World War II at Camp Hale

Blazing a New Trail in the Rockies

David R Witte

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781467118545
• eBook ISBN: 9781625856081
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

In April 1942, a little over two years before the Tenth Mountain Division officially obtained its name, the U.S. Army began the unprecedented construction of a training facility for its newly acquired ski and mountain troops. Located near Pando in Colorado's Sawatch Range, the site eventually known as Camp Hale sits at an elevation of 9,250 feet. Immense challenges in its creation and subsequent training included ongoing racial conflict, the high altitude and blustery winters. However, thanks to contributions from civilian workers and the Women's Army Corps and support from neighboring communities, the camp trained soldiers who helped defeat the Axis powers in World War II. Veteran David R. Witte brings to life this enduring story.

1

SKI TROOPERS

I feel that Colorado is in a favored position this year.²

—Paul Nesbit, lecturer for the Colorado state advertising and publicity committee

In the spring of 1942, the U.S. Army began construction of a new home for its Mountain Training Center (MTC) and 87^th Mountain Infantry Regiment at Pando, Colorado. Camp Hale, as the army later named it, “was a camp unlike any other” that became the first military cantonment constructed for the basic training and specialized training of ski troops and mountain troops in America.³ The cantonment owed its existence to the decision of the U.S. Army, heavily influenced by a civilian population ready to assist, to form infantry units capable of fighting in severe cold and mountainous conditions. Beginning during World War II, these troops went to Camp Hale and trained for mountain warfare, eventually forming the elite mountain unit, the 10^th Mountain Division, that continues to operate today.

The idea of training ski troopers in America began long before the United States entered World War II. Having and maintaining troops capable of fighting on skis at high elevation and in arctic conditions first developed within the army in America in 1938. The army began experimenting with mountain troops using the 3^rd Battalion, 2^nd Infantry, at Fort Brady, Michigan.⁴ The army issued four hundred pairs of skis to the unit’s members for their use, but in all reality, they saw little action. The soldiers saw the skis more as a leisure time activity than as combat essential. As a result, they did not take the training as seriously as originally planned. However, the battalion commander, Colonel Krohner, appropriated the skis while forming the first winter warfare unit and pressed onward with a determination to make them a part of his unit whether the soldiers saw their tactical usefulness or not.

The 3^rd Battalion transformed its appearance in the fall of 1938 into that of a distinct ski trooper unit. The uniforms consisted of old-type breeches, wrap leggings, campaign hats and standard-issue GI shoes.⁵ Soldiers even made their own sleeping bags out of two sewn-together shelter halves and two standard-issue army blankets. They carried the old World War I–issue khaki rucksack and wore white cooks’ clothing as snow camouflage.⁶ However, the unit quickly proved to be insufficiently trained and ill equipped and reverted back to regular infantry shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, the army’s first experiment in winter warfare had closed, and the army showed little interest in returning to it. The command realized that if soldiers were to be trained in mountain and winter warfare, they would need expert advice, equipment and knowledge to be able to survive. This short-lived and underappreciated experiment in mountain warfare started a bitter and long-lived trial that seemed to face opposition from many in the army for years to come.

The reality of having modern alpine ski troopers first developed in World War I when several companies of skiers were used as reconnaissance ski patrols and attacking units in the Vosges Mountains by the French and Germans.⁷ This reality continued to develop in America in 1939, with a growing awareness of Finland’s utilization of skis in its fight against the Soviet army in an inhospitable environment that had snow covering the ground during the majority of the year.

Seasoned veterans of skiing and some within the U.S. Army saw the outnumbered Finnish troops, who utilized their quick shock troops on skis in an attempt to stop the Soviet war machine, as an effective resistance. However, this did not immediately convince the U.S. Army of a need for specially trained ski troopers. As a matter of fact, the army needed much more convincing by civilians and civilian organizations before it ever decided to start training ski troopers in large numbers. This convincing took years to happen while America entered into World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

America’s interest in the mountains and skiing stemmed not only from Finland’s defense against the Soviet invasion in 1939 but also from a few events preceding America’s entrance into the war. Civilian curiosity in skiing certainly had an impact on the army’s choice to train ski troopers. No civilian proved to be as influential in getting the army to recognize the need for ski troopers as a Massachusetts skier named Charles Minot Dole.

Minnie Dole, as friends often called him, grew up an outdoor enthusiast and became a member of the New York Amateur Ski Club. In 1938, he and Roger Langley formed the National Ski Patrol Committee (NSPC) as a part of the National Ski Association of America (NSAA) to provide emergency aid to skiers who fell and were injured on the slopes. Dole and Langley, before anyone else in America, first saw the need for the army to train ski troopers who could defend a historically vulnerable border in the northern part of the contiguous United States and actively tried to convince the army on this matter by sending thousands of letters to General Marshall and President Roosevelt.⁸

In order to garner more support and to ensure the NSPC stood behind his ideas, Dole mailed out a memorandum to national ski patrolmen, stating that the government might wish to train troops in ski patrol work.⁹ He sought their cooperation by giving them a questionnaire that detailed the responsibilities the ski patrol could potentially have should the military decide to ask for their help. To the satisfaction of both Dole and Langley, the questionnaire came back with over 90 percent of the members voting in favor of offering the patrol’s services.¹⁰ Dole and Langley now had the backing and the momentum to be successful.

