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Vol. 26 April 1911

ARMYTALKS

QUEEN OFRestricted

ARMY TALKS is a classified official publication of the United States Army in the EuropeanTheater of Operations. The material contained herein may not be quoted or republished, inwhole or in part,nor may it be communicated, directly or indirectly, to persons not authorizedto receive it, except by authority of the Commanding General, ETOUSA.

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS, UNITED STATES ARMY

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HEADQUARTERSEUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONSUNITED STATES ARMY RPF/JKM/obe

AG 353 MGC 29 August, 1943SUBJECT : Education in Military and Current AffairsTO : Commanding General, V Corps

T . In the training of the American soldier the purely military and technical aspectsare usually stressed. It is essential, however, that in addition, the soldier be mentallyprepared for battle . He must know and understand the vital necessity for the successfulconclusion of the war.2 . To assist in accomplishing this end, it is desired that you establish within theelements of your command a weekly Education Program to instill in all military personnelthe following :

a. Confidence in the command.b. Pride in service and a sense of personal participation.c. Knowledge of the causes and progress of the war.d. A better understanding of our allies.e. An interest in current events and their relation to the war and the establishmentof the peace.

3 . To further these ends, each separate unit commander will arrange to have mattersof current interest as designated in paragraph 2c, d and e above, and matters of leadershipand confidence in the command as indicated in paragraph ea and b above, discussedperiodically within his command . Such discussion should be by company commanderspersonally or by selected Off icers and NCO's from the com mand as deemed best bythe unit commander. It is desired to m ake it clear that the proper presentationof this m aterial is a com m and f unction, and should be handled as such . Y ouare authorized to devote one (1) hour of training time per week to this program .4 . The Special Service Section, SOS, ETOUSA, will prepare and distribute thematerial for such weekly discussions, maintaining in their discretion a reasonable balancebetween the significance and progress of military events and current events, relationswith our allies, etc . This material will be dated and delivered sufficiently in advancefor consideration by the staffs concerned at least two days before ultimate use.c . Direct communication between your headquarters and Special Service Section,SOS, ETOUSA, is authorized in conducting this program.

6 . In order to make the plan effective it will be necessary to provide and train anEducation Of ficer of suitable rank in your headquarters, and in each of your subordinateheadquarters down to and including divisions.By command of Lieutenant General DEVERS:

RICHARD P . FISK,Lt. Colonel, A.G .D .,Assistant Adjutant General.

It is suggested that the discussion leader call this matter to the attention of hisCommanding Officer.

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ARMY TAI,KSEUROPEAN TH EATER OF OPERATIONSQ U E E N O F B A T T L E

" Our A rmy is no better than its infantry, and victory will only come when, andas our infantry gains it ."Lt . Gen . Lesley J. McN air, U .S . Ground Forces.T HE Infantry is the heart andguts of a fighting army, justas it always has been . Arm -chair experts who claimed differentlyin the early days of this war, as wellas a lot of plain, honest people towhom the name Infantry spelled along, hard conflict, are climbingback on the footslogger's band-wagon now as the battle reportscome in . They are realizing, evenmore certainly, that Infantrymenare still, as E rnie Pyle describesthem, " the guys that wars can't bewon without ."

Blitz Needed InfantryThat part of the public that was

skeptical of the value of the footsoldier in m odern warfare w asthinking in terms of the W orldWar I version of Infantryman aversion that carried over into thiswar in just about all but the GermanWehrmachtand the public wasright . That In-fantryman w as

W hat the public did not knowwas that General Marshall and hisstaff had a bigger and better Queenof Battle up their sleeve, and thatthey were giving her new methodsof warfarenew teeth and tactics.The ge nerals knew that theGerm an blitz tactics were basedupon infantrythat they w eremerely the coordination , of airpower, tanks and artillery with themasses of the ground forces . Theyknew that the enemy w as in nosense deemphasizing the foot soldier,and for sound m ilitary reasons.Neither should we . W e should,however, bring him up to date.

