88th Infantry Division • POW Command

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88th Infantry Division, Summer 1945

Outline of POW Command Activities

The 88th Division assumed its twofold POW Command duties on 7 June 1945, to repatriate a minimum of 100,000 Germans and to form an estimated 120,000 of them into service units. POW strength figures at the time indicated that the 88th Division had approximately 295,000 Germans available to accomplish this dual mission. Later figures raised this total above 320,000 as Germans came in out of the hills, unguarded German service units were discovered and taken over, and responsibility for the Czech PWs was transferred from the Fifth Army to the Division. The total included Italians, recalcitrants, wanted persons, field and general officers, friendly nationals, and seriously sick and wounded.

The MTOUSA POW Command formulated, without precedent or guidance, policies for the treatment of PWs; organized and administered a command that was spread all over Italy (with over 600 miles between some elements of the division); guarded and administered more than 320,000 PWs in hundreds of cages and PW service units with little more than 12,000 available guards - all of this while the fluctuating demands of redeployment caused constant changes of key personnel to include more than a two hundred per cent turnover of the Division personnel during the three and one-half months life of the POW Command! Small wonder that lights burned far into the night, clerks tore their hair out,; sentries met themselves coming off and going on guard; officers counted and inspected Krauts in their sleep; bulging Jerry-filled trains toiled up through the Brenner Pass and creaky convoys under Blue Devil supervision were seen in the remotest parts of Italy.

The MTOUSA POW Command was inactivated on orders of CG, MTOUSA as of 12:00 noon, 25 September 1945. During its existence, it had accomplished the following:

Repatriation of Germans or Austrians	135,893
Repatriation of Czechoslovakians	11,308
Repatriation of Russians	7,984
Repatriation of other friendly nationals	2,978
Discharged, released in Italy (almost entirely South Tyrolean)	10,567
Turnover of Neo-Fascists to Italian Government	32,212
Turnover of PWs organized into service units to British	12,000
Organized into service units	112,000 *
Total PWs disposed of	324,642

*: This figure included general service units of Ordnance, Engineer, Chemical, Quartermaster, Signal, Medical, and Veterinary troops who were used to assist in moving dumps, loading ships, and otherwise speeding the redeployment of American troops.

In commenting on this piece of work it seems permissible to boast that the 88th (Blue Devil) Division took more prisioners in active operations than any other division in the Italian Theater, evacuated by far the greatest number to the rear after VI-day; without a break discharged the POW Command Mission with all its ramifications and then with smooth and quiet efficiency assumed the occupational role in Venezia-Giulia.

Disposition of MTOUSA POW Command

HQ MTOUSA POW Command, Desenzano

Verona Staging Area
- 2/351 Inf
- 88 Recon Trp
Merano-Bolzano Subcommand, 40,000 PWs, 5 stockades
- 349 Inf
Ghedi Subcommand, 70,000 PWs, 1 stockade
- 351 Inf
Modena-Verona Subcommand, 70,000 PWs, 2 stockades
- 350 Inf
Aversa-Bari Subcommand, 25,000 PWs, 2 stockades
- 3/371 Inf (attached)
- 337 FA Bn
- 339 FA Bn
Leghorn-Pisa-Florence Subcommand, 115,000 PWs, 5 stockades
- 442 RCT (attached)
- 913 FA Bn
- 338 FA Bn

Source: "The Blue Devils in Italy: A History of the 88th Infantry Division in World War II" by John P.Delaney. Published by The Battery Press, Nashville, 1988. ISBN 0-89839-107-5. pp 359-360.

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