Acquisition and Use of Land for Military and War Production Purposes, World War II

Excerpts from the Introduction: The great expansion in the military and naval forces of the United States occasioned by the outbreak and spread of war in Europe demanded large acreages of land for military purposes. Land was needed for camps, airfields, bombing ranges, artillery ranges, ordnance plants and depots, and many other activities of war. Until 1940 the Nation had not used extensive tracts of land for war purposes but within 2-1/2 years more privately owned land was bought by the Federal Government than ever before in a comparable length of time. Meanwhile much Federal land that was under the jurisdiction of agencies other than the War and Navy Departments was made available for military training. It is the aim of this report to give a fairly comprehensive analysis of the wartime program of land acquisition, as to acreage and types of land involved, methods of acquisition, number of families bought out, the extent of financial assistance given affected communities, the wartime use of this land for agriculture, and the development of policies for the postwar disposal of surplus land. Thus this important phase of the war effort will be recorded. An analysis of the problem and a record of the kinds of activities carried on by the governmental agencies should be helpful to others who are to administer future programs of land acquisition.