Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-26
SUCCESS Of SHAM
WARFARE IS HAILED
Instruction Afforded in Ohio
Declared of Great Prac-
teal Value.

By MAI. GEN. DENNIS z. NOLAN,
Of Air and Ground Forces in the Ohio
Maneuvers.
FAIRFIELD AIR DEPOT, FAIR
FIELD, Ohio, May 25.-TIe success of
the air and ground manetxaers which
have been held in this corps urea dur
ing the past 10 days proves the value to
the Army and to the Nation of the
means of putting to practical pi oof IN
the field tactical methods and n resent
.types of military equipment. The con-
Gentration of such units at least once
esch year undoubtedly would Prov of
lasting benefit to air and ground units
alike and would permit us to reconcile
10" a certain extent the two conflicting
conditions which govern our stationary
OF Regular Army troops. The ideal
&C udition, of course, would be the con-
cerNration Of all Army units in groups
for the permanent training of the
higher command. Such grouping also,
woul q be better proposition econom-
ieally.,
Though such q grouping might be
highly desirable from the viewpoint of
training and economy of operation,
obviously it is impossible from the.
standpoint of national defense.
Twofold Mission.
The Army has a twofold mission
under qhe terms of the national defense
act of 1890 which is the first military
policy the Nation has had This act
provides that the Regular Army and
the National Guard shall form the first
line Of defense. They are supposed 10
be ready for war at any time. The
training and holding In readiness for
instant use Of the Regular Army thus
becomes one of our major missions.
Our second mission, which perhaps is
even more Important. is the training
Of TIE Ma Gonal Guard, the Organized
Reserve. tive students of the Citisens'
Military naining Camps and Of the
Reserve Oficers' Training Corps. which
has units In our colleges, universities
and military schools. This mission.
obviously, requires scattering Of Army
officers and men who must be detailed
as instructors to these units.
BY the system Of command post
ooera tons which has prevailed during
the maneuvers it is possible to provide
hieINer tactical instruction for general
officPvs and their tactical STATS without
ufIvsicN concentration of the Army In.
the feitS. The problems which the
general C&ieers and their STATS are
called upon to solve, are 80 nearly alike
i'm eitfrer cNse that the amount of
instruction Afforded Is of great practical
The use of around panels TO repre-
sent the trogpx ammunition dumps,
artillery and trains ana other military
features which would be visible from
tie air serves the Air Corps fairly well
for training PURPOSES ana linus enaoies
the pilots to work cut Aheir combat
1rul,le1ug under conditions which stimuli
late those which would oi1taAu In actual
warfare.
There In need for more of Ibis form :
Of training for batd the air Ana tine
EruIncf forces than We are ablE ~ give.
The type of work that has been going
IN here with Skeleton forces and gAound
panels is a valuable stage preparatory
to- the aGtlIal handling OF troops N phe
field y
The mHrIeuvers have served three
fold purpose:
First. tfrEy have afforded valuable
Training of the stats In the military
co-operaticn between the various unifs,
wf1iEh is necessarily II amy army Id TO-
function.
Second, they have given the conf
bir1ec air forces valuable experience N
actually picking out military targets
represented On the ground and attack-
ing those targets and enemy aircraft
Third, tf1ey afford the only opportu-
nifty for the Air Corps and the various
ground units actually TO work tcgetner
on the solution Of military problems
leading to a better understanding be-
tween the cider arnS of the service and
the more Recently developed CORPS.
Three Blue Armies ON Offensive.
The general problem which has been
worked Gut here on thu ground and m
the air has involved the attack By a,
aruUu Of three Blue Armies Of superior
strength OF a hastily fntrenched Lime
held by slightly inferior force OF three
Fed Armies While the entire battle
line, Theoretically, extended from Lake
Erie ON the north along the SandzEsky
River and the Scfoto River to the Offlo'
River f11 the vicinity Of Portsmouth. the
special problem which has been solved
during the uIaneuvers involved forces
ground along a 'front.' Of approximately
IT miles.
The HEADQUARTERS Of the first Blue
Arny, two Of its corps and six Of ITS
divisions were represented by skeleton
igsd Stats consisting Of Regular Army.
National Guard and Reserve Officers.
The headquarters Of the He'd Army wa&
by a small staff.
THE mission of the first Blue Army.
wi1tcfr -vSs the right ARMY Of the Blue
gruup N Armies, was TO defeat the first
Red Army defending Columbus. The
abr forces Cf the Fed and Blus Armies
were aetI1aNy represented each by about
100 planes. the Fed air force operating
from Nortogt Field, near Columbus, and
the Blue air force from this depot, near
Dayton.
Divided Into Two Phases.
The problem was divided into two
phases: First. the Air Corps phase IN
which the Red synd Blue air forces en-
gagged in the solution Of the problem
presented to tffem IN the concentration
OF the armies and their advance to eS-
tablisn contact, aud second, the air.
ground phase, irt which the two
armies were in contact. In this phase
the operations Of the air forces were
in conjunction with the orerati1n of
the ground stats, in the reconnaissance
Of the position Of the two armies vest,
Of Columbus, the two days battle re-
qIired TO drive the Red army from
his position on the hne of the Big
Darby Greek back to his reserve bat
tie position on the line Of the Sc1oto
River and the recuTmn atssAncs and
preparation for the attack on the lat
ter position.
The air phase of the nnaneuvers was
the first time the Army Air Corps has
q two-sided msneuver 70
test by the pitting Of Air Corps units
against each other the theoretical
War Department has evolved. These
principles axe those which have been
taught in the Army Air Corps Tartical
School at Langley Field, Va. The avia-
don officers or the Blue and Red Army
stzffs were students Of this school and
the air umpfres came from the facility
Of the school.