Camp Blanding Museum

On April 15th at 1pm, my family and I arrived at the camp landing museum. A total of 3 of us, me, my mother, and my father. Here we learned about the history of camp blending and its impact during World War 2. Here we learned about the clothing, the vehicles, the weapons, and prisoners that actually loved camp Blanding. I mean who would want to be a prisoner but then like their stay? Thats a bit strange but that's what happened at camp Blanding!

Vehicles- One of the vehicles we saw was an ambulance vehicle from 1942-1944! 26,000 of these were used from these years! 

Uniforms- This first WW2 uniform coat was olive drab and made of wool. Under the coat was a flannel shirt.  The helmet was an M-1917 referred to as a doughboy helmet.  Around the coat was a cartridge belt to hold ammunition. Each uniform featured a haversack with a canteen. The sack also contained a first aid pouch with a pocket.  In each haversack, the soldier carried a T-handle shovel and a sword.  Additional accessories paired with the uniform were a Shelter-half and tent pegs.    It was worn during the start of World War 2. 

Weapons- Maschinegewehr which was model 1942 also known as an MG42. The machine gun could be placed on both a bipod or tripod and was air cooled. It was made in Germany and was Hitlers favorite weapon.  

This weapon shot 1,200 rounds a minute.

Another weapon was the M1 Garand, according to a general this was the best battle implemented device.

The prisoners, as mentioned loved Camp Blanding. One of these people was Rupert Metzroth (otherwise known as Bert) was a male German infantryman who was captured by the American Army on September 20, 1944. Although initially captured in northern Italy, he was later shipped to Norfolk, Va. Eventually he was transported by train to Camp Blanding in Florida where he spent 15 months as a prisoner of war. Metzroth was one of 378,000 German prisoners of war (POW) who were spread across 45 states from 1942 until their release in 1946. And he was one of 1,200 POW’s who were imprisoned at Camp Blanding in Starke, Florida. In January 2015, on the 75th anniversary of Camp Blanding, Metzroth visited the museum and was interviewed about his time spent as a POW in Camp Blanding. Metzroth had fond memories of his time spent at Camp Blanding sixty-nine years earlier. He talked about feeling relieved when he was captured because he did not agree with the Nazi way of life. He was treated well in Camp Blanding and was a supporter of America as a result.   According to the POW display at the Camp Blanding Museum, there were a total of 3,000 Prisoners of War in Florida. They were held in fifteen different camps in Florida, 1200 in Camp Blanding. This goes along with the expansion of military growth in Florida during World War II. In fact, “Florida soon bristled with 172 military installations, ranging from megacomplexes at the U.S. Army’s Camp Blanding and Eglin Army Airfield to fledgling facilities such as Sopchoppy Bombing Range and the Naples Army Airfield.” (Mormino 333).

Camp Blanding overall was a great trip! It was fun to learn about the museum because I am in the national guard and go on base every month for drill and never had gone to the museum. This trip related very much to our class by being in the same time area, plus we had learned about Camp Blanding in class so learning more about it and the time period was great!