Italian Service Unit in Boston

in Dorchester

Camp McKay, which occupied part of what is now UMass Boston’s Bayside Lot, was built in just 45 days. Its 93 barracks could house 2,000. It was named for famous clipper ship builder, Donald McKay.

1944 photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration

On September 3, 1943, during World War II, Italy switched sides and joined the Allied powers. This meant that the 51,000 Italian prisoners of war held in the U.S. were no longer “enemy combatants.” They were offered the opportunity to join the newly created Italian Service Unit (ISU). The vast majority did, seizing the chance for paid work and a less restrictive confinement.

Six months later, 1,800 ISU members arrived here at Camp McKay. They immediately began loading supply ships bound for Europe. Italian-Americans in Boston visited the men, bringing traditional food and exchanging news. But by summer, as the war in Europe raged on, veteran groups and some South Boston residents escalated their protests about the Italians’ presence and their right to occasional Sunday passes. Army officials moved ISU members to Fort Andrews on Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor.

After the war ended in 1945, most ISU members returned to Italy. A number married women they’d fallen in love with during visits. Camp McKay was converted into desperately needed housing for returning U.S. veterans and their families.

The Italian Service Unit was part of the U.S. Army Service Forces. ISU members had to swear allegiance to the United States. They wore U.S. Army uniforms with the green ISU insignia on their sleeves.

“[The ISU’s] labor is essential. These men are contributing a great deal to the American war effort!” Brigadier General Calvin Dewitt, commanding officer of the Boston Quartermaster Depot

ISU members worked nine-hour days, six days a week loading ships at Boston’s Port of Embarkation—a colossal Army facility where the cruise terminal is today.

National Archives & Records Administration

Boston Globe’s article, “Former Italian Prisoners Enjoy Boston’s Hospitality” described how 100 former Italian POWs—with Sunday passes— had attended mass, then sung at the Hatch Shell. Later they “enjoyed an outing in the country.” The front-page story ran alongside one reporting the Allies’ capture of Rome (from the German army). The report likely contributed to mounting local hostility toward the ISU men.

Courtesy of The Boston Globe, June 5, 1944

Sign Location

More …

All Boston Globe newspaper reports from the time make it quite clear that all the incidents were instigated by South Boston residents not the ISU men.

Most indications are that they were relieved to be moved from behind iron fencing to an island where they could move freely. A ferry took them back and forth to work and they continued to receive Sunday passes.

Community activists. Colonial law. Political will. New state regulations. The combination created the 43-mile Boston Harborwalk–a public path, stretching from Logan Airport through seven neighborhoods to the Neponset River. In 1978, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) sought to improve public access to the waterfront. They succeeded by integrating early Colonial laws into new state regulations.

In the decades that followed, community activists, city and state government, and developers of shoreline projects have worked together to ensure the Harborwalk is always constructed along the waterfront. Some sites also provide public amenities–bathrooms, meeting places, kayak launches,
etc. The result is a fabulous path welcoming residents and visitors to our vibrant clean harbor.

Early Colonial laws established public right of access along tidelands to protect citizens’ rights to fish, hunt, and navigate at sea and along the shorefront. These laws go back even further: They stem from Roman law, which was incorporated into English law and brought over to Massachusetts by English
settlers. Then, in the 1640s, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed laws permitting private docks in the intertidal area (between low and high tide) as long as public access was retained. Almost all of Boston’s waterfront is filled land that was once the intertidal area. This, together with the centuries-old legal right of access, served as the underpinnings for the 1978 CZM regulations.

Resources

Acknowledgments

  • Friends of the Boston Harborwalk is deeply grateful to the George B. Henderson Foundation for funding the design, manufacture, and installation of the signs at Columbia Point.
  • Thank you to University of Massachusetts Boston Professor Vincent Cannato and author Stephen Puleo for their expert advice.
  • Our gratitude to the Perkins School for the Blind Recording Studio and Thomasine Berg for their partnership in creating the audio files.