| Training Area D, Smith’s Point |
The Office of Strategic Services established Area D near Smith’s Point on the remote eastern shore of the Potomac River, approximately 65 kilometres south of Washington, D.C.
In the early months of 1942, Special Operations teams within the Office of Strategic Services begin practising maritime skills on a small lake in Virginia. However, Colonel William J. Donovan, the organisation’s founder, pushes for a dedicated training area situated on open water. By late April of that year, the Special Operations Branch secures a tract of land measuring approximately 570 hectares on the eastern bank of the Potomac River, some 65 kilometres south of Washington.
This remote area, most likely located near Smith’s Point, close to what is now Purse State Park in Charles County, Maryland, is designated Training Area D. It is intended as a secret facility for the development of maritime infiltration skills. The location offers natural seclusion and immediate access to the river, while still remaining close enough to the capital to permit convenient inspections by senior officials.
The Office of Strategic Services leases the land for Training Area D from a private owner, and historical research indicates that the site may once have been used as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp or a seasonal recreation area.
The property boasts an extensive frontage along the Potomac River, with sloping ground near the water giving way to secondary forest, open glades, and cultivated fields further inland. The main encampment is located roughly 15 metres from the river’s edge, allowing direct boat access from the shoreline for training purposes. To expedite development, the Office of Strategic Services makes use of prefabricated buildings acquired from the United States Army.
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Photo Contributor; Christian Lambertsen
| Training Area D |
Seven single-storey barracks, constructed from timber frames and sheathed in tar paper, are erected to accommodate trainees. Additional structures are built to serve as officers’ quarters, a mess hall and kitchen, indoor classrooms, an infirmary, sanitation facilities, and storage buildings for vehicles and maritime equipment. Water, electricity, and other basic services are either installed or improvised to support the camp’s semi-permanent operation.
By the winter of 1942, contractors are employed to insulate and winterise the entire site to ensure year-round usability. The surrounding area remains sparsely inhabited, with only a few scattered farms and a tavern several kilometres away, which occasionally serves as a recreation spot for staff. The remote location enhances operational security. Access to the site is regulated by armed Military Police or Office of Strategic Services security personnel, and the official explanation offered to locals is that a standard Army engineer training unit is conducting exercises, one of many such plausible cover stories employed across the organisation’s training network.
A British naval officer, Lieutenant Commander H. G. Woolley, an expert in covert beach landings seconded from the British Combined Operations Headquarters, oversees the establishment of the site. His American deputy, Lieutenant Jack Taylor of the United States Naval Reserve, the camp specialises in maritime infiltration and sabotage. Taylor, who later serves with distinction as an operative in Europe, is often regarded as one of the United States Navy’s first commandos.
The training staff includes several distinguished instructors. Lieutenant Jack Duncan, a veteran of the Marine Raiders, contributes his combat experience. Lieutenant Jack Shaheen, who later leads the McGregor Mission, provides instruction alongside Major Albert B. Seitz of the Special Operations Branch and Lieutenant Jerry Sage, a former trainee of the British Special Operations Executive, whose wartime exploits later inspire accounts of prisoner-of-war escapes. Lieutenant Frank Gleason, a demolition specialist, and Seaman John P. Spence, widely referred to as “America’s first frogman,” play crucial roles in the development of combat diving tactics. Woolley acquires boats, like the Maribel and Marsyl, two cabin cruisers under Coast Guard cover to use at Area D.
Training Area D is operated by the Special Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services, but from the outset it accommodates personnel from across the organisation. The initial remit is to instruct two- and three-man Special Operations teams, along with selected agents from the Secret Intelligence Branch, in maritime infiltration techniques. The objective is to enable the clandestine landing of spies and saboteurs on hostile shores by sea.
The training camp is a joint enterprise from the beginning. The instructional cadre includes officers from the United States Navy and Marine Corps assigned to the Office of Strategic Services for special duty, as well as a Royal Navy adviser, reflecting the collaborative and multi-service character of covert operations. In January 1943, the Office of Strategic Services formally establishes a “Marine Section” within the Special Operations Branch to concentrate exclusively on maritime tactics. Office of Strategic Services personnel, including many Coast Guardsmen, form the nucleus of the training cadre.
This Marine Section quickly develops substantial technical proficiency and assembles a range of specialised equipment, including collapsible kayaks, magnetic limpet mines, and miniature submersible craft. As its capabilities grow, the Marine Section is separated in June 1943 to become the independent Maritime Unit of the Office of Strategic Services. This new formation assumes control of the maritime training at Area D, developing it into a comprehensive programme for seaborne sabotage and underwater combat.
At Area D, trainees from the Maritime Unit learn to deploy collapsible eight-man canoes from submarines and conduct stealthy approaches to target areas. They practise using Dr. Lambertsen’s closed-circuit diving apparatus during simulated coastal raids. The training is designed to equip them for maritime commando operations in hostile environments.
