Camp Ritchie

Camp Ritchie (the Military Intelligence Training Center, or MITC) was a U.S. Army intelligence school at Cascade in Washington County, Maryland, during World War II. From 1942 it trained interrogators, order-of-battle specialists, photo interpreters, and related personnel. Graduates are commonly called Ritchie Boys.

Overview

Located in Washington County, Maryland near the Pennsylvania border, the site began as a resort area in the late 1800s before becoming a Maryland National Guard training site in 1926. In 1942, during World War II, it was transformed into the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Training Center (MITC), formally activated on 19 June 1942 (cadre had begun arriving earlier). Soldiers trained there in interrogation, counterintelligence, investigation, and psychological warfare.

Camp Ritchie is best known as the training ground for the “Ritchie Boys,” a specialized group of intelligence soldiers—many of them European immigrants and refugees—whose language skills and cultural knowledge made them invaluable in gathering intelligence and supporting Allied operations. The camp’s mission, reflected in its motto “Fas es ab hoste doceri” (“It is a duty to study the enemy”), centered on understanding and defeating enemy forces through intelligence.

Today, Camp Ritchie is recognized for its critical role in shaping modern U.S. military intelligence and for preparing the Ritchie Boys, who contributed significantly to the Allied victory in World War II.

Who trained there

About 20,000 men and roughly 2,000 Women’s Army Corps (WAC) members trained for Army intelligence work at Camp Ritchie (about 22,000 in all). Many were assigned because they spoke German, French, Italian, Polish, or another language the Army needed. Some were German- or Austrian-born Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi persecution; others were U.S.-born soldiers whose language skills were discovered after they enlisted or were drafted and who arrived on secret orders.

Training covered interrogation, counterintelligence, order of battle, psychological warfare, and related skills. Many graduates later served in the U.S. Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC). About 900 also received specialized training at Camp Sharpe near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (often linked to Mobile Radio Broadcasting / psychological-warfare work — see Books and Ritchie Boy Programs). The 3rd Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company was activated at Camp Ritchie on 29 December 1943; specialized MRBC training commonly continued at Camp Sharpe.

In the field

Europe

After the United States entered the war against Germany, many Ritchie Boys reached Europe beginning around D-Day (6 June 1944) and in the months that followed. Working near the front at corps and army levels, they interrogated prisoners and defectors, tracked German units and plans, and supported psychological-warfare efforts (leaflets, radio, and related means) meant to weaken resistance.

A classified postwar U.S. Army assessment found that nearly 60% of the credible intelligence gathered in the European theater came from the Ritchie Boys. After the war, many served as translators and interrogators at the Nuremberg trials.

General Oscar Koch (Patton’s G-2) is among those who later acknowledged that advance warning of the German Ardennes offensive drew on information from Military Intelligence Service units — a theme developed at length on Secret Heroes/Battle of the Bulge.

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 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.)

Prisoners of war and the Hill Project

During the war years (into 1947) Camp Ritchie also housed prisoner-of-war compounds. Detainees included German and Italian prisoners, among them men taken in the North African campaign.

After Germany’s surrender, the post hosted a classified effort known as the Hill Project, in which selected German prisoners of war—including former Wehrmacht officers—worked with Allied personnel on research meant to improve military security in Europe, study German intelligence methods in detail, and (until Japan’s surrender) support the war against Japan. Only about 150 POWs worked directly on the project; by March 1946 more than 1,500 POWs were estimated to be at Ritchie, many connected in some way with that work.

After the war — Fort Ritchie and the museum

The post was later known as Fort Ritchie and closed in 1998 under the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. Following later redevelopment of the site, a museum and educational center opened on 9 June 2023 to commemorate the Ritchie Boys and the history of the post. See also Ritchie History Museum and Congressional Gold Medal.

Classes and teams on this wiki

The camp’s classes are listed as Class 1 through Class 31. Individual soldier articles use those class numbers in the infobox. IPW and MII team codes are listed under Category:Teams.

For founding history, the camp flag and coat-of-arms, and how the MITC was established, see Camp Ritchie Background. Trainee voices about everyday camp life are collected on Life in Camp Ritchie. Early staff and faculty from Dan Gross’s working list are on Camp Ritchie Faculty. Camp-wide training manuals and related PDFs live on Training materials.

Sources

• English Wikipedia, Fort Ritchie — Camp Ritchie section (POW compounds; Nisei women / PACMIRS; 3rd MRBC activation; Hill Project overview)
• Japanese American Veterans Association — Japanese American Women in World War II (Nisei women MIS linguists / PACMIRS at Camp Ritchie)
• Derek R. Mallett, “Western Allied Intelligence and the German Military Document Section, 1945–6,” Journal of Contemporary History 46, no. 2 (2011): 390–391 (Hill Project / German POWs at Camp Ritchie)
• 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 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.

See also

• Contents
• FAQ
• Introduction
• The Stories
• Camp Ritchie Background
• Life in Camp Ritchie
• Secret Heroes/Battle of the Bulge
• Camp Ritchie Faculty
• Training materials
• By The Numbers
• Notable Ritchie Boys
• Category:Classes
• Category:Teams