"World's Richest Department Store"

On June 1, 1944, just 5 days before D-Day, reporters were invited to tour the Belle Mead Quartermaster Depot in Hillsborough. This was the first time the depot, which opened in October of 1942, allowed the public inside its gates.

Belle Mead Quartermaster Depot Uniform Patch

At that time, the depot property consisted of about 1000 acres of former farmland. Where twenty-six farms once stood there was now $1.2 billion of supplies warehoused in what the New York Times called "the world's richest department store".

Fourteen warehouses and five million square feet of outdoor storage space sat alongside 45 miles of railroad track. Five locomotives belonging to the depot worked to string together railroad cars for shipment. The depot was an intermediate stop for the 45,000 tons of shipping that passed through every day during the war - and supplies were constantly being unloaded, sorted, and reloaded by the 1700 civilian employees.

Shortly after the depot opened, in December of 1942, a civilian labor shortage forced the Army to employ Princeton University students on Sundays. As many as 350 students worked at the depot on any given Sunday. Faculty and administrators also pitched in, working side by side with the undergraduates. Their enthusiasm and dedication to "winning the war" motivated the students to work quickly and productively.

The depot was also home to prisoners of war. During the war, captured Italian soldiers who swore allegiance to the U.S. after Italy switched sides were formed into Italian Service Units, living and working at the depot.After the war, German prisoners began to arrive. An article in the Hopewell Herald on November 14, 1945, described how to recognize a German POW. Although the escaped prisoner would be wearing American military clothing, the letters "PW" would be painted on various parts of the uniform. There was a $15 reward for the capture of an escaped prisoner.