Camp Davis, just outside of Holly Ridge, North Carolina, was originally designated a Coast Artillery Training Center, but by early 1942 it had separated from that service branch to become the nation’s premier Antiaircraft Artillery (AAA) Training Center. By 1944, the camp boasted 3,000 buildings, with 1,000 barracks alone to house the 20,000 troops that were being trained at any given time. There were 32 miles of paved streets and an airfield with two 5,000-foot runways. Holly Ridge, in the meantime, had become a boomtown; its population swelled from 28 to 1,500.
as it looked during WW II. Postcard from the Webmaster’s collection.
At the height of training activity, Davis had 800-bed hospital, four movie theaters, and two recreation centers (one for white and one for “colored” troops, since the U.S. Army was segregated at the time). The camp had its own newspaper, the “AA Barrage,” and an intra- and intermural athletic program; its “Blue Brigade” football team defeated Wake Forest College’s varsity squad in a memorable game on September 25, 1944.
A number of the famous WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) served at Camp Davis, arriving at the same time the Skylighters did in Summer 1943. The WASPs flew thousands of missions towing targets for gun and searchlight crews to hone their illumination, tracking, and gunnery skills on.
of AAA training cadres in 1943. Via the North Carolina History Museum.
We left Fort Sheridan on June 2, 1943 and arrived at Camp Davis on June 4, 1943. I could remember going through Alabama and seeing a lot of tin shacks with Cadillacs out front. When we got off the train, we didn’t go directly to Camp Davis, but we bivouacked right on the beach in pup tents until we went to Burgaw on July 1, 1943. We finally got to see Camp Davis after we left Burgaw on September 9, 1943. The part of the camp we were in must have been the newest part because we weren’t billeted in the two-story-type barracks. Instead, we were in one-story barracks with tar-paper roofs, and they looked like they’d been built in a hurry. The roofs leaked like sieves and there was more sand inside than outside.
Lawrence, on the accommodations at Camp Davis in the Summer of ’43
I can remember they had a football team at Davis and a couple of us were going to go out for it, but we couldn’t because it was for guys stationed there permanently. I remember all the rifle ranges and the obstacle course, and the hospital. It was small, just a station hospital. I had to get an exam for dysentery while I was there.
Lawrence, on the “amenities” at Davis
and three aircraft at right – were usually either pasted or painted on before the pictures were mass-produced.
We were not really around Camp Davis that much. We were sent out to a town called Burgaw, about 40 miles from the camp. Now, when a searchlight battalion deploys, the batteries are scattered all over the place to form a good defense. If you wanted to protect New York City, say, you’d put Battery A over on the Palisades, maybe, and Battery B might be in Central Park, and Battery C over in Brooklyn somewhere, and so on. Burgaw was a small town and the countryside around it was all swampy. We all thought we were going to the Pacific because we were training in the South, during the Summer, in these swamps. Once I had a three-day pass, so I went on the bus to Richmond to visit Charlie Evans, a family friend. Knowing little about life in the South at the time, I sat in the back of the bus with the black travelers, drawing plenty of stares from the Southern white riders. We left Camp Davis to be deployed for combat on December 5, 1943, so when you think about it we weren’t there very long.
Lawrence, on training in the swamps and woods near Burgaw
during maneuvers in Burgaw, NC, Summer 1943.
Related Links
Additional photos of Camp Davis and Burgaw appear in the Lawrence P. Belmont Photo Gallery, among others.
On to Part IV – Europe Bound