Although Training Area D is primarily associated with Special Operations and the Maritime Unit, it also supports other divisions of the Office of Strategic Services. Personnel from the Morale Operations Branch, tasked with psychological warfare and propaganda, train at the site when their missions require amphibious skills. These operatives are taught seaborne infiltration methods alongside Special Operations personnel, as their assignments may involve landing in occupied territory to distribute propaganda or link up with local resistance groups.
Later in 1943, as Operational Group units complete their training, typically multi-member commando teams composed of native speakers selected for missions in Europe and Asia, Area D serves as both a final staging point and a temporary holding area. Its secluded and well-guarded location makes it suitable for housing these teams prior to deployment overseas. Some Special Operations teams who have completed their instruction at other locations are also stationed here while awaiting embarkation.
By 1943 and into 1944, Training Area D assumes several overlapping functions: an advanced training facility for the Special Operations and Maritime Units, a contingency training site when other facilities are at capacity, and a marshalling station for field-ready units. Although modest in scale, maintaining a permanent staff of around fifty officers and enlisted personnel, it accommodates up to 180 trainees simultaneously. Despite its relatively small size, Area D plays a pivotal role across the operational spectrum of the Office of Strategic Services, supporting clandestine activities ranging from espionage and psychological warfare to maritime raids and sabotage.
Geographically, Smith’s Point lies within the tidal region of the Potomac River. The river at Area D is wide and generally calm, ideal for small boat exercises and basic maritime training. However, the absence of ocean surf and significant tidal movement limits the site’s ability to replicate the conditions of landing on an enemy-held coastline. Instructors quickly recognise this shortcoming, noting that the site cannot fully simulate the challenges of amphibious landings against defended beaches.
Moreover, the Potomac’s waters are turbid and contaminated, and winter temperatures cause ice to form along the surface, severely impeding diving instruction. These environmental factors become a persistent limitation, especially for advanced underwater operations. Consequently, the Office of Strategic Services seeks alternative training locations with warmer, clearer water.
By November 1943, the Maritime Unit relocates its principal swim training to Silver Springs in Florida. This move is followed by a further expansion to the crystal-clear waters of Nassau in the Bahamas, providing far better conditions for combat swimmer training. During the summer of 1944, the Office of Strategic Services also establishes schools at Camp Pendleton and on Santa Catalina Island, California, to prepare operatives for missions in the Pacific Theatre.
As these new locations take precedence, the role of Area D declines. The camp, having fulfilled its function during the intense training years of 1942 and 1943, is officially closed in April 1944. Shortly thereafter, the land is returned to its original owner.
| Training |
The mission at Area D is to train agents to reach hostile shores undetected and to conduct covert operations upon landing. Instruction centres around maritime mobility: operating small craft such as inflatable rubber boats, kayaks, and canoes under cover of darkness, executing silent landings on isolated beaches, and transporting weapons and supplies covertly. Trainees conduct launches and rowing exercises on the Potomac River, simulating commando-style assaults on enemy coasts. They practise night navigation, concealment of craft by daylight, and the discreet deployment of agents and sabotage teams.
As training develops, demolition and live-fire components are added. Students rehearse placing limpet mines on ship hulls, setting timed charges, and breaching beach defences. They also receive instruction in unarmed combat and close-quarters knife fighting to prepare for sentry neutralisation or coastal facility raids. By late 1942, the site transitions into a fully-fledged advanced training ground, and instructors begin conducting integrated land and water manoeuvres across the estate.
In October 1942, expansion plans include the introduction of airborne infiltration scenarios, made possible through cooperation with nearby Quantico Marine Base. A rudimentary landing strip is carved into a pasture within Area D to facilitate light aircraft landings. The first test proceeds successfully, though a subsequent attempt ends in a minor crash due to an overly short runway, fortunately without serious injury.
In November, trainees and instructors engage in extensive field exercises that mimic real combat, using army vehicles, booby traps, and live explosives. During one ambush simulation, an instructor narrowly survives an accidental detonation of trinitrotoluene (TNT), highlighting the hazards inherent in such realistic training. Area D thereby becomes a proving ground where recruits are conditioned under genuine physical and psychological stress.
Simultaneously, the site becomes a laboratory for innovation in underwater warfare. Reports of Italian combat swimmers sinking Allied ships prompt Donovan to initiate experimental training in diving and underwater sabotage. From late 1942, the Office of Strategic Services enlists Dr. Christian L. J. Lambertsen, inventor of the Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit, a revolutionary closed-circuit breathing apparatus. Divers at Area D, including Navy seaman John P. “Jack” Spence, begin testing this early form of self-contained underwater breathing equipment in the Potomac River.
Spence, a former deep-sea diver, is among the first to operate the rebreather system during trial missions, which leave no surface trace such as air bubbles. While the Potomac’s strong currents and poor visibility present substantial challenges, and one trainee tragically drowns during a 1942 diving exercise, these early tests lay the groundwork for modern combat swimming. By spring 1943, the Office of Strategic Services formally organises its Maritime Unit combat swimmer programme, initially training at Area D and nearby naval installations.
This unit also pioneers underwater demolition techniques, beach reconnaissance, and seaborne infiltration.