Evening star., 1939-07-31
Biggest War Games
In Years Scheduled
During August
West Coost, Manassas,
PIottsbure Moneuvers
Are Listed

TIuttSOuT9 WunSuVSTS
Are Listed
On the country's East and West
coasts, the American Army today
prepared to 60 into action" Near
" 10000 officers and men under
arms, representing the greatest
peacetime military mobilization on
the continent since the Civil War,
will begin this week the first of
three giant war games arranged for
August. A score of foreign military
attaches will watch the far-flung
maneuvers.
In the vicinity Of the Civil War
battle-ground at Manassas, Va, some
$4,000 troops will mass Saturday
for maneuvers which will continue
through August 20, with the District
National Guard participating. A
week later, As 900 New England and
New York Guardsmen and Regulars
will start war games at Plattsburg,
N. Y. Wednesday, the West Coast
civilian population will join with
the General Headquarters Air Force
and Army Ground Force in a de-
fense Of 1,500 miles of Pacific Coast
from a simulated enemy air attack.
From the Eastern operations the
Army high command hopes to gain
new information on such military
problems and the technique of rapid
mobilization and the value of mech
enized cavalry in rough terrain
The air games are part of the
Army Air Corps 30th anniversary
celebration.
New Chapter in Exercises.
The West Coast maneuvers will
add new chapter in the exercises
held by the Army as part of its pro-
gram for training not only It's own
ground and air personnel but also
for preparing the civil population
in the methods Of defense against
air attack.
The Eastern operations involve
the whole 1st Field Army, virtually
the entire combat strength OH the
Atlantic seaboard from Maine to
Virginia. At the Manassas games
Maj. Gen. James K. Parsons will
command operations of the 28th
Pennsylvania, the 29th from Mary
land, Virginia and the District, and
a "streamlined" highly mobile pro-
visional brigade of Regulars.
The Regulars will take the part
of defending army in the mimic
war to follow the training and hard
ening of Guardsmen during the first
week
The war games at Plattsburg, in
the Adirondacks. will be directed
by the veteran Maj. Gen. Hugh A.
Drum. a World War commander in
France.
The interest of War Department
strategists will be centered on the
Army's single fully-mechanized cav
airy unit, the 7th Cavalry Brigade,
which will speed 976 miles to the
scene in its own vehicles from Fort
Knox, KY.
Machines VS.. Horses.
This outfits movements over the
460 square miles of rough, wooded
area west Of Upper Lake Champlain,
as a part Of blue" defense force
undertaking to repluse the more
numerous blacks" may provide an
answer to the relative value Of
machines and horses in rugged
country.
The horses will be those of the
l0lst Cavalry Of the New York
National Guard.
officials said the chances are that
foreign governments will not learn
q great deal from the reports of
the military attaches.
The United States Army is only
seventeenth in size among the
worlds land forces. Few of the new
type planes. anti-aircraft guns and
other ultra modern weapons for
which Congress started providing
funds last year are ready, it was ex-
planned. Some of the equipment
dates from wartime 1918
Considered more significant are
the Navys war games, joint Navy
Air Corps coast defense maneuvers,
operations Of the mobile General
Headquarters Air Force, and tests
OF aircraft warning nets to which
foreign observers are not so welcome
Squadrons Take OFF Wednesday.
While the combat squadrons are
taking off at II am. Wednesday on
signal from President Roosevelt
from nine Army air stations in var
ious parts of the country, the squad
rons at Hamilton and March Fields.
California, will be on the alert or
engaged in air patrols awaiting
warnings from the widespread ci-
william observation network which
will send them roaring of to inter-
cept attacking bombardment air
planes flying in from the sea.
Similar network exercises involv-
ing the "blacking out" of cities,
towns and rural homes have been
held in Long Island and in Eastern
North Carolina.
Despite the increasing accuracy
Of anti aircraft guns and their fire
control mechanisms, the principal
weapon against enemy lombard
ment ana attack alrplaneS still Is
the pursuit airplane. If the pea
shooters" are to be employed sue
cessfully. however, against modern
high-speed bombing and attack
formations, the pursuit commander
must be given warning Of the ap-
proach of enemy aircraft in ample
time to take of, gain altitude and
intercept the foe before he reaches
his objectives.
Problem Increased Enormously.
In meeting an attack from the
cir the defenders cannot merely
limit their attention, as they have
since military history began, to pro-
tecting the miles of coastline which
form our western frontier; they
must close to enemy aggressors the
miles of air space above the whole