Military: The Battle of the Bayous, The Louisiana Maneuvers, 1940, Natchitoches Parish La. Submitted by: The Old Natchitoches Parish Magazine, Volume II, pages 1-2-3-4- 5-6-7-25 Many thanks to Old Natchitoches Parish magazine for giving permission to the LaGenWeb to use this great article!!!!! Old Natchitoches Parish Magazine is published once a month and you can pick up your copy at local stores in Natchitoches or order a subscription. Back issues can also be ordered. Old Natchitoches Parish Magazine contains history, humor and culture of Northwest Louisiana. This magazine is a must have and must read!!!!!!!!! ********************************************************** ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ********************************************************** THE BATTLE OF THE BAYOUS THE LOUISIANA MANEUVERS By Terry Isbell It was May, 1940, and Natchitoches Parish was about to be invaded by 66,000 soldiers. These soldiers would battle rain, mud, mosquitoes and each other in the largest war games ever attempted, the Louisiana Maneuvers On September 01, 1939, the German Panzer divisions rolled over the Polish Army and a new word entered our vocabulary -"blizkieg" - lighting war. The ease with which the Nazi tanks crushed the elite Polish Calvary was a wake-up call to America. Eight months later, in May of 1940, 66,000 American troops would battle rain, mud and mosquitos in Natchitoches and surrounding parishes, training for the possibility of war. This mobilization would be called the Louisiana Maneuvers and would be larger than any "war games" ever previously attempted by the U.S. Army. One week after the Polish invasion, President Roosevelt declared a "limited state of emergency" and ordered the Army to modernize so it could deal effectively with this new type of war. The U.S. Army was in bad shape at the time. Neither it's structure or armament had changed since the end of WWI. Soldiers were still armed with bolt-action Springfield rifles and the Army had only a handful of light tanks, none of them a match for the Nazi Panzers. American officers were still being trained in trench warfare strategies and the Army was badly under-manned. The only Division even close to full strength was the Calvary, which like the Polish Army, still relied on horses. On the eve of World War II, the U.S. Army was ranked 17th in the world, just behind Rumania and just ahead of Argentina. One reporter said that compared to the German Army, the U.S. Army was just "a bunch of nice boys playing with BB guns". The Army Chief of Staff, General George Marshall, quickly rose to the challenge. He ordered the implementation of a new organizational structure, adapted from the German Army, to efficiently use tanks and air power. General Marshall also purchased a wide array of armored fighting vehicles, transports and tanks, and new semi-automatic rifles for the soldiers. He then decided that troops, and more importantly, their commanders, needed to be trained in the new concepts of mechanized warfare. General Marshall believed in the 4-H Club motto of "learn by doing" and begin planning a series of training maneuvers, splitting his army into two opposing forces and letting them attack and defend. After smaller war games in different parts of the country proved that this type of training was useful, a large scale maneuver involving half the standing army was proposed. Such an exercise had never been attempted and General Marshall had several problems to contend with. The first was equipment. While the Army had purchased new trucks and tanks, most had yet to be delivered. General Marshall had to pressure the factories to meet their delivery schedules. Another, and more immediate concern, was the political pressure being brought to bear from all over the country. Politicians correctly saw the Maneuvers as a way to help their Depression ravaged economies. Despite the pressure, Marshall knew exactly what he wanted - an economically feasible, underpopulated site that could sustain the damage the maneuvers would produce. Scouts were sent all over the country and after sifting through their reports, Marshall I settled on the "Sabine River area". Once the site was selected, events moved quickly. With the help of local organizers, particularly Louisiana Adjutant General Raymond Fleming, permission was obtained from 6,500 separate landowners. The landowners were told it was their patriotic duty and within weeks of starting the process, the Army had acquired the rights to use 3,400 square miles, excepting three and a half square miles who's owners wouldn't agree and 10 square miles where the owners couldn't be found. The process of securing permission led to one of the "tallest of the tall tales" associated with the Maneuvers. Supposedly, after a "backwoods woman" refused to sign, a Lieutenant asked her "Didn't you know that Louisiana is at war with Texas? Don't you want Louisiana to win?" She thought for a second and said "of course I do! Give me that paper". Still despite such demonstrated patriotism, when the national media covered the start of the Maneuvers, it focused on the few signs that could be seen saying "ARMY-STAYOUT". To prepare for the Maneuvers, Army divisions were transported to bases throughout the South and Southwest. As the ordered equipment became available, troops were split into two groups, with one group massing itself along the Texas side of the Sabine River and the other group "digging in" at positions stretching south from Mansfield to Leesville. The largest concentrations of these troops were in Natchitoches and Alexandria General Marshall set the stage for the upcoming "hostilities" by supplying his commanders with the following scenario: "Blue (East) is a small nation with a common boundary at the Sabine River with another small nation, Red (West). Blue has a small army, normally scattered throughout the country. Red has an even smaller army. These troops, however, are highly trained and are concentrated along the border." "Boundary disputes, local border incidents