(H)our History Lesson: The Armed Forces Presence on the WWII Home Front in Wilmington, NC

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• WWII Wilmington Lesson Series: Introduction

About this Lesson

This lesson is part of a series teaching about the WWII home front, with Wilmington, North Carolina, as a WWII Heritage City. The lesson contains photographs, reading, and a primary source to contribute to learners’ understandings of stateside armed forces training and civilian defense support, using Montford Point as a focused example. It was written by Sarah Nestor Lane, educator.

Objectives:

1. Identify and describe the Armed Forces presence in the Wilmington, NC area

2. Identify examples of contributions of civilians, particularly women, to the Armed Forces’ efforts

3. Describe the challenges faced, both in the workforce and greater community, by the Montford Point Marines

Materials for Students:

1. Photos 1-5 (can be displayed digitally)

2. Readings 1 & 2

3. Map: It is recommended that lessons are taught with a map of the Wilmington area, or North Carolina to plot historical locations.

Getting Started: Essential Question

How did the presence of the Armed Forces, and civilian support of the Armed Forces, in Wilmington, N.C. contribute to the success of the Allied Forces?

Photo 1: Camp Davis Postcard

A postcard showing the demonstration of a 50-caliber anti-aircraft machine gun at Camp Davis.

Hall Photographs and Postcards Collection, MMP 12, Miscellaneous Military Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.; Postcard by: W. R. Thompson and Company, Richmond, Virginia.

Photo 2: Camp Davis Telegraph Office Women

10 women employees of Camp Davis telegraph office.

UNCW

Read to Connect
Reading 1:

Armed Forces in and surrounding Wilmington, NC
All Armed Forces had presence in and around Wilmington, NC during WWII. The construction and enhancement of these military bases drew workers. Construction contracts would draw civilian workers in mass. These contracts provided training and a paycheck, which brought hope, especially to those overcoming the Great Depression. Workers traveled in by foot, bus, truck, or carpools. There was not enough housing to accommodate all workers; tents, trailers, and other temporary shelters were built along roads. These workers built the military buildings for thousands of service members’ needs and training. Male workers were drafted, so women began filling roles in construction projects and defense work. Civilians supported data collection. They reported air and sea activity to filtering stations (such as a US Post Office), where volunteers, often women, charted information.“

Basement of Front Street Post Office; you go in on the left hand side. Large offices are located underneath the ground that you don't see, you don't see daylight, and the volunteer shifts they had were from seven in the morning to seven in the evening, seven in the evening to seven in the morning. They kept us busy.
We could pick up foreign, I call them foreign planes, but planes that were not identified, and then we had to get to work, and find out where they came from and where they were going, and the intentions. If we thought it was crucial with other air bases, of course I wasn't the air base, we had to notify all the air bases of any unidentified airplane. No plane could come in our area without being identified.
We all were volunteers, no money involved. It was strictly the love of the country, the love of the people, and the protection of the town. Well I felt like, since really, I was not doing anything else with my time, I was young, I was active, and I wanted to get out there and do something. Why sit around?”-Kathleen Somerset, a volunteer at the filter station at the Wilmington Post Office

Camp Davis was the first Army antiaircraft artillery training base in the country. Fort Fisher served as an advanced training base for Camp Davis, and the population grew quickly. Fort Fisher was built on a Confederate earthen fort and was the primary firing range. Segregated African American units trained at Camp Gibbins. Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) towed targets in flights for anti-aircraft artillery practice. Women also served in roles such as in engineering and telegraph offices. These installations served as important camps for anti-aircraft gunnery training and coastal defense.
The Army Air Forces trained at Bluethenthal Field Army Air Base (now Wilmington International Airport) and Wilmington Army Airfield. The field at Bluethenthal was a grass flying field and civilian airport before Pearl Harbor. It was then converted to military use with modern concrete runways and buildings. Chief of Staff Gen. George Marshall inspected the base during its transformation. P-47 Thunderbolt fighter pilots trained here, and anti-submarine patrols originated from the base.

“We knew when a unit was going off to war. We knew we’d never see them again.”-Clerk Muriel Williamson, reflecting on units leaving Bluethenthal Field Army Air Base

The Navy had anti-submarine warfare patrol craft along the Cape Fear River and at Southport. Fort Caswell was constructed between 1826 and 1836 and was used as a submarine tracking station and patrol base in 1942. The Coast Guard was patrolling with bases at Wrightsville Beach, Southport, and Wilmington.
The Marine Corps was stationed at Camp Lejeune and Montford Point (Jacksonville/New River). The bases founded in 1941 to take advantage of geographical features like forests and beach access. Infantrymen practiced going ashore on Onslow Beach in rehearsals. Montford Point was the first training camp for segregated African American Marine troops. It was renamed in 1974 as Camp Gilbert H. Johnson, after Gilbert "Hashmark" Johnson, a drill instructor who served at Montford Point. This is currently the only military installation to be named after an African American Marine.
The complex Armed Forces operations occurring in and around Wilmington contributed to the Allied victory. Many of these historical bases and military installations can be visited for their remains, memorials, and museums.

