The Washington herald., 1919-07-06
military training In Harvard nmost


military training in Harvard umost
to a man the students were behind the
movement. Money was raised from
graduates and Gen Wood sent regu-
lar army officer for command and
4 there as at other training camps old
time war as fought in the long ago
was taught The war had already been
raging two years. and the original
regiment Of Harvard. 1916. was taught
the old-fashioned pre-war tactics. In
deed these were the only tactics au-
thorized In the United States army up
to 1871.
This passage and what follows In
4 terested me particularly. Measured by
J the yardstici< of actual war experience,
the value of the Piattsburgh summer
camps was very small. The only mod
ern weapon was the Springfield rife,
''the best military rife in the world. %
but so small was the output that a
modification Of the British Lee-Enfield
| was adopted. Three batteries were
| supposed to protect the Atlantic coast
from Florida to Maine. These were
| made up OF three-inch field pieces--a
gun abandoned by the army imme-
diately upon entering the war
There was little or no material with
which to give practical demonstrations
OF army organization. The war broke
| out in April, 1917. Capt Roosevelt gave
up his business at once. although IL
was some weeks before the govern
ment officials decided that going to
war meant fighting and called for men
for the first training camps for officers
/ in Nay, 1917" There is but little ex-
cuse that the United States army was
given no opportunity for development
along modern lines before May. 1911;
but there was Dp excuse that the
I1s ttsourgh camp OF that date after
VIC had drifted into the war was not
equipped with officers capable OF train
ing men in modern warfare and the
material with which to teach IT, For
eign officers fresh from the battlefields
| should have been brought Immediately
to this country as instructors"
MATERIAL
WAS LACKING.
The description Of the confusion at
] this time seems tragic. The material
was absolutely lacking The automatic
rifle and the machine gun were un-
known not only to the student officers
but to nearly all the officers in the
regular army. The Lewis automatic
gun used for three years successfully
by the British and Belgian armies in
successful trials had been condemned
successful trials had bten condemned
by our War Department. hence Its
advantages were known only by a few
who had seen the trials, although the
Marines were equipped with it. Says
Captain Roosevelt:
II was with Gen. Wood when these
trials were given in 1916. The Benet-
Mercier. too heavy to be carried by
doughboy. yet not placed on fixed
rests, had the disadvantage of being
neither an automatic rifle nor a ma
chine gun"
| Steel helmets had never been used.
The grenade, highly developed and ex-
tensively employed by all since the be-
+, ginning of the fighting. never had been
seen by most Of our regular Officers;
neither had the rife grenade nor the
Stokes mortar, which until the inven-
| tion Of the tanks were the most ef-
fective mobile weapons against ma
chine-gun strongholds.
The regular army had a most linn
lited experience Of transportation. and
, the Packard truck thar was adopted
later proved entirely too light for the
WOTK. american dlEDidICS hau iiVNCA
I been seen by training camps UP to
June, 1917, when Capt. Roosevelt left.
Lack of artillery and cavalry rem
dered training in these branches ludi-
crous until long after the camps had
been open.
Perhaps the worst ineffciency de-
veIoped in gas masks. Not one man
| in the army had been trained or
even equipped until long after the
First Division had landed in France:
| then the mask provided leaked when
subjected to the dreaded mustard
gas. British masks were then sent
| for. Nothing daunted. the swivel
chair experts in the United States
produced another child of their
mighty intellect, so encumbered
with safety devices that the weight
was a serious handicap. Later a
third type was sent over, so Safe
that after fifteen minutes the tight
ness of it stopped the circulation.
! The wearer had either to take 1t off
and die OF poison gas. or to lose
consciousness from stoppage of cir
culatiop4"
Then Capt. Roosevelt describes
the authorized bayonet practice
with its systems o fair and foul
,
more befitting a ballroom than a
battlefield. What. indeed, could be
more absurd than to expect a man
fighting for his life to refuse to
hit a treacherous German below the
belti Indeed. in some organizations
the drill was practiced to music!
In time the splendid English sys-
tenn was adopted and regular officers
were forced to teach and to learn
at the same time. The results,
though startling. however. he says.
were not altogether satisfactory.
And the hours spent on wigwag
and semaphore signals! The Eu-
ropean armies had long substituted
wireless and ground wireless. Tao
tics were even more Anticipated. IF
Grants or Lees men had been
trained with the weapons of Han
nibal they could not have been more
out of'it' than Pershings men until
/ long after they had been at war
with Germany"
ROOSEVELT BOYS
ASKED FOR LINE DUTY.
Col. Roosevelt had asked OF Gen.
Pershing that his sons be sent among
the first They were ordered out and
assigned a place on the staff. But they
applied for places In the line and
were assigned to the Sixteenth In
fantry.
After parading through Paris, the
battalion was turned over to a COM
pany of Chasseurs Alpins for instruc-
tion. Then it was discovered that not
only companies should number 900 in
stead of some forty. as was the case
| but that European armies supplied