"I Wanna Go Home, They Need Me:" Archaeological Investigation of German POW Camp D-D, Fort Campbell, KY

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

From 1943-1946, Fort Campbell housed three separate German POW camps. An early cursory examination assumed all sub-surface archaeological deposits were destroyed by camp demolition and subsequent land use. No further investigations were conducted, and the POW camps were largely forgotten. That is, until a new housing development was planned for an open field in the middle of Post.

Decades of aerials and maps showed this field remained largely unimproved. All past assumptions changed with a 1943 Engineering map, and a fenced compound marked D-D. Phase II excavations sought to validate this map as well as answer questions of site integrity and use of space by the POWs. Additionally, could deposits from such a short occupation be found within an urban setting or would all physical traces of the camps remain forgotten.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2022 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology