Camp Ritchie - World War II

The buildings of Fort Ritchie are remnants of a previous era. From the time the fort was active in 1926 until 1998 when it was closed, this 632-acre camp bustled with military life and actions. One such time that stands out is World War II when Fort Ritchie hosted thousands of men and some women in intelligence training to strengthen the United States Army’s foreign intelligence. The fort experienced many changes during this formidable period, most especially with the construction of various buildings to fill their needs.

This study highlights specific buildings of Fort Ritchie used during wartime, some of which no longer remain standing. While we can learn about what the students did for the war effort, examining how the military used the buildings and further shaped the fort for their purposes helps us better understand how the fort functioned in supporting intelligence efforts. Not only that, we’re able to look through a window into the lives of the men and women who lived and studied there, who then went on to impact the world with their knowledge gained at Fort Ritchie.

Background

Fort Ritchie, better known in the war years as Camp Ritchie, is nestled together with the town of Highfield-Cascade deep in the Maryland woods north of the Catoctin State Forest. The fort sits just below 1400 ft. elevation in the Blue Ridge Mountain range, while the Pennsylvania border is a few miles to the north. Before the creation of Camp Ritchie, the manmade lakes made an excellent location for ice harvesting and at the turn of the century supported Buena Vista, one of the southernmost ice companies in the country.

The bowl-shaped valley surrounded by forest also served as an ideal location to build a training camp which the Maryland National Guard did in 1926. They named the camp after the current state governor at the time, Albert C. Ritchie. A few reasons made this location ideal. Train and telegraph lines previously used for the ice industry were already in place, and Cascade was within easy reach of Washington D.C.

In 1941, the U.S. Army rented Camp Ritchie from the Maryland National Guard for the duration of the war. Within its bounds ran a secret Military Intelligence Training Camp (MITC).

The MITC was formed to fill the desperate need for trained intelligence officers to help in the war effort around the world. Understanding the enemy was of prime importance in giving an advantage on the battlefield, for leaders to make the right decisions, and in interrogating prisoners with enough knowledge to manipulate them or make sense of what they revealed. A key component of this intelligence training was the ability to speak a foreign language useful to the war effort. In order to recruit the right sorts of men for the job, the U.S. Army began flagging soldiers whose records showed knowledge of one or more foreign languages and brought them to Camp Ritchie in groups, or classes.

Thirty-one classes of “Ritchie Boys” passed through the intensive eight week training courses offered at the camp from 1942-1945. Because England already had a well-oiled intelligence service, British colonel Thomas Robbins was brought in to oversee instruction. These courses consisted of:

o German Army Organization

o Italian Army Organization

o Order of Battle (divisions and units – updated constantly)

o Morse Code

o Terrain and Aerial Intelligence

o Read German Documents

o Field Exercises

o Close Hand-to-Hand Combat

o Visual Demonstrations 1

And while not everyone graduated, they still went on to use what they learned in their studies elsewhere in the theater of war. Graduates totaling 11,637 men were then sent off to Europe and the Pacific. Ritchie Boys were usually attached to specific companies, but operated on their own using the valuable skills they learned at Camp Ritchie. These skills included interrogation of prisoners (IPW), intelligence using the enemy’s Order of Battle and weapons (MIRS), aerial photography analysis, and much more.

The Composite School Unit (CSU) was an especially unique group at Camp Ritchie. These multi-lingual men were assigned to assist in creating realistic training scenarios to train the entire body of students. This included dressing in captured German or Japanese uniforms, weapons included, and playing the part of the enemy for war games, acting out interrogation of prisoner situations, and thoroughly understanding the Axis Order of Battle, or how armies were organized. In essence, they were responsible for creating as realistic an atmosphere as possible for what students might encounter overseas.

Unfortunately, one aspect of the CSU made for some insulting and demeaning situations with Japanese Americans and even Native Americans. Many times they were expected to play the role of the Japanese enemy because they looked the part. While there is photographic evidence that some complied, others flat out refused.

“They asked us to wear Japanese uniforms, carry Japanese weapons, and stage demonstrations of Japanese infantry tactics to troops at IRTCs [infantry replacement training centers]. We were shocked and dismayed and disgusted, and we all refused. A different officer tried asking us again, in a less offensive way. We refused again.” — Memories of Norman Ikari, Historynet.com article by Gene Santoro, 2007

Read the full article here .

Lake Royer with “Clubhouse” and Other Buildings in Background, Maryland State Archives

The two things that struck trainees the most about Camp Ritchie were the resort-like feel of its location and being surrounded by the large variety of languages spoken freely around the camp. In a German and Japanese-phobic country at war, this international aspect no doubt created a welcoming environment for immigrants and native-speakers.

Immigrants and Americans from various backgrounds were recruited for their language skills and the deep understanding of their home country’s complex cultures. Many foreign nationalities passed through Camp Ritchie: Germans (2,000 of whom were Jewish immigrants), French, Russians, Norwegians, Arabs, Turks, Dutch, Jamaicans, Canadians, British, and Greeks with students being fluent in many more languages. Mexican Americans, Black Americans, Japanese Americans, and 200 Native Americans also trained at Camp Ritchie. The Black Americans and Native Americans had segregated quarters from the rest of the men and the Black men ate separately as well. 2 Beginning in September 1943, 200 enlisted women from the Women’s Auxiliary Corps (WACs) were stationed at the fort to participate in intelligence training and to fill clerical and other needed staff positions. A few women even became instructors.

It’s also important to note that German and Italian POWs were held at Camp Ritchie. They were put to work around the camp, such as in the kitchens, and German POWs were sometimes used as the German enemy in demonstrations and exercises.

The MITC maintained a friendly relationship with the state forest service and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) camp established 5 miles southeast within the Catoctin State Forest. For rifle and submachine gun training, the OSS soldiers were sent to Camp Ritchie until 1943 when they built their own range. Some Ritchie Boy veterans remember training at a “House of Horrors”, a booby-trapped building with pop-up papier-mâché enemy soldiers. 3 It’s unknown whether there was one located at Camp Ritchie, but the OSS camp designed and operated one for training their soldiers, so it’s likely Camp Ritchie students traveled the short distance to use it for training as well.

OSS House of Horrors training film – National Park Service

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Part 1