The Hill Project at Camp Ritchie (SEP 1945)
In early 1945, Maj. Gen. Clayton Bissell, assistant chief of staff, G-2, and Maj. Gen. John Alexander Sinclair, director of military intelligence at the British War Office, signed the Sinclair-Bissell Agreement, proposing an Anglo-American military intelligence project. The project would establish an organization of imprisoned German generals to research and analyze Wehrmacht military documents captured during World War II. The project’s main goal was to “establish and operate a library of captured German documents and publications and to conduct such military document research as is mutually agreed upon” by both the U.S. and Britain. The U.S. Army chief of staff formally approved the project on May 22, 1945.
On July 14, 1945, the U.S. Army moved previously captured German documents from the Military Intelligence Research Section (MIRS) in Fort Hunt, Virginia, to Camp Ritchie, renaming it the German Military Document Section (GMDS). This formed the initial repository for the Hill Project. The Army chose Camp Ritchie because of its proximity to Washington but also because it provided necessary seclusion for a top-secret project conducted with the aid of high-profile prisoners of war.
In September 1945, the Hill Project formally began with the arrival of thousands of documents from the U.S. Army Document Control Section in Frankfurt and the first twenty-seven “hillbillies.” The Allies handpicked the officers for the project, carefully discerning the unique knowledge and experience each could bring to the research based on their service within the German high command. Some, like Gen. Walther Buhle, the Wehrmacht chief of the army staff, were chosen because their position within the Wehrmacht meant they would be familiar with the documents. Others, like Lt. Gen. Wolfgang Thomale, chief of staff for the inspector general of armored forces and expert in panzer warfare, were chosen because of their technical knowledge. However, the Allies were careful not to choose too high-profile officers for fear the International Military Tribunal would try them for war crimes or call them to testify in the Nuremberg trials.
For the next six months, the captured Wehrmacht officers worked for the Hill Project, researching “subjects which [would] aid in preserving military security in Europe” and studying lessons learned from German methods of warfare for improving military intelligence tactics, techniques, and procedures. The GMDS published several of their reports, including "A Study of German Operational Intelligence," "A Study of the Organization of the German General Staff," and "A Study of German Military Training."
With most of its research projects completed, the Hill Project ended in April 1946. The site was closed at Camp Ritchie and most of the prisoners were repatriated home to Germany. One of many postwar initiatives to protect American national security and interests, the Hill Project and the “hillbillies” were vital for assessing German operations during the Second World War.
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Article by Fiona G. Hunter, former USAICoE Staff Historian. New issues of This Week in MI History are published each week. To report story errors, ask questions, request previous articles, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: TR-ICoE-Command-Historian@army.mil.
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