By the numbers:
• 46,000 acres bought and leased, including Topsail Island, for Camp Davis
• Camp Davis population: less than 30 in 1940; over 100,000 in 1943
• $11 million invested in Bluethenthal Field by the Federal Government during WWII
• 11,000-acre tract of amphibious training land (at Camp Lejeune and Montford Point)

Quotation to consider:
. . . As the men went their separate ways, they took with them the knowledge that they had served in a unique, a pioneering unit, and had shared its ups and downs. Possessed of an almost cocky belief in themselves as Marines and a special pride in their battalion besides, they had not needed combat to develop self-respect. As a black correspondent who visited the 51st at Eniwetok in October 1945 noted about its men: "They are a grand bunch! And because of their ability to come through the kind of experience they have had, with its attendant racial irritants, they undoubtedly will be better men and better citizens." - “Blacks in the Marines,” by Shaw & Donnelly, the History and Museums Division Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps (2002)

Inter-branch athletics and social events helped to improve morale. Program for "Camp Lejeune vs. Camp Davis" football game, illustrated color cover, official football program of US Marine Corps, Camp Lejeune

UNCW

Questions for Reading 1

1. Which branches were present in the Wilmington area? How did the geographic features of Northeastern North Carolina and Wilmington lend itself to these branches?

2. How did civilians contribute to the Armed Forces’ defense efforts?

3. What challenges did civilians face in supporting and/or working with the Armed Forces?

Photos 4, 5: Montford Point Recruits

Lineup of new recruits for the Marines at Montford Point, 1943.

Photographer: Pat Terry. (Credit: National Archives)

“Boot recruits” listen to their drill instructor [Sgt. Gilbert Hubert Johnson], 04/1943

Photographer: Pat Terry. (Credit: National Archives)

Reading 2: Montford Point

Excerpts from the interview of Alvin J. Banker, Montford Point Marine Veteran.

This interview was a part of the oral histories collected in “World War II: Through the Eyes of the Cape Fear,” a joint project by the William M. Randall Library and Cape Fear Museum.

BANKER: Our boot camp was two months because we trained on unforeseen circumstances. As you know, prior to 1942, there were no blacks in the Marine Corps and we were segregated in a camp set aside from the white camp which was in North Carolina. The white Marines were trained in Parris Island. We were trained at Montford Point Camp, Camp LeJeune, North Carolina which is part of Camp LeJeune, just outside of Jacksonville, North Carolina and all of our instructors were white. We trained there. The battalion was formed. The troops began to come in. . . . .

INTERVIEWER: Were you the first black unit to be inducted into the Marine Corps?

BANKER: I was one of the first. I was in what was known as the special duty platoon. This platoon consisted of cooks, butchers, barbers and bakers. This is what I was told when I went to the recruiting office, that's what they needed first. In the beginning, since it was a new organization, they never before had anything like this, so first of all, it needed this to start the camp off. We were told where we would be going and that's how it started.

INTERVIEWER: And you slept in barracks on the base only with fellow black Marines.

BANKER: There were 124 fiberboard huts for our barracks. That was our building area and of course, wood buildings for mess hall, administration buildings, quartermaster and things like that.

INTERVIEWER: And how many men trained with you for basic training in Camp LeJeune?

BANKER: In my platoon, there were about 25 of us. We were in a special duty platoon. We trained in the mess hall and we also trained out in the field. We cooked in the morning and after the noon meal was served, we went to the barracks, showered, changed, put our utilities on, put our rifles, belts and bayonets and go out in the parade field and our drill instructors drilled us until supper time which was around 5:00.
After that time, after chow, we went back to the barracks, picked up our weapons and went back onto the parade field and drilled until it was dark, after which we would go in, shower and go to bed, hit the sack. Reveille would be early, 5:00 a.m., and we'd roll out, do our physical exercise, go to the mess hall for breakfast. Right after breakfast, we'd go back out on the field and drill until around 10:30, shower, put our other uniform on and go to the mess hall and cook and the other watch would go out and they'd do the same thing.
. . .
INTERVIEWER: Were you subjected to any discrimination during this period of time that you can recall on the base?

BANKER: We were segregated from the main base and segregation was all around us, on the base and off the base. And even with the drill instructors. They trained us, but still they had a separate area where they slept. We had our area where we slept. . . .

INTERVIEWER: That was your first assignment as a cook at Camp LeJeune for the recruits that came in?

BANKER: Right, right, and I worked my way up through the ranks after that, PFC, then made corporal and sergeant and so forth and so on, but I could not outrank my white Marines. I had to be one rank below them.

INTERVIEWER: You mean the fellow cooks? There were white cooks too.

