Camp Roberts

California State Military Museum

Camp Roberts (120.743W 35.793N) was an important Army training center in the coastal ranges of central California. The camp was located on the old Mission Trail north of Mission San Miguel at a site that was identified in 1902 as a suitable location for an Army post. However, a local physician wrote directly to the President disparaging the site, and the purchase of land for the camp was delayed until 1940. The camp officially opened in March 1941 and was one of the largest military training centers in the world. It continued to be expanded through purchases of adjoining land until 1943.

The camp was named after a World War I tank driver and posthumous Medal of Honor recipient, Corporal Harold W. Roberts, who lost his life helping a fellow crewman escape from his tank after it fell into a shell crater filled with rain water.

With an acreage of 44,379 acres and barracks for 1612 officers and 34,181 men, Camp Roberts trained large numbers of infantry and artillery troops. By the end of the war, some 436,000 troops had rotated through the seventeen-week training course. At the time war broke out, 26 Field Artillery Brigade and 30 Field Artillery Regiment (155mm howitzer) were stationed here.

Independent artillery units trained at Camp Roberts

Rail connections

King City

Paso Robles

References

Davis (accessed 2012-9-7)

Stanton (2006)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007-2008, 2012-2013 by Kent G. Budge.  Index

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