WW II substitute crop pickers - how were they transported en masse?

[NW Mailing List]

There was a CCC camp that was converted to a POW camp near Sherandah.

Jeff Cornelius

> On Jun 7, 2017, at 10:53 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> We know there were several POW crop-picker camps around the Shenandoah valley as substitute labor for our troops fighting overseas. Is there anything about how they were transported? 
> 
> The Southern Railway had ended passenger services six weeks before Pearl Harbor on its Shenandoah Valley Line but the Norfolk & Western Railway continued passenger services on its line between Hagerstown and Roanoke until 1962. 
> 
> Knowing the old spy adage "loose lips sink ships", perhaps there is nothing in writing -- however, do we have any clues as to how these substitute farm-laborers were transported from their POW camps elsewhere in Virginia to the Valley? 
> 
> I know the main POW camps were elsewhere in Virginia and many other places during WW II and when the harvest season especially came, they were transported from over near Williamsburg and Richmond and elsewhere for several weeks of picking season. When the harvest season was done, they were transported out and back; but by truck? by train? OR ????? 
> 
> Any ideas or thoughts will be greatly appreciated. Sometimes even local lore can also be used from those who might remember and know from first hand experiences. 
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Bob
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