Inside Camp - X TM
 

Chapter IX

By Lynn-Philip Hodgson

The Bowmanville Connection

 The Bowmanville connection to Camp - X was extraordinary to say the least.  Unless you belonged to the Axis Group and you were in a German occupied country, there was nowhere else on earth other than at Camp - X where you could summon a German officer and have him sitting in your office within a half hour.  Located only minutes away from Camp - X, Bowmanville, Ontario, was a German Officer’s Internment Camp during the Second World War, officially known as Camp 30.

 One of the buildings of Camp - X referred to earlier, the Lecture Hall, was used for training agents using black board theory and also housed artifacts of German weaponry, uniforms and insignia, all confiscated from the captive officers in detention at Camp 30.  The admonishment above the door, "Know Your Enemy", was not taken lightly; herein was conducted the most detailed training in exactly that aspect of the secret war.

 Early on in the war, it became evident to the British that they had to establish a detention centre for German prisoners of war, especially officers.  They needed to find a location that would be safe, still in a Commonwealth country, but as far from Britain as possible.  Camp 30 satisfied all these criteria.  The British could not afford to take their captured German officers back to Britain for, in the event that Germany were to be successful in invading Britain, the German Officers would then have been released immediately and put back into battle from within Britain.  Therefore, they sent their captured German officers to Canada where, ironically, they ended up incarcerated only thirty minutes from Camp - X.
 
 

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