Nogales international., 1939-07-08

the First Army Maneuvers, it was
announced today by Major Gen
eral Hugh A. Drum, Commanding |
the Second Corps Area.
More than $4,000 officers and
men of the Regular Army, National
Guard and Organized Reserves will
participate in the maneuvers from
August 13 to 9th under General
Drums direction. Il
For the first time since the Amer i
ican Civil War a Field Army will
be concentrated for action on the j
American Continent under the i'm
mediate command of single Of
ficer.
The climax of the maneuvers will
come when this Field Army, consist
ing principally of four National
Guard Divisions from the New Eng
land States, New York and New
Jersey, advances in battle array
against a somewhat smaller force
of the Regular Army armed and
equipped with the latest devices OF
modern high-speed warfare.
Drum Commander
General Drum himself will COM
mand the Field Army which Will
be composed of two Corps made
up of two Divisions each. The First
Corps, commanded by Major Gen
eral Morris B. Payne, of the con-
necticut National Guard, will con-
sist of the 26th Massachusetts and
New Hampshire) and the 43rd
(Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island,
Connecticut) National Guard d.
visions.
The Second Corps will be COM
manded by Major General William
N. Haskell, of the New York Ma
tional Guard. In it will be the 9th
IN. " and the 44th (N.J. ,N.Yo
National Guard Divisions. All Ma
tional Guard troops will be COM
manded by their own officers.
Confronting these two Corps on
the field of mock battle will be a
defending force led by Major Gen
eral James A. Woodruff, U.S.A.,
now Commanding General, First
Corps Area, with headquarters at
Boston. The defending forces will
consist principally of the First Di-
vision, Regular Army, drawn chief
ly from military posts in New York
State. the 18th Infantry Brigade,
Regular Army, from New England,
and the Seventh Cavalry Brigade,
the largest completely mechanized
unit in the United States Army.
Cavalry Brigade
The work of the mechanical cav
airy Brigade will be watched with
especial interest. There are no
horses in the organization, and the
rugged nature of the country in
the maneuver area will test severe
ly the effectiveness of mechanical
troops operating under the most ad-
verse conditions.
The spread of mechanization in
European armies has been an out
standing military development since
the World War, but there are many
staunch 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. AS
the mechanical Cavalry Brigade
! from the Regular Army attempts to
run rings around the 101st Cavalry
(Horse) from the New York Ma
tional Guard, the experts will have
every opportunity to gather ma
terial to support their pet argu-
ments on the merits of machine
warfare.
While mechanization and motor
ization will gear the ground troops
to the pace of modern high-speed
warfare, Air Corps units will seek
to drive the action even faster. The
Regular Army will send an Observa-
ton Squadron and a Photographic
Section from Mitchell Field, N. Y,
and each of the four National Guard
Divisions will bring its own Observa-
ton Squadron and Photographic
Section. A sixth Observation Squad
ron will operate with the Mechan-
lied Cavalry Brigade. from Fort
Knox
Whatever may be the effective
ness of machine-age transportation |,
on the combat zone, it will be a
great convenience to the troops IN
getting to the maneuver area. In
fact, all forms of transportation,
by land, water, air, and marching
will be used to take the soldiers
and their supplies and equipment
toward Plattsburg.
The 114th Infantry, National
Guard, for example will proceed
from a dozen cities and towns IN
New Jersey using 26 Coaches and IL
baggage cars to reach it's camp site
at South Junction, New York. Z
The 157th Field Artillery from