Opened in November 1942 as one of the first prisoner of war camps during World War II, Camp Crossville housed over 1,500 German and Italian prisoners of war. Designated for officers, the camp held General Pietro Gazzeri, one of the Italian army's highest ranking officers. It also housed German officers of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's famed Afrika Korps. Camp Crossville stood on the Cumberland Plateau, nine miles west of Crossville on the site of the Civilian Conservation Corps camp, and it closed in December 1945.