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WORLD WAR TWO PRISONER OF
WAR LONG UNDERWEAR FOUND IN STORAGE AT FORT SAM HOUSTON,
TEXAS – VERY SCARCE POW ARTIFACTS:
During the first months that the United States was
involved in World War Two, an estimated 2,000 prisoners
of war (POW) were brought to the U.S. By the fall of
1942, the need to relieve the overcrowded POW camps
overseas caused the US to create a regulated internment
program. The immediate effort transported some 50,000
POWs held by the British in North Africa to the US and
confined in camps at major military posts, reactivated
Civilian Conservation Corps camps, and at civilian
facilities such as race tracks and fairgrounds. The flow
of POW's from Europe and the Pacific continued to grow
as the war progressed, and with it the need for
additional larger and more specifically planned
facilities.
So it was that Fort Sam
Houston, located on a substantial reservation of land on
the northeast side of downtown San Antonio, Texas, came
to house one of the largest of these POW camps within
the continental United States, housing over 4,000
Austrian, German, Italian and Japanese prisoners. Once
located north of the present boundaries of the Ft. Sam
Houston National Cemetery, no vestiges of the camp
remain – the last buildings and foundations giving way
to the modernization of the post. While most of the
prisoners were repatriated to their home nations at the
end of the war, 144 soldiers who died in the camp are
interned at the National Cemetery, each grave marked by
the standard marble headstone one sees in any military
cemetery.
As the internment system
developed, the US military custodians and the civilian
populations surrounding the camps recognized that the
prisoners represented a valuable manpower pool and
finding activities to occupy their time was in the best
interest of good order in the camps. A program was
launched allowing the POW’s to volunteer for employment
at business, manufacturing, and agricultural operations
local to the camps. The civilian concerns paid
$1.60/hr. for each POW, half of which was retained by
the government for the cost of feeding, housing,
transportation to the job site and guarding the
prisoners in these work parties and the other half was
held on account for the prisoner. A limited amount was
paid to the POW each month in camp canteen script to
prevent the internees from building a stock of US
currency which might be used to aid an escape attempt,
with the balance of his pay held in trust which was paid
to them when they were repatriated at the end of the
war. A significant number of prisoners returned home
with a considerable nest egg as the result of this work
and savings program.
Whether within the confines
of the camp, engaged in work parties around the
surrounding military post, or on one of the civilian
employment crews, the POW’s clothing was well marked
with a large “PW” on the front and back of the
shirt or jacket, and often on the pants and hats as
well, again to inhibit any attempts to escape. As their
original uniforms wore out the POW’s were issued
obsolete US Army working uniforms such as the blue
dungaree shirts, trousers and hats of the 1930’s, as
well as underwear, socks and footwear. In hot climates
such as south Texas even the cotton dungaree shirts
would be uncomfortable and it is likely the POW’s
stripped down to their underwear shirts, necessitating
that these
long handles be marked “PW”
as well.
When the war ended and the
POW’s were repatriated to their home nations, or in the
case of some, were allowed to remain in the US and
establish lives here, they had no further use of this
“PW” marked clothing. While one would expect that most
of the used clothing was destroyed once it was turned
in, apparently like so many other things the army
decided some of the marked clothing was worth keeping,
at least some small quantity of it, in anticipation of a
future need.
In the late 1960’s Ft. Sam
Houston was demolishing a stand of World War One and Two
vintage barracks and warehouses in preparation for new
construction projects. In one of these buildings a
small long-forgotten quantity of these suits of long
underwear was found, each bearing at least one “PW”
stencil, and some so marked in several locations on the
suit. A local collector who had contacts on the post
became aware of the find and being a forward thinking
individual and one that recognized history when it
passed through his hands, he retrieved the cache of
these suits from the trash heap. I recently became
aware of their existence and was able to buy all that
remained of the original find to offer here.
Each of these suits is full
form and while showing evidence of having been worn, is
free from any serious wear or damage. There are a few
stains, some paint splatters, but overall they are in
wearable condition. Most are complete with all the
buttons down the front, but some are missing some of the
buttons. The suits are marked in what appear to be one
of two standard, and very intentional, styles of “PW”
and the marking is applied without any apparent
difference in the size or degree of wear of the suit.
There are those which are painted with a broad, bold
“PW” in black paint on both the front of the chest and
the center of the back – and in one case, an additional
stencil on one buttock. Then there is a second pattern
of marking with the "PW" applied in a reddish orange paint,
which in most cases are marked
in only one place – front or back of the upper body.
Why the difference in the marking styles is something
that is lost to history, but I suspect there was a
reason.
The discovery of this cache
reminds me a man I met years ago who through research
had determined that the parachutes used to resupply the
besieged US troops in the Bastogne pocket during the
Battle of the Bulge were dyed light blue. From what he
told me, this was a unique use of that color for
parachute silk, chosen at that time so that the chutes
wouldn’t be glaringly visible to the Germans against the
sky as they came to earth, but in turn, the blue would
be visible against the snow when the US soldiers fanned out
to retrieve the equipment pods. Armed with this
information, he made a trip to Bastogne and went door to
door looking for these chutes in spite of others telling
him that none of them would still exist. In fact, he
located and was able to buy numerous examples of this
blue silk - full chutes and individual panels,
as well as some that had been
fashioned by the local residents into curtains,
furniture drapes, bed sheets and covers, dining table
cloths and in at least one case, a wedding dress. He
put them on the collector market and before long they
were all gone. Not sure what this has to do with long
underwear, but it’s a great story nonetheless and ought
to be shared.
I have a few of these suits
and when they disappear into private collections I am
certain there will be no more to be found as this is a
case of a single source. Certainly this would be a
unique addition to a World War Two collection and a
representative artifact from a very interesting, and
significant, chapter in the history of the war.
I
have listed below a suit of each marking pattern, shown
with
accompanying photographs. As these suits sell I
will not photograph the replacements. All of them
are in the same condition and all are marked in the same
general way, with some individual variations as would be
expected.
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