Evening star., 1939-08-03
Regular Army's Staff
Has But 10 Days 10
Plan Bull Run Battle
Guurdsmen to Outnumber
Provisional Brigade in
Manassas Games
BY ROBERT A. ERWIN.

by hODEnx "A. LnV1N
Brig. Gen. Maxwell Murray, COM
mander of the Washington Provi-
sional Brigade, found himself today
in the same position as the college
football coach who has less than two
weeks to train a new team for an
opening game in mid-September.
To be exact, the general and his
staff have only 10 days to complete
their plan of battle, assemble a So
called provisional division of $500
Regular Army soldiers and send
them into test warfare against two
National Guard divisions totaling
more than $4,000 troopers.
The Provisional Brigade, Regular
Army unit assigned to the Nation s
Capital, will form the nucleus of the
regulars taking part in first Army
field maneuvers in the Manassas
Gainesville (Va) area, August SIZE
on the same battlefields where the
Civil War engagements of Bull Run
were fought Their ranks will be
augmented by other Regular Army
forces.
The 28th and 29th Divisions, COM
posed of Guardsmen, will move into
the camp area Saturday for an
eight-day training period. Gen
Murrays regulars will not arrive un-
til Sunday night, August 13, to begin
four day and night maneuver
against the Guardsmen They will
know only their own plan of battle,
not that of the National Guard
troops.
To Move Saturday.
Except for the movement of a few
advance details Friday night, most
of the District National Guard
troops, part of the 29th Division,
will begin the motor trek to their
campground near Gainesville early
Saturday morning.
The Guardsmen will breakfast at
the Pennsylvania avenue armory at
$50 am, and then prepare to join
the motor caravan which will 60
to the maneuver area by way of
Key Bridge and Lee highway.
The 104th Quartermaster Regi-
ment will form at Constitution ave-
nue. and Tenth street NV. at am,
and will start moving a half hour
later. This will be followed by the
District Guards largest unit, the
260th Coast Artillery; the 29th Di-
vision special troops and the 121st
Engineers.
Motor conveys will be in charge
of Maj Fletcher F. Bernsdorff,
commander of the 1st Battalion Of
the Quartermaster Regiment. As
sistant motor transport officers are
First Its. Edward D. Mulvanity,
Harry G.. McDougall, William D.
Putnam and William Van Heuche-
roth, and Second Its. Stanley E..
Travis, William A. Evans, jr.; Stan
ley w. Phillips, William M. Lyons,
Daniel D. Wright and Hugh A..
Allen, jr.
A total of 1,700 motor vehicles will
be used to transport many of the
units of the 28th and 29th Divisions
from their home stations to the
maneuver area. The 28th comes
from Pennsylvania, while the 29th
includes the District, Virginia, Mary
land and part of the Pennsylvania
National Guards.
Must Use New System.
Not only must Gen. Murray, his
chief of staff, 1t. Col. Thomas L.
Martin, and their assisting officers
build new team from their own
troops and those assigned them, but
they must adopt the new system
that carries on with the Armys mod
ernization program-the substitution
of motorized units for most of the
brigade's horse-drawn field artillery
and cavalry. This will be only for
the duration of the maneuver, as far
as the provisional brigade is con-
cerned.
The Army officers are doping out
their strategy in a five-day staff as
sembly at Fort Meade, Md, that
began yesterday and ends Mon
Gay. Then comes the week of train
ing for the newly motorized forces
and the blending of the brigade and
the new units with which it pre-
NAotoiJ Ilco AlOV VI.
"As far as l can foresee," Gen.
Murray said, 'the problem will be to
find out if the ability to switch a
smaller force to motors is going to
add greatly to, their power to hold
these greater moving forces"
To Pass Through d. c.
Gen. Murray's soldiers have been
designated the Blacks" They will
give Washington a very brief taste
of the maneuver when they speed
through the Capital the night of
August 13, In an all-night movement
to the Bull Run battlefield.
Arrangements for the movement
are now being made with the Police
Department. The exact route has
not yet been determined. All units
except part of the horse drawn
artillery that will not be motorized
for the maneuver, and the brigade's
engineers will 60 from Fort Meade.
The latter units will proceed to
camp from Fort Belvoir, Va.
Here are the odds that the
Regulars face in their mimic war
fare against the Blues" 28th and
29th Division troops directed by
Maj. Gen. James K. Parsons, Balti-
more, commander of the Third
Corps Area:
The 28th and 29th will have six
regiments of artillery, the Pro-
visional Division only seven battal-
tons. There will be "a National
Guard infantry battalions. The Pro-
Visional will have only four. Refus-
Ing to forecast the outcome, Gen.
Murray commented that those are
big odds any time"
Normally, the Provisional Brigac
r." n