and alien minorities have resulted in increasing tension between the two nations. On April 20, the Red government provocatively announced it would hold it's spring maneuvers just west of the Sabine River." The Blue government became alarmed, increased it's garrison at it's border town of Alexandria and announced that it would move it's Army to the vicinity of Alexandria for large scale maneuvers." With the stage set, the air war started on the 6th of May and the ground war on the 9th of May. The Red Army poured across the Sabine River at Burr Ferry, Merryville, and Pendleton. To help with the attack, they constructed a newfangled 367 foot long pontoon bridge at Toledo Ferry. The northern forces of the Red Army advanced quickly towards their objective, which was to capture the "capitol" of the Blue country, Alexandria. It looked as if the Red Army would make a clean sweep, but they were stopped cold at Natchitoches, where they ran into a large force of the Blue Army dug in at the Normal School. For the next few days of the Maneuver, there were attacks and counterattacks throughout the area, with the end result that the Blue forces successfully pushed the Reds back to the River. For the local residents, it was great fun to watch the troops, and the airplanes and tanks were a novelty. Many of the area schools let students out, (and students in the other schools let themselves out) to watch the show. Young people would lay on the banks of the Cane River and watch the formations of fighter planes and bombers overhead. At the end of each scheduled phase of the games, troops were allowed to "stand down" and relax in the communities closest to their bivouac areas. For the Red Army that meant either alcohol dry East Texas, with "hot dogs and ice cream socials", or Leesville, Louisiana with it's wide open bars like the Red Hound and the Silver Dollar. Blue Army troops in the Natchitoches area were entertained with community sponsored dances at the Natchitoches Country Club. These were lively affairs with a lot of laughing and jitterbug music, but with enough slow music to make romance possible. More than one Natchitoches Parish belle lost her heart to a dashing soldier and the Maneuvers did result in a few marriages. Not every resident of Natchitoches Parish appreciated the presence of the soldiers as much as the Natchitoches belles did. Some saw it as more like an occupation by an invading army. In Robeline, Don Stoker remembers soldiers "borrowing" his fathers prize possession, a mechanical hay mower, and hooking it to a jeep to clear a landing field for observation planes. They hit a survey marker and cracked the casing, spilling all the oil and destroying the mower. His father, Dewitt Stoker, put in a claim for the damage and a "smart aleck' Army Captain came to discuss his claim. They argued over the cost of the mower, and the Captain started to leave. He came back and told Mr. Stoker that the whole parish was trying to steal from the Army, and that Mr. Stoker "was a ragged, deadbeat farmer, just like the rest." Mr. Stoker, a WWI veteran, hit the Captain so hard that his feet flew off the ground and he was knocked cold. Later that evening, the Natchitoches sheriff and an Army officer came out and told Mr. Stoker he'd have to go to a hearing for breaking the Captain's jaw. At the hearing, both the Captain's driver and his assistant testified as to how the Captain provoked Mr. Stoker. He didn't go to jail and he was compensated for his mower. There were other incidents of soldiers turning out livestock to sleep in dry barns, tearing down fences to get their convoys through, draining farmer's wells dry, and burning all the wood farmers had cut and stacked for syrup making. The armored vehicles destroyed a number of country road bridges that were simply not built for that kind of weight and use. Overall, however, such incidents were relatively few and Natchitoches and the surrounding area enjoyed a much needed economic boom from the two million dollars spent on the Maneuvers. An event with the scale and impact of the Louisiana Maneuvers is bound to produce some local legends and one of the most endearing and enduring legends for Natchitoches Parish residents involves General George S. Patton. One morning, troops under Patton were approaching Bermuda Bridge with orders to secure it. Patton was famous for "never losing a battle". This is true only if you don't count the skirmish known locally as the "Battle of Bermuda Bridge". As Patton's troop approached the bridge, the sound of light artillery rang out from the woods. Troops scurried for cover and their commanders halted the advance while they tried to figure out the location of the enemy. Reconnaissance had shown no opposing forces in the area. The column was halted for several hours while new air reconnaissance was ordered and scouts were sent out. Imagine the look on George Patton's face when scouts came back with three local boys (Prudhomme brothers) and their brand new toy, a foot-long carbide cannon. Years later, radio commentator Paul Harvey would hear the story of the "Battle of Bermuda Bridge" and use it in his "Rest of the Story" radio broadcast. The last phase of the Maneuvers began on May 2Oth. That night Leesville High School graduated a class of 52 Seniors. It is one of the sad ironies of the Maneuvers that the Class President, a young man proudly named John Paul Jones, would become the first man from Leesville to die in World War II. In recognition of this young man's sacrifice, a street in Leesville bears his name. This last phase was marked by heavy rains, which turned roads and fields into mud. The rain changed the nature of the war games, and left the soldiers in the field wet and miserable. In a scene from the WWII movie "A Walk in the Sun", when soldiers are asked to take a farm house held by the enemy, one soldier comments that as bad as the fighting might get "It can't be worse than the Louisiana Maneuvers". The conditions were so rigorous that one of the officers in charge, Colonel Gruber, stated that "in