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

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Wed Jun 7 11:53:47 EDT 2017


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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