Edited sentence: Finding themselves captured, transported across the ocean, and imprisoned in the middle of summer In the southern United States must have been tremendously unnerving.Prisoners were not forced to work, and some refused.The POWs picked cotton, cut rice, and cut lumber.The first prisoners of war (POWs), who began arriving in Louisiana in July 1943, were from the Africorps, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s proud troops who fought in North Africa.They also helped sanbag the raging Red River in the summer of 1944.They were housed in a large fenced-in compound in the area now encompassing Honor Field, Fort Polk’s parade ground.Those who worked earned scrip for their labor, with which they could buy such necessities as toothpaste or snacks at their own Post Exchange.While primarily a training facility, Camp Polk also served as a military prison for Germans captured during World War II