Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1939-08-21
Maneuvers Reveal
Infantry, Cavalry
As Army Backbone
Horse and Foot Soldier
Con Reach Spots
Inaccessible to Motors
BY JOSEPH s. EDGERTON,
Star Stan Correspondent.

otAE 6tau Correspondents.
FIELD HEADQUARTERS, LIST
ARMY. PLATTSBURG, N. Y. Aug.
21.-Despite the development Of
armored tanks capable nf crossing
open country at high speeds and Of
scout and combat cars which make
modern warfare capable OF faster
movement than ever before, the day
of the horse and the marching
doughboy on the battlefield are just
as much with us today as in the
days of the Roman legions OF Julius
Caesar.
Proof Of the continued need for
horse cavalry and horse-drawn ar
tillery and for infantrymen who can
do their daily grind on the road and
still be fit for battle has been found
in the maneuverS which today
reached their final and most spec
tacular phase and in the maneuvers
just completed in the vicinity of
Manassas, Va.
These maneuvers are proving that
although the tank and the armored
car are powerful weapons and of ire
mendous value on the battlefield,
there still are places they cannot go.
Job for Foot Soldiers.
So long as there are places on the
battlefield which remain inaccess-
ible to the mechanical weapons of
modern warfare, they must continue
to be covered by the time honored
methods Of the earlier days Of fight
ing. For this reason, In spite of the
presence of great concentrations Of
tanks and armored cars here and
during the Virginia maneuvers, the
cavalry and infantry, on foot, still
have had their share of the lob to do.
Cavalry and foot soldiers can
go where tanks and armored cars
cannot go, in spite of the great i'm
provements which have been made
in mechanization, and they still
carry a threat which cannot be
ignored. They must be stopped and
they can be met and stopped only
by forces capable Of going into the
same terrain-Which means more
cavalry and foot soldiers" an officer
on the lst Army staff explained.
The largest completely mechan-
lied unit in the United States Army,
the 7th Cavalry Brigade, which
| arrived here after cross country
march of nearly 1000 miles from
its home station, Fort Knox, KY,
is playing major role in the two
sided battle programs this week
between two corps of four National
Guard divisions and a provisional
corps of the Regular Army.
Provides Severe Test.
The work of the mechanical
cavalry brigade Is being watched
with the keenest interest by military
observers of the United States and
foreign embassies. There are no
horses in the organization and the
rugged nature of the country in
the maneuver area Is expected to
test severely the effectiveness of
mechanical troops operating under
adverse conditions.
THE spread of mechanization in
European armies has been an out
standing military development since
the World War; staff officers ex-
planned, but there are many
stanch partisans of the horse who
maintain that the absence of the
man on horseback is likely to prove
fatal to the army which tries to
ignore his essential usefulness"
While the test of INFLAMMATION
against horse cavalry has not yet
been made on the battlefield here, it
is expected to come when the mech
anized cavalry brigade of the Regu-
lar Army meets the 101st Cavalry,
horse equipped, from the New York
National Guard.
Revelations at Manassas.
The test was made last week in
the Manassas maneuvers and found
horse cavalry functioning with speed
and success in densely wooded area
through which scout and armored
cars could not go and in which
even tanks were blocked.
1t. Gen. Hugh A. Drum, COM
manding the LIST Army-the first
officer to have such a command in
the field in the United States since
the Civil War-pointed out in OPEN
ing the maneuvers here that in the
trend toward INFLAMMATION it must
not be forgotten that speed of
movement may gain an advantage
OF position for an army, but after