The Port of Embarkation in the Overseas Supply System- 1942

The Charleston Port of Embarkation (CPOE) was a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Port of Embarkation (POE) responsible for the movement of troops and supplies from the United States to overseas commands. The CPOE was established in Charleston to relieve pressure on the New York Port of Embarkation with initial responsibility largely centered on the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

and

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. After the United States entered World War II, Charleston became a POE in its own right. Later in the war, more use was made of the Port, and it was designated as the home port for Army hospital ships serving the European and

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

theaters. In the spring of 1943 the Chief of Transportation began to train personnel for the operation and maintenance of small boats and amphibian trucks there, before they were moved to Camp Gordon Johnston. The CPOE also served as a training place for army beach landings. James E. Slack and James T. Duke commanded the port. Originally the Charleston Ordnance Depot, it was redesigned the Charleston Port of Embarkation during World War II. On July 1, 1952, it officially became the Charleston Transportation Corps Marine Depot. Although the facilities for shipping medical supplies from Charleston, South Carolina, were not complete until after the war's end, the first three hospital ships were assigned to the port on November 1, 1943: The USAHS ''Acadia'', the USAHS ''Seminole'', and USAHS ''Shamrock''. The port also trained the first Harbor Craft Companies. From December 1941 to August 1945, the port carried 35,495 people, and 3,215,981 pounds of supplies. At the peak of the war, 21 of 26 hospital ships were assigned to the CPOE. p. 48

References

Sources

* * * * * *{{cite book, url=http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/010/10-19/index.html, title=The Technical Services—The Transportation Corps: Responsibilities, Organization, And Operations, last1=Wardlow, first1=Chester, publisher=Center Of Military History, United States Army, year=1999, isbn=, series=United States Army In World War II, location=Washington, DC, pages=, lccn=99490905, access-date=23 October 2014, archive-date=25 January 2014, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125032114/http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/010/10-19/index.html, url-status=dead Military units and formations of the United States in World War II