After being appointed head of the OSS, Donovan began to look for locations for the training of OSS recruits. Luckily for Donovan, there were already two ready made training facilities available; Catoctin Mountain Park and Prince William Forest Park. The parks were the perfect spot for the training facilities because they were secluded in a vast wilderness, had cabins available for recruits, and were already government property (1). Following an intense dispute with the National Parks Service and the Secretary of the Interior, Donovan set up the three main camps. Training Area B , in Catoctin Mountain Park, and Training Areas A and C in Prince William Forest Park.
Catoctin Mountain Park
The only training area in Catoctin Mountain Park was Area B. Training Area B was the first operating training camp for for the OSS (3). All recruits were first sent to Area B for their basic paramilitary training, they were then sent to either Area A or C for more advanced training (2). The basic training at Catoctin encompassed things such as; hand-to-hand and knife fighting techniques, as well as the basics of firearm handling (3).
Picture of OSS recruits practicing firing a gun in Area B (8).
At Area B, OSS trainees went through two weeks of rigorous physical and mental training in order to “weed” out anyone who was unable to cope with the stress that an OSS job might have put them under. The most notable test of the trainees’ physical strength was a shaky wooden obstacle course mounted over forty feet in the air (2). Recruits had to climb along narrow planks and up poles in order to simulate actions such as running on poorly built bridges or tower beams. The infamous “pistol house”, nickname the “house of horror” by recruits, was how the camp determined if a trainee was able to handle the intense mental stress their job would put them under (3). During the test a lone trainee would be taken out of their bunk in the middle of the night and informed by a superior that there were some Nazi’s hiding out in a building near by. The recruit was then given a pistol and some ammunition and told that they were to ‘get rid of’ the Germans. Upon entering the alleged German infested building, the recruit would then be surprised by five pop up posters, which produced loud gun fire sounds, and a life like dummy. Any recruit who did not should all five posters and the dummy automatically failed (2). After the trainees’ two grueling weeks at Area B were up, they were sent to either Area A or C for more advanced training.
Prince William Forest Park
Training Area A
Training Area A was the Special Ops training facility for the OSS (4). The Special Operation units of the OSS would control guerrilla campaigns (6) and a variety of other espionage and sabotage missions (2). One of the main goals of Area A was to teach trainees how to successfully operate covert missions.
Click here to watch an OSS undercover espionage training video:
During their first two weeks at Area A, recruits began to learn more intellectual skills like information gathering, target identification, sabotage, and observation (2). At this stage, recruits were still required to preform physically demanding task. While all of the physical task trainees had to complete, like crawling under live machine gun fire, were dangerous, the one that provided the biggest danger to recruits was the “demolition trail”. The demolition trail was an obstacle course that went through the woods and was covered in live booby traps; the recruits were told to move through it as quickly and quietly as possible without tripping any of the traps (3). One of the first espionage-esque assignments that recruits were given was to find out as much as possible about other trainees, while simultaneously concealing as much about themselves as possible. After basic training was completed, recruits would then be sent to either airborne or seaborne infiltration training (2). After that, trainees were then trained for sub-units of the Special Ops branch like guerrilla leadership, intelligence work, sabotage, or propaganda. People assigned to the sabotage sub-unit were taught how to make, place, and detonate bombs in strategic locations, and people placed in guerrilla training learned how to lead successful guerrilla campaigns against the enemy. People placed in intelligence work were given an in-depth training on espionage/”spy” tactics (4). Recruits in the intelligence field were encouraged to practice their new found skills in the surrounding communities. After anywhere from 3 to 6 months recruits were given a series of test they had to pass in order to graduate (7). These test ranged from infiltrating government defense bases to being covertly observed when drunk to see if the recruit gave away any endagering information (2). After graduation, recruits hoped to be sent all over the world on various missions, but the majority never even went behind enemy lines (5).
Training Area C
Training Area C was located on the eastern side of the park. It was used to train members of the Communications branch of the OSS. The Communications branch was responsible for coding, ciphering, transmitting, and receiving information (3).
Spy’s In Cabin Type in Morse Code (9).
At Area C radio engineers were taught how to operate shortwave stations that transmitted secret messages from agents collecting information from behind enemy lines (4). Training Area C also taught Special Operations and Secret Intelligence trainees the basics of Morse Code, ciphering, radio maintenance, and covert radio techniques (3). As with all of the aforementioned camps, Training Area C taught its trainees the basics of weapon usage and martial arts, however they were not as strongly emphasized because few Communications agents ever had to be behind enemy lines.
Office Of Strategic Services Training Camps in WWII 