Another significant influence came from European skiers who came to America in the prewar and early war years. Individuals such as Otto Schniebs, Hannes Schneider, Walter Prager, Peter Gabriel, Ludwig “Luggi” Foeger, Friedl Pfeifer, Ernst Engel and Torger Tokle either joined the mountain troops, helped with training them or influenced the army in some way to develop a mountain force. Additionally, the two sons of the Baron George von Trapp family, Werner and Rupert, left Salzburg, Austria, in 1939 and became naturalized citizens of the United States. Both trained at Camp Hale and eventually fought with the mountain troops in Europe.¹¹

Nevertheless, not all of the influential skiers of the time period came from Europe to America. One of the most famous American skiers and mountaineers, Paul K. Petzoldt, joined the ski troops as a private, after becoming famous in America for his expeditions in the Himalayas and for his yearly ascents of the Grand Teton in Wyoming.¹² His fame brought even more attention to the mountain troops from across America. He taught safety techniques and methods for evacuating casualties at high elevations while he served in the Medical Detachment as a medic.¹³ Upon arriving at Camp Hale, a Mountain Training Center in-processing sergeant asked him which unit he wanted to join. He responded that he wanted to join the 10^th Reconnaissance Troop after hearing about its notoriety. The sergeant responded, “I’m sorry they only take good climbers and skiers in that outfit.”¹⁴ Who could blame the sergeant for his mistake in not knowing that only Camp Hale, among all army cantonments, seemed to be inundated with celebrity recruits who brought civilian skills the army had never utilized before.

During that same month of February 1940, the army held its first ski fighting maneuvers in its history at Camp Pine, New York, with the 28^th Infantry Division.¹⁵ Soldiers moved supplies on skis and fought a mock battle using tactics learned from the Finns in order to experiment more than the army ever had in mountain and winter warfare. Colonel C.M. Dowell of Fort Niagara, commander of one of the units of the 28^th Infantry, commented that these maneuvers had demonstrated “one of the greatest national defense advances in American History.”¹⁶ The Lewiston Evening Journal further quoted him as saying, “It is in the best interest of the army to be able to carry out its mission any time, anywhere.”¹⁷ Unfortunately for Dole, these sentiments of Colonel Dowell were not the same for the War Department—at least, not yet.

Finally, at the end of the summer of 1940, Dole and John E.P. Morgan (treasurer of the NSP) traveled to Washington, D.C., and met with army chief of staff General George C. Marshall. Marshall gave the two men his assurance that the U.S. Army was keeping some units in the Snowbelt region through the coming winter to experiment with training and equipment for cold-weather fighting.¹⁸ This assurance turned into an order from General Marshall, establishing six army “ski patrols” that trained at different locations around the country.¹⁹

U.S. ski troops wind up maneuvers with night firing at Camp Pine, New York, on February 28, 1940. Author’s personal collection.

The 28^th Infantry Division, Uncle Sam’s own “ghost” army, at Camp Pine, New York, on February 28, 1940. Author’s personal collection.

The purpose of the patrols was to “select men…to be taught the use of skis, snowshoes, and the fundamentals of camping and travelling in the snow and high mountains.”²⁰ These patrols commenced both in the East with the 44^th Infantry Division ski patrol around Old Forge, New York, and in the West with the 3^rd and 41^st Infantry Division ski patrols at Fort Lewis, Washington, which later moved to Mount Rainier National Park’s Longmire Headquarters from December 7, 1940, to February 22, 1941.²¹ Private Harald Sorensen, coach of the 44^th Infantry Division Ski Patrol, reminisced about his arrival at Old Forge, writing, “There was life at Old Forge when our train rolled in—(brass band and all the “trimmins.”) We enjoyed that most naturally. But we were soon awakened to the fact we were there on business. It was the business of proving the feasibility of the adoption of a ski patrol unit as a permanent branch of the U.S. Army.”²²

However, by the spring of 1941, the army had declared the ski patrol experiments a success and disbanded the units due to a lack of snow in the Northeast and a permanent change of station.²³ Dole continued to press for the establishment of two training camps—one in the East and one in the Northwest—while his letters commenced on to Washington.²⁴ Thankfully, Dole’s letters were not in vain, as General Marshall, in April 1941, ordered his subordinates to find a suitable training site for a much larger mountain infantry division adept at skiing and climbing.²⁵

This decision did not technically prove effective until November 15, 1941, when Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and General Marshall stated that the 1^st Battalion (Reinforced) 87^th Mountain Infantry Regiment would be activated at Fort Lewis, Washington.²⁶ However, the army never intended for Fort Lewis to serve as the permanent home for ski troopers. As early as June 23, 1941, the Headquarters Company of the 8^th Corps at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, recommended in its report of investigation that “a cantonment for mountain and winter warfare training for a triangular division, be located in the Pando, Colorado, area.”²⁷ Exactly one year from the date of the orders for the formation of the 87^th Mountain Infantry Regiment, the army finished constructing Camp Hale.

2

THE CHOICE OF PANDO

The Pando area received a heavier annual snowfall than any other large area in Colorado.²⁸

—Board of officers from the 8^th Corps Area, Fort Sam Houston, Texas

Finding a suitable location for a winter training camp for ski troopers challenged the army because of the unique requirements. Never before in its history had the army desired to find a...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword, by Flint Whitlock
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Ski Troopers
• 2. The Choice of Pando
• 3. The Army’s Development of Pando
• 4. From Pando to Camp Hale
• 5. The Ski Troops Arrive
• 6. The Growth of Camp Hale and the Intensification of Training
• 7. The WAACs Take on Camp Hale
• 8. R&R and Camp Hale’s Peculiar Neighbor: Leadville
• 9. Rumors of War and Training for War
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Bibliography
• About the Author