Ritchie Boy Secrets: How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped Win World War II

Ritchie Boy Secrets: How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped Win World War II

by Beverley Driver Eddy
Ritchie Boy Secrets: How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped Win World War II

Ritchie Boy Secrets: How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped Win World War II

by Beverley Driver Eddy

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Overview

In June 1942, the U.S. Army began recruiting immigrants, the children of immigrants, refugees, and others with language skills and knowledge of enemy lands and cultures for a special military intelligence group being trained in the mountains of northern Maryland and sent into Europe and the Pacific. Ultimately, 15,000 men and some women received this specialized training and went on to make vital contributions to victory in World War II. This is their story, which Beverley Driver Eddy tells thoroughly and colorfully, drawing heavily on interviews with surviving Ritchie Boys.

The army recruited not just those fluent in German, French, Italian, and Polish (approximately a fifth were Jewish refugees from Europe), but also Arabic, Japanese, Dutch, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Turkish, and other languages—as well as some 200 Native Americans and 200 WACs. They were trained in photo interpretation, terrain analysis, POW interrogation, counterintelligence, espionage, signal intelligence (including pigeons), mapmaking, intelligence gathering, and close combat.

Many landed in France on D-Day. Many more fanned out across Europe and around the world completing their missions, often in cooperation with the OSS and Counterintelligence Corps, sometimes on the front lines, often behind the lines. The Ritchie Boys’ intelligence proved vital during the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge. They helped craft the print and radio propaganda that wore down German homefront morale. If caught, they could have been executed as spies. After the war they translated and interrogated at the Nuremberg trials. One participated in using war criminal Klaus Barbie as an anti-communist agent. Meanwhile, Ritchie Boys in the Pacific Theater of Operations collected intelligence in Burma and China, directed bombing raids in New Guinea and the Philippines, and fought on Okinawa and Iwo Jima.

This is a different kind of World War II story, and Eddy tells it with conviction, supported by years of research and interviews.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780811769976
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 09/07/2021
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 432
Sales rank: 863,849
File size: 11 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Beverley Driver Eddy is professor emerita of German at Dickinson College, with seven books to her credit. She has presented and lectured widely on this topic, including at the U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center. Eddy lives in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Foreword Guy Stern vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Building Camp Ritchie 11

Chapter 2 The First Class 23

Chapter 3 The Men at Ritchie 39

Chapter 4 The Composite School Unit 55

Chapter 5 Interrogation of Prisoners of War (IPW) 67

Chapter 6 Aerial Intelligence and Photo Interpretation 85

Chapter 7 Order of Battle and the Military Intelligence Research Section (MIRS) 95

Chapter 8 Field Maneuvers and Close Combat Training 111

Chapter 9 Instructional Units 127

Chapter 10 The Camp Ritchie WACs 141

Chapter 11 Interactions with Civilians 155

Chapter 12 The First Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company 173

Chapter 13 The Counterintelligence Corps and the Office of Strategic Services 181

Chapter 14 Camp Sharpe 201

Chapter 15 The Nisei (PACMIRS and MITUs) 219

Chapter 16 The German "Hillbillies" 237

Chapter 17 Ritchie Boys in Europe 249

Chapter 18 Ritchie Boys in the Pacific 271

Chapter 19 Postwar Activities in Europe 287

Chapter 20 Postwar Activities in the Pacific 307

Chapter 21 Ritchie Remembrances 323

Appendices 337

Acronyms

Appendix 1 Acronyms 337

Tables

Appendix 2 Camp Ritchie Student Numbers: All Classes 341

Appendix 3 Student Numbers in the Mobile Radio Broadcasting Companies 343

Appendix 4 Camp Ritchie Eight-Week Classes: Dates and Graduation Numbers 345

Appendix 5 Camp Ritchie Eight-Week Class Content 347

Appendix 6 Eight-Week Courses by Specialties 349

Appendix 7 Camp Ritchie Student Numbers: Forty-Seven Graduate Training Classes 351

Appendix 8 CIC Classes 353

Organizational Charts

Appendix 9 Military Intelligence Training Center 355

Appendix 10 Composite School Unit 357

Appendix 11 Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company 359

Appendix 12 Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section 361

Appendix 13 German Military Document Section 363

IPW Instructional Materials

Appendix 14 Specialized Training: Course Instruction (Class Syllabus) 365

Appendix 15 Handout on Searching, Sorting, and Handling of Documents 369

Appendix 16 Handout on Evacuation and Interrogation of Prisoners of War 371

Appendix 17 Exercise in Personality Analysis 373

Appendix 18 Tactical Squeeze 375

Appendix 19 Situation Map for Practice in Tactical Interrogation 377

Awards

Appendix 20 Awards 379

Notes 383

Bibliography 405

Index of Names 419

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