World War II (MD)

Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland has for many years commemorated the service of local men and women through a town wide event called Cumberland Goes To War. This year the event was broadened and called Western Maryland Goes to War. This meant there were tributes to soldiers from World War I to Desert Storm and the contributions and sacrifices made by the community, with music, roundtables, displays, fly-ins and more.

Fred Johnson from Allentown, Pennsylvania enlisted in the Air Force shortly after war was declared. In 1943 he began training in Miami, then Springfield, Ohio; Santa Monica, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Sioux City, Iowa, before finally flying to Great Ashfield, England in December 1944. 

"Rosie the Riveter" became a nickname for the millions of women from all backgrounds and across the country who worked in wartime industries and support services, including aircraft factories, shipyards, steel mills, foundries, lumber mills, warehouses, offices, hospitals and daycare centers. Some of the stories of the Western Maryland Rosies are recorded on these pages, as these women did indeed "make history."

Washington County residents enlisted to serve in World War II. This scrapbook records some of that history. Veda Poole Carbaugh, whose husband Frank received a Purple Heart for wounds received in Germany, pasted stories found in the Hagerstown newspapers into a large scrapbook. She included over 700 individuals, some of them several times as they were injured, received commendations, came home, met other service men from Hagerstown or died from wounds.

German-Jewish men, among others, who had immigrated to the United States prior to World War II were enlisted by the Army and sent to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, for counter intelligence training. Several trainings and demonstrations focused on preparing the men for a return to Germany where they would interview prisoners, gather intelligence, and urge Germans to prepare for defeat. Other trainings at Camp Ritchie included first aid, interrogation, house-to-house fighting, combat courses, photo interpretation, anti-tank gunnery, and firing ranges.