Cigarette Camps

CIGARETTE CAMPS 

US ARMY CAMPS IN THE LE HAVRE, FRANCE AREA

The 46th Signal Heavy Construction Battalion was at Camp Twenty Grand from February 3-12, 1945, per Morning Reports.

There were nine separate camps that were used for this purpose, located in an area between the cities of LeHavre and Rouen. They were all named after the popular American cigarettes of the day (See Fig. 72). In addition to Camp Twenty Grand, there were Camps Lucky Strikes, Philip Morris, Herbert Tareyton, Pall Mall, Wings, Old Gold, Home Run, and Chesterfield.

These camps were also known as replacement depots or, by the abbreviated version used by most GIs, "repo depos." The naming of the cigarette camps resulted from an attempt by the Allies to keep them secret from the Germans. The Allies felt that any interception of messages relating to them would be interpreted as referring to cigarettes, not camps. They were never referred to by their geographical location.

Our Battalion convoyed approximately forty miles east of Le Havre to a camp located in the Forest de la Fontaine at St. Pierre de Varengeville. It is just six miles west of the city of Rouen.

https://www.skylighters.org/special/cigcamps/cmplstrk.html