CAMP HOWZE - Gainsville, Texas
Posted by: 
txoilgas
N 33° 40.873 W 097° 09.574
14S E 670603 N 3728331
Quick Description: Several hundred thousand men received their training here over the course of the war and the camp later became a Prisoner of War Camp for captured German soldiers.
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/23/2009 8:50:42 AM
Waymark Code: WM7GE0
Views: 14
Long Description:The land now is used for cattle grazing. Of the hundreds of
buildings that were here there are a handfull remaining.
Established in 1942 as an Infantry-training camp, Camp Howze
once covered 59,000 acres of Cooke County land that was acquired
from local landowners shortly after Pearl Harbor.
It was named to honor Major Robert E. Lee Howze, who had won the
Congressional Medal of Honor and had served during the Indian
campaigns, the Philippine Insurrection following the
Spanish-American War, and World War I.
The base was activated in August of 1942, and had a capacity of
just under 40,000 men.
An estimated $20 million was spend on the camp during it’s
construction and use, providing hundreds of jobs for Cooke County
residents.
After the war, the camp, like most others, was deactivated. The
buildings were sold as scrap and today only the cement foundations,
chimneys and water towers remain.
In an interview with a former trainee, he recalled how
demoralizing it was to see German prisoners playing soccer while
his unit was enduring a forced march. “The war was over for them,
but it hadn’t even started for us.”