BANKER: Right and if he was a sergeant and he was ready to be promoted, and they wanted to promote me, they would promote him to staff sergeant and then promote me to corporal or sergeant whatever, but I could not be on equal ranks with him. . ..
BANKER: On liberty, at the end of work hours, I would go on liberty perhaps to Kingston, overnight liberty in Kingston, North Carolina and sometimes come down to Wilmington. There again we ran into segregation there with the bus company, Jacksonville, they...we were segregated on the bus. A lot of times we were left standing, put the white Marines on the bus and then if there was any standing room left, we could get on the bus. And things were so bad, our colonel, base commander, Colonel Samuel Woods, who was the base commander for the 51st Defense Battalion, he knew what problems we were faced with so what he did, he had trucks, military trucks to take us into Jacksonville or Wilmington. They would put up a list on the bulletin board and you would sign the list of whether you wanted to go to Kingston or Wilmington and the trucks would take you. You'd put your name on a list and the truck would take you and bring you back to the base.

INTERVIEWER: This was when you were on liberty?

BANKER: When we were on liberty, right.

INTERVIEWER: And when you got into the town, did you go to the movies or the pool hall or whatever...

BANKER: Whatever was available. There wasn't much in Kingston. There was a pool hall there on Queen Street and of course there were other places around we visited. That was it and the movies.

INTERVIEWER: Whatever amusements were there.

BANKER: There wasn't much there at the time, no.

INTERVIEWER: What about socializing?

BANKER: It was all right. The USO was there. We'd go to the USO.

INTERVIEWER: On the base or off the base?

BANKER: Off the base. There was a USO in Kingston and also one in Wilmington.

INTERVIEWER: Did you go to them?

BANKER: Once or twice.

INTERVIEWER: Get donuts and coffee.

BANKER: (Laughter) Well I don't drink coffee believe it or not. I like milk and donuts (laughter). At that time, I wasn't drinking anything .. . . /

BANKER: Yes, all white, naturally, all white. We could not, see during that time, if we had white cooks working with us and they could be the best cooks in the world and they wanted to get promoted and I would be just as good as they are, they want to promote me, but in order for them to promote me, they'd have to promote my counterpart, the white Marine. Say for an example, he's a technical sergeant, they want to make him a master sergeant and I'm a staff sergeant. They want to make me a technical sergeant. They're going to promote the white Marine to a master sergeant and then promote me to technical sergeant so I would not be of equal rank. At no time could I have the same rank that he had.

INTERVIEWER: This was a form of discrimination in the Marine Corps.

BANKER: Yes it was and I had an incident where the mess officer from Mississippi, the mess sergeant was from New Bedford, Massachusetts and I was from Louisiana, and I was a technical sergeant and the mess sergeant, I was his assistant. He told me one day, he said, "Joe, you know I don't want you to learn how to do the books because as a rule when a white person teaches colored people how to do something, they do the job better." I said okay. He said, "I want you to stay out in the galley and supervise the cooking and take care of the storage areas." I said "Okay, fine". Well one day, he received orders to go overseas into combat. Now he was going to give me a crash course on how to keep the books. For national standards, you have to keep the financial status of the mess. We had to run it just like it was a business. You have to stay within your budget and also order supplies and everything. You have to do the whole nine yards like you're in the restaurant business. I had completed a business course before coming into the Marine Corps. So when he told me I had to learn, I went to my barracks, I opened up my foot locker and I got my certificate out and I took it back and threw it on the desk and said, "Here you are Frenchie. This is my credentials here." I said, "You don't have to teach me the books. I don't want to take your job away from you." He looked at me. His face got as red as that book over there and the lieutenant was sitting behind his desk. He looked at me and smiled and winked at me. So out he went. A couple months later, I was promoted to master sergeant.

INTERVIEWER: Was this near the end of ...

BANKER: Toward the end of World War II, I mean things were beginning to change. The whites were being moved out and the blacks were taking over the troops, drill instructors and things like that. Drill instructors were all white also and the black drill instructors were called acting jacks. They were being trained. You know whites trained us and as they trained us, some of them were moved out and some of them stayed there until they went overseas with the units that the black units were in.
. . .
INTERVIEWER: So your experience in the Marine Corps during World War II and thereafter was good?

BANKER: It was very good. It prepared me for the work that I was doing in civilian life in some aspects, particularly when it comes to inspections and dealing with people. . . .

Questions for Reading 2
1. How does Banker describe basic training?
2. What was Banker’s role, and what skills did he use / practice to be successful?
3. Banker describes his time on “liberty,” and precautions that the base commander had in place for visiting places like the city of Wilmington on liberty. What were the precautions and their purpose?
4. What examples of segregation and discrimination does Banker describe?
5. What was the significance of Montford Point, and what was/is its lasting impact?
6. Overall, do you believe Banker’s tone is positive, neutral, or negative toward his experiences as an African American Marine? Why do you think this? Use specific details from the interview.

Resources
Camp Davis Photos (Holly Ridge)
Contributions to the War Effort (Wilmington, North Carolina)
DVIDS: Montford Point Marines
Greetings from Camp Davis
Montford Point Marines (UNCW)
World War II at Fort Fisher
World War II Through the Eyes of the Cape Fear
Wilmington, NC, Heritage City (NPS)
World War II Heritage Guide Map of Wilmington and Southeastern North Carolina
World War II in North Carolina: Installations MapBlacks in the Marine Corps (marines.mil)