World War II, The South

and Mississippi

Southern (and Western)

Training• Most major land and air force training installations were formed in the southern or western United States. The climate in these areas allowed for more training, uninterrupted by severe cold weather.

• Sanitation among the southern camps was surprisingly good during both world wars, despite the sub-tropical climate in some areas. Camp Shelby was among the best camps in sanitation during both World Wars.

• The design of Army installations upheld racial segregation in quarters, mess (dining) and recreation areas. This is often attributed as a reflection of the regions where the bases were established most often.

4th Service Command• Established in 1942 to operate Army and Army Air Forces bases in the southeastern United States. The 4th Service Command replaced an Army field corps, V Corps, that later served in Europe during the war.

• Largest of the troop commands in personnel (176,000)

• Contained the two largest bases in the United States by troop capacity and geographic size: Fort Benning, Georgia and Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

• Among the most installations overall of nine (9) Service Commands, had the most Army installations but fewer Air Force installations than most other commands.

• A majority of the women serving in the Women’s Army Corps were assigned to support training installations within the various Service Commands.

Camp Shelby

• Camp Shelby was used by the Army from 1937-1941 as part of the Protective Mobilization Maneuvers and peace time draft/activation of reserves training.

• When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, there were over 40,000 soldiers already in training at Camp Shelby.

• Second only to Fort Benning, Georgia in geographic size and troop capacity (90,000). During its peak operational period, 1943-1945, Camp Shelby regularly had over 105,000 military and civilian personnel on site. This made Camp Shelby the largest “city” in Mississippi at the time.

• Nine divisions, each about 14,000 men, trained at Camp Shelby as well as dozens of smaller units. Counting the induction and separation stations at Camp Shelby, approximately 700,000 American soldiers trained at the camp during the war.

Segregated Minorities in

Service

• African Americans and Japanese Americans were racially segregated into separate units. Army practice rarely allowed advancement above company- grade officers (lieutenants and captains) for African Americans and Japanese Americans, but there were exceptions. Field officers and unit commanders were Caucasians for segregated units.

• Most African American segregated combat units did not train in the southern United States. Two Army infantry divisions, the 92nd and 93rd, were comprised of African American soldiers both trained primarily at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

• All Japanese American combat arms soldiers were trained at Camp Shelby until the segregation restrictions for them were lifted in 1945. Japanese Americans, although subject to racial segregation within the Army, were treated as “legal Caucasians” when travelling outside Camp Shelby in Mississippi and Alabama.

• Latinos, Chinese Americans and Native Americans were not subject to segregated service conditions by the Army.

African Americans at Camp

Shelby

• Very few African American soldiers trained at Camp Shelby for wartime service. There was a significant number of African American soldiers assigned to the operation of the camp throughout the war.

• A African American USO Club was built on 6th Street in Hattiesburg for the soldiers concurrently with one for Caucasian soldiers. Camp Shelby’s neighboring city offered something most other installations in Mississippi did not, an economically thriving African American community. In this way, African American soldiers at Camp Shelby had a refuge of sorts from some of the segregation practices of Mississippi at the time.

• Prominent African Americans visited Camp Shelby during the war. In 1942, famed Olympic athlete Jesse Owens visited the camp along with an Army inspection team to ensure African American accommodations were equal to those for Caucasian soldiers. In 1944, heavy weight boxing champion Joe Lewis paid a visit to the camp.

A Curious Affair

• In 1943, Brigadier General Matthew Halloran, commanding general of Camp Shelby, secured from the city leaders of Hattiesburg that Japanese American soldiers would be treated in all respects as Caucasians while visiting the city. This became general throughout Mississippi during the course of the war.

• Concurrent with General Halloran’s efforts, Mr. Earl Finch of Hattiesburg was busily soliciting local residents and Hawaiians to raise money for an “Aloha Club.” Most Japanese American soldiers were volunteers from Hawaii. A ranch near Camp Shelby was bought as a refuge and resort for the Japanese Americans to shield them from Mississippi’s racially discriminatory laws.

• General Halloran and Mr. Finch were at odds on how to best serve the Japanese American soldiers. Exchanges became heated and an officer from the War Department had to intervene.

Camp Van Dorn

• Camp Van Dorn was a single division training camp located near Centreville.

• Two divisions, the 63rd and 99th Infantry Divisions, trained at the camp during the war.

• Among the first units to arrive was the African American 364th Infantry Regiment. This regiment is the focus of rumors of a massacre of African American soldiers by local civilians and Caucasian soldiers. The topic was exploited by a book by Carroll Case, The Slaughter (1998) which prompted an investigation by the Army. The Army accounted for all soldiers of the 364th Infantry Regiment in a 2001 investigative report, disproving the alleged atrocity.

• A significant portion of Camp Van Dorn’s operational staff were African American soldiers throughout the war.

Camp McCain

• Camp McCain was a single division training camp located near Grenada. The camp still exists today as a Army National Guard training center.

• Two divisions, the 87th and 94th Infantry Divisions, trained at the camp during the war.

• The sharpest clash between African American soldiers from Camp McCain and Caucasian Mississippians occurred near Duck Hill where shots were exchanged, but without casualties.

• Life magazine published “Life at Camp McCain” in November 1943 which gives an excellent view of conditions there during World War II.

SS HATTIESBURG VICTORY

Naval and Maritime

•Mississippi’s small Gulf Coast hosted several important naval and maritime bases including the 101st Naval Construction Battalion station in Gulfport, a seaplane base in Biloxi as well as Ingalls Shipyard and the Merchant Marine Academy in Pass Christian.

Cat Island Dog Training

Center•The War Dog Training Center on Cat Island was one of three (3) installations in the United States that provided trained dogs to the Army and Marine Corps during the war.

•A shameful episode occurred in 1943 when a platoon of Japanese American soldiers from Camp Shelby were brought to Cat Island so the dogs could learn to “sniff out” Japanese soldiers.

Army Air Bases

•There were eleven (11) Army Air Bases in Mississippi during World War II, as well as dozens of auxiliary air fields.

•Jackson Army Air Base hosted the 35th Army Air Base Unit, providing a primary pilot training program. In May 1942, the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School was established at the base to train Dutch and “Javanese” (modern Indonesian) pilots, aircrew and ground crew. Like Japanese Americans at Camp Shelby, the Dutch-Javanese personnel were treated as Caucasians when travelling in Mississippi. The Dutch restricted Javanese personnel from being trained as pilots, but allowed them to train in other aircrew positions.

•Keesler Air Force Base continues to serve as an Air Force training base today. During World War II, its role was much the same as today, but included basic training as well as technical training. Playwright Neil Simon’s experience during the war inspired his play Biloxi Blues.

Southern Exposure

•Millions of Americans trained in the South during World War II. This is one of the great “meet and greets” among Americans of all time.

•Full employment for the local community – and a great change from the Depression conditions. But for some communities, overcrowding and exposure to more urban problems, including overcrowding, vices and other crime.

•Marriages among Southern ladies and soldiers in training – from outside the South - were very common. Interracial marriages of Caucasian women with Japanese American and Dutch-Javanese men occurred during the period.

•Southern temperance was tested during the war, with the demands of soldiers for beer outpacing the resistance of the conservative population of Mississippi.

•With the return of thousands of African American veterans from war, tolerance of continued racial discrimination was nearing its end.