in the National Park Service” (footnote 121) — MITC formally activated 19 June 1942; cites trainee accounts including Richard Warren Seltzer, Sr., and Lewis Bloom | ||
Overview figures and field roles above draw in part on the English Wikipedia article [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritchie_Boys Ritchie Boys] and the sources cited there (including Army intelligence histories and secondary works such as Bruce Henderson, ''Sons and Soldiers''). Roster counts and class structure on this wiki follow the Camp Ritchie class data described on [[About the data]] and [[By The Numbers]]. | Overview figures and field roles above draw in part on the English Wikipedia article [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritchie_Boys Ritchie Boys] and the sources cited there (including Army intelligence histories and secondary works such as Bruce Henderson, ''Sons and Soldiers''). Roster counts and class structure on this wiki follow the Camp Ritchie class data described on [[About the data]] and [[By The Numbers]]. | ||
* [https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ghj/vol17/iss1/5 Kevin M. Aughinbaugh, “The Castle of Intelligence: Camp Ritchie Maryland and the Military Intelligence Training Center during the Second World War,” ''The Gettysburg Historical Journal'' 17 (2018), art. 5] ([https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1201&context=ghj PDF]) | |||
== See also == | == See also == | ||