Anonymous - TOPHAT (1945-1950)

56,5×32,5 cm, 1945-1950.
Tophat is a brand of cigarettes in Belgium, short (70 mm), 10 cigarettes in a pack, hard pack, early after the 2nd world war.
The camp Tophat was set up by the 19th AAA Division with the 556 and 559 AAA Divisions in the leading role. They had a 'tophat' as their unit symbol which was painted on their vehicles and later the name Tophat became the name of the camp. More than 270,000 men were processed here on their trip home.
The American forces set up a series of camps to bring their troops home after the end of hostilities. Mostly in France and they were named 'Cigarette Camps' as each had the name of a cigarette brand (Camp Lucky Strike, Camp Pall Mall, Camp Chesterfield, etc). Out of line, Tophat was named after the unit which build it, but a Belgian cigarette company manufactured 'Tophat cigarettes' so it became unintentionally a cigarette camp after all.