addition to the enemy, there are two redoubtable antagonist lurking to.... break up the best laid plans of a commander - Old Man Fog and his twin brother, Bog". Speaking of commanders, there were over 4,000 officers at the Louisiana Maneuvers. The list of officerrs there reads like a who's who of WWII commanders including: Dwight Eisenhower, "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell, George Patton, Jonathan Wainwwright, Omar Bradley, and John Miliken. While a lot is known about the commanders, the media of the time was also interested in the common soldier. National magazines and local newspapers all worked to find a "typical" soldier. The composite solder was 20 years old and probably came from Texas (12,000 of the 66,000). Their monthly pay was $21 for a buck privates: $30 for privates first class: $42 for corporals: and $54 for sergeants. Most had either attended or graduated high school. The average soldier weighed 145 pounds, stood five feet, eight inches tall, had blue eyes, brown hair and had at least 12 of his original teeth. We assume that he was fairly good looking as "just plain facial ugliness" was a reason for rejection of would-be Army recruits. During the maneuvers, the soldiers had few comforts in the field. They were given one mosquito bar to be shared between two soldiers. Sleeping bags were not issued although they could buy one from the quartermaster for five dollars. While the Army used the Maneuvers to try out new mobile field kitchens, a number of soldiers were denied access to hot foods so they could try out a brand new invention, the C-ration. Each soldier was issued a 12 ounce can of meat and beans, one of beef stew, one of meat and vegetable hash, and three companion cans of crackers, sugar, and pulverized coffee. These rations would be a source of soldier's jokes and complaints for generations to come. The Maneuvers were designed to train commanders in coordinating air/ground operations, deploying troops across open terrain (as opposed to trench warfare) and effective deployment of mechanized forces. That they fell somewhat short of success in these goals was illustrated by Major General Herbert Brees' harsh comments during the debriefing of officers. Brees, in no uncertain terms, told the officers that they had failed the games in both performance and spirit. He cited the lack of artillery support, pointed out that the attacks were so weak that they would have failed against an actual defense, and that the commanders ignored air defense to the point that if the air attacks had been real, there would have been "sure murder" of "helpless infantry". Brees squarely blamed the officers, saying that they had "failed to play the game", and that their attitude had infected the troops in the field. His criticisms were so harsh (and public) that the Army soon issued new guidelines for softer, and private, debriefings. Other officers shared Brees' views. Omar Bradley commented on "the undistinguished and unimaginative leadership by the generals". It is worth noting that a number of these senior commanders retired from the Army in the year after the Maneuvers. Bradley also referred to the close air support as "a joke...of 34 air missions requested by the ground commanders, only two were carried out". In addition, there was a very real human cost. At least 13 soldiers died during the Maneuvers. Despite the shortcomings, The Louisiana Maneuvers had two very important results for the Army. First, the Maneuvers proved that such large scale training exercises were both possible and desirable. Over the next two years, corps vs. corps training exercises would take place in New York State and again in Louisiana. The second result was to prove that the Army was woefully short of men and materials. Bradley observed that the Maneuvers showed the urgent need for "infantry divisions, more tank and anti-tank units, armored vehicles, artillery and a dozen other major items". As several powerful Senators, including Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr, had observed the Maneuvers first hand, equipment funds were quickly forthcoming. As a result of the 1940 Battle of the Bayous, the U.S. Army was in a much better I position to respond nineteen months later to the "day that will live in infamy forever". History would show that in those few short months, the U.S. Army evolved from an army ranked just behind Rumania's, to an army which could and did defeat the best trained and equipped soldiers the world had ever seen. Years after the war, General George Marshall commented on the worth of the Maneuvers with his statement that "the maneuvers were not only valuable, they were invaluable. We never could have made our way m Europe without these". For Natchitoches Parish, the maneuvers produced a lasting memory of a time when 66,000 soldiers "fought", loved, and in a few cases, died, on our soil. ************************************************************ The material in this article was based on origin research conducted by Mr Nick Pollacia. We would like to thank him for the use of the material and for his invaluable assistance. Old Natehitoches Parish Magazine would also like to thank Caroline Harrington, Curator oi the Old Court House muse~ for sharing her information and stories. Starting July 4th, the Old Court House Museum will be featuring an exhibit, "WWII-A Salute To Our Veterans." With the assistance of Natchitoches Parish Veterans, Mrs. Harrington has collected never seen before memorabilia and local history. The Old Court House Museum is located at 600 Second Street Natchitoches. Museum hours are 10 am - 4 pm Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is $3.00 per adult and $1.00 per child. I I S Parish Veterns, ~ Ham~on has coliected never seen before memoribilia and local histoly The Old Court House Museum is located at 600 Second Sfreet Natchitoches. Museum hours are 10 am-4pm Thesday through Saturday Admission is $3.00 per adult and $1.00 per child. For more iflfbrmation, please contact Ms. Harrin~oii at (318)357-2270.