Army And Navy – Men at Work

Said Farmer Howard Hancock, who has a prosperous 740-acre stock farm on Hurricane Creek near Nashville, Tenn.: “There’s more men on this farm today than ever I’ve seen here. I wish I could put’em all to work.” The men were U.S. soldiers on maneuvers, and they worked hard because, unlike the men on last year’s maneuvers, they knew they would soon face the enemy.

Crusty Lieut. General Ben Lear, Second Army Commander, was in charge. Under him the Reds, commanded by Brigadier General Julius Ochs Adler (New York Times), and the Blues, commanded by Major General Paul Peabody, fought along some 75 miles of Tennessee’s deep-cut Cumberland River.

In the first warm-up exercises (to teach initiative and coordination), units lost contact so badly that Major General Lloyd R. Fredendall, Chief Umpire, cracked: “It would have cost $10 to send a postcard from one unit to the other end.” But the troops had plenty of initiative and their infiltration tactics would have dizzied a Jap: one small contingent got “shot” by its own side’s machine guns.

The proceedings became even more like real war when the armies began to break the rules of sham battle. In the Blues’ prison camp the entire haul of Red prisoners overcame their guards by violence, ran back to their own side to fight again.

There was definite improvement over last year. The men were hard; last year sometimes one-third would give up on a 15-mile trek. The men were wiser; there was little standing up like snipe for the sniper. The men were bettereducated; said one sergeant to another: “I ran into a most interesting situation today when we encountered an enemy force.”

The men also showed faults. Tanks and jeeps were too road-bound, preferred a traffic jam or possible capture to going cross-country.

This week the maneuvers will develop into a bigtime mock fight when planes and many tanks join the fray. When the dust has cleared, the generals will confer. The hot, dirty, tired, hungry men along the Cumberland hope the generals will decide they are ready.