Event Details

This seminar is the first of CWD Research Seminar Series: informal 'work in progress' type sessions, featuring members of the Centre for War and Diplomacy. Our first speaker is Alan Perry who is visiting Lancaster from Gettysburg College, PA. Subsequent seminars will be held in Lent and Summer term.

This talk examines the story of 1,200 WWII Italian Prisoners of War (POWs) who were detained at the Letterkenny Army Depot located near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. These soldiers were a fraction of the more than 51,000 POWs imprisoned in 140 camps throughout the country. Letterkenny POWs worked at the depot from May 1944 to September 1945 after having agreed to cooperate with the United States to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The prisoners helped to construct the base itself, and both stocked and shipped materials to the war fronts. During off-duty hours, they mingled with townsfolk, were visited by many Italian American friends and relatives, formed football sides, and built a chapel and bell tower still used today. Many POWs nurtured strong friendships with Americans for decades after the war, and a few also married their American sweethearts and returned to live in the United States. During the discussion we will consider two diplomatic aspects of Italian POW detention in the US — the unilateral US decision to employ Italian POWs as collaborators, and, after the war, the US payment to Italy to liquidate POW backpay.