12th Armored Division at Camp Barkeley
Abilene, Taylor County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established as a U.S. Army training camp in 1940, Camp Barkeley (whose main entrance was about seven miles south of this site) became one of the nation's largest World War II military training bases. The 12th Armored Division, activated at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, in September 1942, was assigned to Camp Barkeley in November 1943. By April 1944 the manpower of the division was at peak strength with combat commands, three battalions each of tanks, armored infantry, and armored field artillery, and numerous support units. Intensive day and night training at the camp culminated in tests that qualified the division for combat. Camp Barkeley's population was more than twice that of the city of Abilene. Soldiers' families became a part of the community and many returned here to live. The last combat division stationed at Camp Barkeley, the 12th Armored shipped out to Europe in September 1944. The division, nicknamed "Hellcats" and dubbed "The Mystery Division" in General George S. Patton, Jr.'s historic drive to the Rhine River, served with distinction, receiving more than 800 battle decorations. A dominating presence in Abilene during the war, Camp Berkeley was deactivated on April 1, 1945. (1992)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established in 1940, Camp Barkeley grew into one of the nation's largest World War II training bases, at its peak housing more than twice the population of nearby Abilene. The 12th Armored Division arrived in November 1943, drilling day and night with tanks, armored infantry, and field artillery until it qualified for combat and shipped to Europe in September 1944. Nicknamed the 'Hellcats' and dubbed the 'Mystery Division' in General Patton's drive to the Rhine, the division earned more than 800 battle decorations before the camp was deactivated in 1945.
Why it matters
Wartime training camps transformed small American towns and the citizen-soldiers who passed through them, and this one links the Texas home front directly to the campaigns that ended the war in Europe.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · George S. Patton, Jr.
Related events
- · World War II
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lt. Col. William E. Dyess
Abilene, TX
This Abilene marker traces the arc of Albany native William Edwin Dyess from aviation cadet at Randolph Field to squadron commander in the Philippines, where he fought on despite crippling losses of aircraft. Taken prisoner at the fall of Bataan in 1942, he survived the Death March and prison camps, then escaped with eleven others in 1943 — reaching Australia by guerrilla contact and submarine. His accounts in the Chicago Tribune exposed conditions in Japanese camps before he died flying a new P-38 over Burbank late that year.
45th Infantry Division at Camp Barkeley
Abilene, TX
The 45th Infantry Division — the 'Thunderbirds,' drawn from National Guard units in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma — was among the first divisions called into federal service in 1940 and relocated to Camp Barkeley near Abilene in early 1941. Finding the camp little more than a tent city on undrained prairie, the soldiers nicknamed it 'Camp Smokey Okie' and trained hard before shipping out through North Africa to Europe. Across 511 days of combat in Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany they earned eight Medals of Honor and helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp in April 1945; the division was recalled for the Korean War, where it suffered further heavy losses.
Camp Barkeley
Caps, TX
From 1941 to 1945, Camp Barkeley was one of the nation's largest World War II training posts, holding up to 60,000 men at its peak — a military city twice the size of 1940s Abilene. It trained famous infantry and armored divisions, hosted the country's largest medical replacement center and an officer candidate school, and even held German prisoners of war, some of whom escaped or tried to tunnel out. It was named for Private David B. Barkeley, killed on a scouting mission in the Meuse-Argonne offensive of World War I.
Cornelia Clark Fort
Merkel, TX
Cornelia Fort, born into an affluent Nashville family in 1919, discovered flying at twenty-one and within a week had logged over 2,000 miles; by 1941 she was an instructor. She was aloft with a student over Hawaii when Japanese planes struck Pearl Harbor, landing safely under fire, and soon joined Nancy Harkness Love's Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. On March 21, 1943, ferrying a BT-13 in formation toward Dallas, her plane was struck and went down in Mulberry Canyon — making her, records indicate, the first American woman pilot to die on active military duty.