Throwback Thursday – Spies and Espionage in Kentucky during World War II

Last week Throwback Thursday introduced you to Lewis the singing tramp, who was also a German spy during WWI. This week, we take a look at German prisoners of war in Kentucky during WWII.

Twenty-three years after the Great War ended, the United States was once again at war with Germany. This time Kentucky sent some 300 thousand solders to battle. As American forces captured axis soldiers around the globe, they were imprisoned at military bases scattered throughout the U.S., so as not to concentrate too many in any one location. In Kentucky, prisoners of war were held at Camp Campbell, Camp Breckenridge, and Fort Knox. Some of the prisoners worked on nearby family farms for just $1.80 a day, according to the article in the Kentucky New Era newspaper.

In November 1942, two German prisoners of war and a third German, who was interned alien, jumped off a train while being transported through Kentucky, according to an article in the Daily News. They spent two nights sleeping in the woods and a barn in Warren County before being arrested without resistance by the sheriff while they were walking down Richardsville Road. 

The sheriff was alerted to their presence by two women, employees of the Derby Underwear factory, after they had stopped at their house the night before, asking for water and directions. After being held in the Warren County jail, the three Germans were taken into custody by military police.