Located on the western outskirts of New Orleans, near the Huey P. Long Mississippi River bridge, in Jefferson Parish, Camp Plauche was originally known as Camp Harahan. It was renamed in honor of Major Jean Baptiste Plauche, who served under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. Major Plauche went on to become the second Lt. Governor of Louisiana under the administration of Gov. Joseph Walker. They were the first elected officials to be sworn in at the new State Capitol in Baton Rouge, in June of 1850.
During World War II, Camp Plauche was, first, a staging area for troops, then, an Army training facility and, later on, a POW camp for German and Italian prisoners. At first, the camp served as a staging area for troops passing through the New Orleans Port of Embarkation; then it was turned into a training base. It was at Camp Plauche that the 765th Transportation Battalion was formed. Between 200,000 - 300,000 troops were organized and trained there. It functioned as the Transportation Corps Training Center and the Transportation Corps Officer Candidate School. It was also an important Animal Remount Station (point of embarkation and debarkation for Army horses and mules; thousands came through Camp Plauche on their way to the Pacific and European Theaters). Camp Plauche had 610 housing units and a hospital. After the war, the base hospital, which was located on the river side of Jefferson Highway, became the first Ochsner Foundation Hospital. Later on, a new Ochsner Hospital was built further down on Jefferson Highway.
With training needs on the wane, Camp Plauche became a prisoner of war camp. Three thousands Italian prisoners were held there and all the rest were German prisoners, mainly from Gen. Rommel's "Afrika Korps." C. J. Christ, columnist for Houma Today, writes, "The Camp Plauche paper contained a lengthy description of the nearby Huey P. Long Bridge over the Mississippi River, the towering sight and sounds of which would last forever in the memories of the POW's encamped there." Mr. Christ, also, mentions his grandfather clearing sugar cane and weeds on the site in preparation for building the Army barracks, saying that his grandfather remembered most of all the sounds of the chugging and puffing steam engines, as they climbed to the top of the steep Huey P. Long bridge.
From war's end until the mid-1950's, the barracks were used as apartments for veterans. With a significant housing shortage throughout the city, the barracks-turned-apartments were eagerly sought-after. My own family lived in one of those apartments briefly in the early 1950's (pictures below).
Ultimately, all of the former camp's buildings were torn down, but the salvaged building materials went into many homes in the area. Camp Plauche lives on - sometimes in the least expected places!
Construction on Elmwood Industrial Park began on Camp Plauche's former site in the 1960's. There are now hundreds of offices, manufacturing plants and storage facilities located there. There's nothing left to indicate that the area was once a critical training facility, a prisoner of war camp or home to hundreds of GI's families. But, sometimes in the quiet of the night, one could almost swear he hears the faint sounds of a chugging steam engine and the far-off whistle of its horn. Nancy |
