FDR Visits Camp Robinson

FDR AT CAMP ROBINSON ON APRIL 18, 1943
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Camp Robinson near North Little Rock on a chilly and wet Sunday, April 18, 1943, during World War II.

Courtesy of the Arkansas State Archives, photographs show the president, popularly known as FDR, meeting with reporters and visiting the camp.
Roosevelt’s trip by train, under the protection of U.S. soldiers, was part of a 13- state inspection tour of military camps, naval facilities, and war factories from
April 13-29, 1943.

Camp Robinson was the seventh of 19 stops through the South and Midwest, plus Mexico.

Roosevelt spent less than a day at Camp Robinson before departing for Camp Gruber near Tulsa, Oklahoma.

It was FDR’s second wartime tour of military bases, which included a notable excursion to Monterrey, Mexico, where the U.S. and Mexican presidents met for
the first time in 34 years.

While in Mexico, the route was guarded by the Mexican cavalry and U.S. Army troops.

“Although there was general surprise shown at the president’s presence wherever he went, this trip was not a big secret as the inspection trip last fall”
due to newspaper and radio coverage, according to a White House statement. “Curious crowds were attracted everywhere along our route, particularly at the
railroad stations in the Midwest, by the presence of the large or unusual number of military guards about the stations and tracks,” according to the White House.

“In the camps, many service men admitted that, although they had no definite information, they did have a pretty good idea who their visitor was to be,” the
White House added.

Weather threatened on several occasions and FDR’s entourage passed through rain and hail storms.

Also on April 18, 1943, in the Pacific Ocean, U.S. Army fighter pilot Rex T. Barber, acting on naval intelligence that had decoded a Japanese message, shot down a plane carrying Isoroku Yamamoto, whose body was found the next day near Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea. Yamamoto orchestrated the December 7, 1941, surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

–Cary Bradburn

BOATS CAPSIZE, 11 DROWN

Eleven soldiers of the 66th “Panther” Division drowned about 5 p.m. on March 16, 1944, in Lake No. 2 in Lakewood, a training area for Camp Robinson’s troops during World War II.

“The tragedy came at the close of a successful day of river crossing and assault boat training,” the Arkansas Gazette reported on the front page the next day. “Two boats loaded with soldiers in combat equipment were lashed, one behind the other, to cross the lake for supper, which was to be served on the grounds.

“When the boats still were about 50 yards from the east shore [in the deep end known as Tarzan’s Bay], they capsized, throwing soldiers into the cold water. Many swam to shore . . . Soldiers in other boats rowed to the spot and succeeded in saving the lives of some who were unable to swim ashore . . .

“Army doctors and volunteers prepared pallets of blankets on the ground and as each victim was brought ashore, he was placed on a pallet and subjected to artificial respiration treatment . . . Across the road that skirts the lake and up an incline, half a dozen brush fires were blazing. More than 100 soldiers huddled around these fires in an effort to dry their clothes.”

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Bob Sallee of North Little Rock recounted the fatal mishap on January 21, 1999, through interviews with retired firefighter Jim Dancy and Mike Goshen, grandson of Joseph F. Goshen, namesake of Goshen Avenue in Park Hill.

Dancy and Goshen, grandson of Joseph F. Goshen, the namesake of Goshen Avenue in Park Hill, were teenagers at the time of the accident. Lakewood was mostly woods at that time.

“Word of the tragedy spread quickly among kids who played around Tarzan’s Bay,” Sallee wrote. “Most of them hurried to the lake to see what had happened.

“We all ran over there,’ Goshen remembered, ‘but we had to go around to the other side to watch because the police had everything blocked off and they wouldn’t let anybody in.”

Camp Robinson housed some 3,000 German and Italian prisoners of war and oversaw the administration of another 7,000 POWs in Arkansas from 1943 to mid-1946.

Nationally, more than 425,000 enemy prisoners were brought to the U.S. during World War II and confined in camps.

One of three POW “base camps” in Arkansas, Camp Robinson served as the supply and administrative center for a web of 25 smaller “branch work camps.” As such, it took on a more important role than the other two base camps — at Fort Chaffee and Dermott — which oversaw five branch camps.

Three detachments of about 1,000 POWs each arrived at Camp Robinson from late August to December 1943. Most were enlisted men and about 20 percent were non-commissioned officers from German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Corps.

Camp Robinson’s POW camp was essentially a self-contained town, with its own roads, water and sewer systems, mess halls, latrines, post office, hospital, chapel, recreation facilities, and workshops.

The camp comprised 277 rectangular buildings in rows aligned along a service road. Of those, 221 were within a fenced perimeter. Three main compounds each housed about 1,000 prisoners, with access to outdoor and indoor recreation. In addition, the camp had a large recreation area and guard garrison.

Archaeologists have found extensive evidence because the area is relatively remote and undeveloped. Slab foundations of mess halls, latrines, two guard towers, and other buildings are well-preserved. Many examples exist of stone works, a concrete bridge, remnants of an old water treatment plant, sewer manholes, and the original road system.

In accordance with the Geneva Convention, the U.S. provided housing, food, sanitation, health services, and recreational and educational opportunities equal to its own soldiers. Six watch towers and wire fences at Camp Robinson marked the only difference from regular army training centers.

Many of the work camps were in the Delta, centered on agriculture to alleviate a severe manpower shortage due to the war. Work within the base camps involved cleaning, cooking, clerical, and maintenance. Enlisted men could be forced into labor, as long as it wasn’t unhealthy or dangerous. They were paid. Officers, however, could not be forced to work, unless they signed up for it.

There was typically plenty of free time. Soccer and ping pong were popular. Leisure included theatrical performances and music, with orchestras and bands. POWs tended gardens that featured miniature models of cathedrals and castles,
as well as landscapes of rock art, rock ponds, and walkways bordered by stone. Bilingual camp newspapers, notably Der Robinson, were backed by camp authorities.

The prisoners themselves later expressed surprise over how well they were treated. They could send and receive mail from home, drink real coffee, eat fresh fruit, and feast on turkey at Thanksgiving and goose at Christmas. And there was beer.

Camp Robinson‘s POW camp came to be called “Peaceful Valley” – or Friedens Tal in German.

No escape attempts were reported at Camp Robinson, though a few occurred at branch camps, perhaps out of boredom.

In 1943, German prisoners received preferential seating in front for a performance of singer Lena Horne. Infuriated, she walked off the stage, turned her back on the audience to protest racial discrimination, and sang to Black
servicemen in the back of the hall.

Another incident involved the visit in late 1943 of a Nazi inspector, who had words with the camp’s second commandant and reported him to his superiors. Although the complaint was dismissed, he was relieved of command for arbitrary treatment of POWs. A Swiss Legation that inspected the camp in March 1944 found no serious complaints.

At least four POWs died at Camp Robinson and were buried with full military honors. Mourners were allowed to wear German uniforms and one coffin was draped in a large swastika flag. After the camp was dismantled in 1946, the bodies were disinterred and sent to relatives or reburied at the National Cemetery.

The article, written by Cary Bradburn, is based on a March 2005 archaeological investigation by Panamerican Consultants of Memphis for Genesis Environmental of Little Rock, and on newspaper stories.