Remembering Myrtle Beach's Role in WWII: The Story of German POWs

In 2024, we will commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a pivotal moment in World War II when American forces invaded Omaha Beach to combat German forces. Two days after this, German prisoners of war (POWs) were brought to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to aid Americans. These POWs, initially from a camp in Florence, were transported to the United States to support the local timber industry, work on farms, and at the town’s Army Air Corps airfield. This action served dual purposes: it helped our European allies who struggled to care for the POWs, and it acted as a deterrent against attacks by German U-boats or submarines on returning troop carriers.

The arrival of the first POWs in the United States began in April 1942. By the next year, the US Army’s Provost Marshal General, in charge of the POWs, initiated the National Works Program. This program enabled farmers, businesses, and industries to pay the government for prisoner labor. In 1943, Nazis with extreme ideologies were separated from the general population and relocated to special camps in Alva, Oklahoma, or Aliceville, Alabama. This left about 80% of the prisoners across the country generally content to wait out the war.

Initially, Myrtle Beach was not eligible to house POWs due to a rule that a camp could not be within 75 miles of a border, with the Atlantic Ocean being considered a border. However, by 1944, the rules were relaxed, and if a municipality could demonstrate a need and had a place to keep them, it could benefit from the National Works Program. Myrtle Beach, with its Army Air Corps airfield, was able to show proof of need. The first group of about 250 POWs was part of the eventual 600 who arrived by the end of the war.

The POWs were not required to work more than twelve hours each day and were entitled to a day of rest each week. Officers were not required to work, but often did to alleviate boredom and earn money. The prisoners were paid in coupons redeemable at the camp canteen, not in cash. Their pay varied depending on their rank and whether they worked on or off base. At a minimum, they earned the equivalent of an American private’s income, eighty cents a day, but could earn more if they worked on the farms and timber sites. About half of the men, approximately 250, worked in the timber industry, which was the most dangerous job but also the highest paying.

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