Army & Navy – INFANTRY: Credit for Doughboy

“The valor in an infantryman’s heart, which causes him to go out to ‘inevitable death’ to save the lives of his fellows and to enable his company to advance against seemingly impossible odds, is the valor which cannot be taught to a man. He has it or he doesn’t — Private Minue had it.”

With this citation the Congressional Medal of Honor went posthumously last week to Private Nicholas Minue, 44-year-old World War I veteran who was killed last year in Tunisia — but only after he had bayoneted ten German machine gunners, destroyed their two guns.

Last week there were other and more striking indications that the Army has realized that in its haste to acquire new striking power in the tank and the airplane it had underestimated the role of the infantry — and neglected its development on a large enough scale.

Dangerous Living. Today the infantry comprises less than a fifth of the U.S. Army (the Air Forces and the Service Forces both exceed it in manpower). Public appreciation of the infantry has lagged far behind, partly due to the mistaken notion that the Air Forces had the most dangerous job. No less an authority than Lieut. General Lesley J. McNair, chief of Army Ground Forces, is responsible for the statement that thus far in World War II the infantry takes “more than half our total battle losses.” The infantryman also “endures great hardships, he gets more tired, he sleeps less, and he eats when and what he can.”

Even airmen — whose losses, particularly in the European theater, are far from negligible — recognize this fact. Most air men who have been in combat will agree with a B-24 pilot in the Pacific who said recently: “Those poor muddy, miserable bastards* go through more hell in one battle than we could possibly go through in a whole war.” Said a Naval officer off Attu: “It makes me feel guilty when I think of what the soldiers are suffering out there, climbing up mountains in the face of machine-gun fire. And here I sit on a warm ship, eating a steak.”

In Washington Representative Samuel Weiss pressed for hearings on his “Ernie Pyle bill.” Correspondent Ernie Pyle, noting that flyers are paid 50% above base pay, had written a column suggesting that foot soldiers be paid extra for combat. Whether or not it was a wise or practical idea,* it was typical of growing appreciation for the infantry.

Man of All Weapons. Public and press have begun to give the infantry more credit since air power failed to pave the way for a quick capture of Cassino (although the infantry has also repeatedly failed to take the town, either with or without air aid). But the public is not likely to give the infantry due credit so long as it pictures him merely as an oldfashioned, unimaginative, foot-slogging rifleman.

Actually the infantryman of today comes nearer to being a man of all weapons. Except for the airplane, the tank and the artillery, the infantry uses most of the weapons in the arsenal of a modern army: not only the rifle and bayonet but the Tommy gun, machine gun, mortar, hand and rifle grenades, bazooka, flame thrower, good-sized anti-tank artillery.

Sometimes the infantryman has trucks to transport him and vehicles for his heavier weapons. But often he still must slog along, up hill & down, through mud and through dust, toting all this new arsenal of weapons to the point of action, and then fight with them. He has to be lavish in his expenditure of physical effort under the worst of physical conditions. He also has to have guts to fight in situations where there is no possible safety for any man. And to fight effectively he has to be master of his weapon, and in the infantry today there are probably masters of more diverse techniques in the trade of war than are found in any other branch of the service.

Raising Morale. In recognition of this fact, General McNair went to Fort Bragg, N.C., to pin on the bosom of Technical Sergeant Walter L. Bull, 26, onetime Baltimore steel worker, the first “Expert Infantryman” badge. Such badges will be awarded to foot soldiers who qualify in twelve departments (such as scouting and patrolling, field sanitation, physical fitness, weapons proficiency, courses under fire 30 inches overhead). “Combat Infantryman” badges will be awarded for proficiency in battle.

Significant of the infantryman’s increased importance is the news that more of him are needed. The War Department has announced that 36,000 men who had volunteered for the Air Forces were being turned back to the Ground and Service Forces. (Lighter-than-expected air casualties are also responsible for suspension of aviation cadet procurement.) Some 9,000 2nd lieutenants from coast artillery outfits were at Fort Benning, being turned into infantry officers.

Said “Whitey” McNair: “It takes the man with the rifle, the bayonet and the grenade, dragging his weary feet after him … to get in there with guts and brains. He has to put the finishing touches, the copper-riveted handiwork, on the craftsmanship of the air force, the artillery and the tank corps.”

*Even when referred to with admiration, the infantry arealmost always called foul names. The British designation for the doughboy:P.B.I. (poor bloody infantry).*Flying pay in the Air Forces is given for flying, not for combat, and is a hangover frompeacetime, when it was given for the extra hazards involved.