ARMY & NAVY: Fun at War

ARMY & NAVY

Three years ago the U. S. military establishment was divided up on a new principle of four geographical “Armies,” consisting of regular and national guard units. Each year one of these armies was to be assembled for maneuvers. Last week the first of these annual maneuvers opened at Pine Camp, near Watertown, N. Y., where five divisions of the First Army under Major General Dennis E. Nolan assembled for training and mock battle.

On hand to witness what was widely publicized as the greatest peacetime concentration of U. S. troops in history were military attaches of Germany, France, Japan, Russia, China, Spain and Mexico.

General Nolan’s job was to give his 36,000 men a practical lesson in war. The best of maneuvers is only a pale shadow of war and the lack of parallelism was abundantly apparent last week. Most important order issued was that none of the troops was to bring any real ammunition to the games lest somebody be shot. Each day special blank cartridges were issued: ten rounds per rifle, 100 rounds per machine gun, four rounds per field piece. Even for that modest schedule half a million rounds of ammunition were required.

Other deviations from wartime conditions: the menus for three meals a day for the duration of the maneuvers were printed by the Quartermaster Corps in a 41-page booklet. These included such items as oranges, milk, fresh eggs, cucumber salad, sliced peaches, corn on the cob, Rice Krispies, fish, ice cream, roast pork, potato salad, etc. Wherever possible farmers were hired to haul away garbage. Where soldiers had to bathe in creeks more than 5 ft. deep (two baths a week required) life guards were provided. Also 150 Army officer umpires were on hand to wave little red and white flags to indicate when soldiers should consider themselves dead.

The objects of the maneuvers were to provide training in: 1) mobilization, 2) the “logistics of a concentration,” 3) field service. Of the five divisions present the 1st (Regular) is now in process of motorization. The other four—44th New Jersey & New York, 27th New York, 43rd and 26th New England—had to depend largely on trains, although as an experiment 400 taxicabs and private trucks were hired to convey troops to the camp from Buffalo and Manhattan at a cost of $95,000. All told, there were nearly 3,000 motorcabs engaged in the maneuvers as compared to 1,337 horses and mules. There were also 55 tractors, three tanks (not counting 27 worthless relics of the War) and a detachment of motorized cavalry. The three Christie tanks, eleven-ton monsters, were capable of traveling 60 m.p.h. on roads, 30 m.p.h. over hill & dale. The mechanized detachment of the ist Cavalry (at present stationed at Fort Knox, Ky., where the Treasury is building great underground vaults in which to store gold bullion) consisted of two fully armored, five-ton, six-wheeled cars, two “half tracks” (semi-caterpillars), a rolling kitchen capable of preparing meals at 40 m.p.h., a motorcycle and sidecar and a baggage truck.

First maneuver of the encampment was a forced march by the motorized First Division to drive back the advance guard of an imaginary enemy and seize strong positions before the enemy’s main force arrived. At 6 a. m. one morning the mechanized cavalry moved out, followed by two infantry battalions, followed by engineers in cars which unreeled telephone cable as they ran, followed by Brig. General Ford in a station wagon, followed by the tanks, followed by the 4.400 men (peace strength) of the Division aboard 525 trucks and batteries of 75’s rolling along at 30 m.p.h. on balloon tires. An unmotorized division could not have made the required march in less than 24 hours. The Germans in their record-breaking march through Belgium reached the unheard of figure of 20 miles a day. The motorized First Division, frequently flagged to a halt by umpires who told the advance units of “enemy fire,” “gas shells,” etc., reached its objectives before noon. The mechanized cavalry penetrated 30 miles in less than two hours. One of the brigades on the road passed a given point in six minutes. Best of all from the standpoint of war, in which more battles are lost by ignorance than are won by good generalship, the division commander was in touch the whole time by radio or telephone with every unit of his command.

To the most peaceful maneuvers Death usually comes once or twice. Returning from a night air “raid” by observation planes, Second Lieutenant Robert Scherer’s motor went dead. He told his mechanic to bail out, but jumped too late himself.

Most fun were the sham battles which General Nolan directed. That officer occupied the unique post of chief umpire and commander of both sides, to whom he gave general orders leaving the tactics of their execution to the commanders in the field. Officers of every company had strict orders to tell all men under their command exactly what orders were being executed and why, and during every pause in the fight to acquaint their men with the status of the battle. Most exciting inci dents were the routing of a detachment by a hornet’s nest, the flight of an umpire with a red flag from two belligerent cows, the capture of Hill 300 by the 27th Divi sion’s swift advance and its subsequent loss because of: i) failure of communica tions, 2) an attack of real ptomaine poisoning which completely incapacitated two batteries.

After these preliminaries the divisions were divided into two corps for a two-day battle. In taxicabs camouflaged with boughs of trees, some of the troops advanced to battle. On Hill 300 a regular sergeant from the First Division captured a major and four lieutenants quietly studying maps. Most serious fighting took place when a company of Vermont boys ambushed a company of regulars and fired point blank into them. A valiant Vermonter went to port arms and demanded, according to the rules of sham battle, that a regular in an exposed position surrender. The regular made a pass with his bayonet and several rude remarks. The Vermonter got a nasty gash under the eye. Thereupon the Vermonters clubbed two regulars unconscious with their rifles before umpires could interfere. After that the umpires made a strict rule that opposing forces could not approach within 300 yards of each other.

Meanwhile, 83 newshawks and cameramen lived at Army headquarters, were provided with special telegraph stations, coin telephones, Army reference books, brief biographies of the officers engaged and a Press liaison officer to answer all questions. For all this the Army got its money’s worth when the Press broadcast the standard story that winds up all maneuvers: The Army is badly equipped and poorly trained, must have bigger and better appropriations from Congress.