As WWII U.S. military officers and enlisted men, who were the Ritchie Boys?

The Ritchie Boys were a U.S. special German-Austrian unit of Military Intelligence Service officers and enlisted men during WWII who trained at Camp Ritchie in Washington County Maryland. Many of the individuals were German-speaking immigrants to the United States, who had escaped before the onset of the war. Often they were Jews who fled Nazi persecution.

There were approximately 15,200 servicemen who were trained for U.S. Army Intelligence during WWII at the secret Camp Ritchie training facility. Of this total, approximately 14% or 2,200 of the men were Jewish refugees born in Germany and Austria. Most of the men sent to Camp Ritchie for training were assigned there because of their fluency in German, French, Italian, Polish, or other languages needed by the US Army during WWII.

Special training included methods of investigation and psychological warfare. The Jewish refugees knew the German language, mentality and behavior better that most Americans-born soldiers. They were able to analyze German forces and plans, and also launch strategies to demoralize the enemy.

Joining the forces on D-Day, shortly after landing, they left their units and pursued special tasks, able to feed the Allies valuable information. They also interrogated prisoners of war and defectors to obtain information about German troop movements.

A classified postwar report by the U.S. Army found that nearly 60% of the credible intelligence gathered in Europe came from the Ritchie Boys.