CFB Wainwright - Military Camp Wainwright

Military Camp Wainwright

The 583 km2 (225 sq mi) Buffalo National Park was closed in 1940 and the property leased by the Government of Alberta to the Department of National Defence for the creation of an ammunition storage facility as well as an army training camp. DND owned an adjacent 75 km2 (29 sq mi) property and used the facility for live-fire artillery, armoured and infantry training.

Called Wainwright Military Camp, or just Camp Wainwright, after the nearby Canadian National Railways division point, the facility saw use from January 29, 1945 to May 24, 1946 as a prisoner of war internment camp for 523 captured German officers, soldiers and civilians from its first day of operation to 1,100 POW's at its peak. During the 16 months the POW Camp was in full operation, only two prisoners made a successful escape, although they were recaptured just over a month later, but not until they had reached Gary, Indiana.

Decommissioned as a POW internment camp in 1946, Camp Wainwright reverted to a Canadian Army training facility. The Camp staff and Guard company were reduced to nil strength a few weeks later, marking the end of this chapter of CFB/ASU Wainwright's history. Wainwright's infrastructure expanded significantly during the Korean War as buildings were constructed to house and train soldiers in three Canadian Army battalions, as well as units that would form British Commonwealth Forces Korea such as the 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade.