The original Camp Bowie was a World War I training camp near Fort Worth, Texas. On September 19, 1940, the U.S. War Department authorized construction of a new Camp Bowie near Brownwood, and work began there on September 27, 1940. The first major defense project in Texas during the World War II era, it employed more than 15,000 workers. The 36th Infantry Division of the Texas Army National Guard received orders to mobilize at Camp Bowie on November 25, 1940. The division trained at Camp Bowie, Camp Blanding in Florida, and Camp Edwards in Massachusetts before leading the assault on Salerno on September 9, 1943. Eventually, men from all states joined the fighting 36th Infantry Division Texas Division, which served more days in combat than any other division in World War II. By October 1942, Camp Bowie had grown to 123,000 acres, including 5,000 acres for camp and 118,000 acres for training, making it the largest military training area in the U.S. at the time. Eight divisions and numerous other regiments and companies trained there. Camp Bowie never held fewer than 30,000 men and reached a peak of 60,000, and more than 250,000 soldiers passed through it. In August 1943, Camp Bowie received German POWs, many from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Corps. Camp Bowie was decommissioned in August 1946 and developed as the Camp Bowie Industrial Park, while 10,000 acres of the original camp are used to train members of the Texas Army National Guard, Texas State Guard, and other military forces.