Battle Record SpeaksSo the new United States Infantryemerged . It was pa rtly the resultof the planning our military leadershad carefully and quietly carriedforward in the years of peace, andpartly their ability to apply the

lessons learnedfrom the fightingoutclassed inPoland and onthe Western Frontwhere he had in-ferior or

insufficient air and armor-ed support w ithwhich to counterthe at tac kingpanzer columns .

This issue of ARM Y TALKS is atribute to the f ighting foot soldier.It was written to show that he stillplays f irst f iddle in the aggregationthat shortly will provide music forHitler's Swan Song.How he trains and w hat he mustknow ; his weapons and equipment ;how he operates in modern battlethese are the things about the Infantry-man that all soldiers should know

in E urope andAfrica and Asia,both before wewere actually in-volved in it andafter.

,Just how hasthe new Infantryfared in modernwarfare ? W as

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ARMY TALKSour General Staff right in refusing The new Infantry can now mess upto sell the foot soldier short ? Read an armored attack before which thethe battle roll, and decide. old Infantry would have been helpRemember Bizerte ? Palermo ? less. It can do this because it hasSalerno ? N aples ? Anzio ? And been provided with a revised defense,on the other side of the world, the increased fire power and theMunda ? Lae ? Salamaua ? Attu ? special tactics with which to dothe job.Allies Smear Panzers One military writer describes theThose were infantry actions . Sure, tank versus infantry struggle asthere was, as there should and must merely the repetition of an oldhe, magnificent story in warfare.support in almost He says : " Mili-every case from " In both Britain the Un ited tary history reother members ofthe ground-air-naval team. No

States the greater proportion of ourfighting men goes into the groundforces, and I don't think any of usin a war theater belittles their services.peats itself overand over again,as far as changesquestion abou t " Out does the postman in Indiana, in tactics arethat . But in thelast analysis they

weren fan tryor in some litt le , village in Englanddoes he realize what these soldiers aredoing, how they are per forming'?Does he know it as well as he knows

concerned andthese changes arecom ing w ithjobs.A nd how about

the m odernizedInfantry of ourA llies ? How has

the stories of the big bom ber s or of someof the destroyers carry ing out 'Thegallant m ission at Sak ino? Ever ycitizen of the United Nations. has aright to know how important to ourvictories are the fighting spirit ; sense of

lightning speed inthe twe ntiethcentury . . . .The developmentof armored forceit made out in the duty and the gallantry and fortitude tactics illustratesface of everythingthe Germ anscould throw at it ?The answer is in

of our ground forces . The accomplish-ments of this indispensable numberof the air-ground-naval team w ill, whenthe story is fully told, f ill many of thebrightest pages of our war history.

this point . Thepredecessor of themodern tank wasthe armoredthe record of the

B ritish EighthA rm y f rom El .This is something I have f elt for along time. It comes from the hear( ."General DW IGHT D . EISENHOW ER,Supreme Allied Comm ander .

k nig h to f med i v atimes . Originallyhe rode r ightAlamein to Tunis, ov er his less

and in what heavily armoredhappened to the Nazi juggernaut foe . That charge was what the textam id the ruins of Stalingrad books call the frontal attack.one of the greatest chapters in thehistory of courage and doggedness Tactics Were Changedever written in the blood of brave " When the defense caught upmen. w ith the attack, however, theIt may not be easy for the layman armored horseman was forced toto understand how the foot soldier change his tactics-hen hehas been able to bounce back into faced the fire of the long bow, thethe thick of the fighting so soon after mounted soldier gave up the frontal'the dark days of 19394o, but the attack, and in the ensuing years hesoldier who knows anything about learned to operate upon the flanks,military history will get the picture . having recourse to what is classified

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56 April, 1944as the wide envelopment . Thatremained the approved tactics forcenturies.

Vehicles Replace Horses" In recent years, however, themounted warrior exchanged hishorse for an armored vehicle . As itdeveloped speed and power, heswitched back to the frontal attackonce more and the blitzkrieg sawthe tanks ridingright over the lessheavily armored foeagain."But the defensecaught up with theattack much moreswiftly this time.The latest solutionfinds the armoredattacker once morehaying recourse tothe wide envelop-ment . "

As a noted Britishsoldier points outin the book " War-fare Today," therehave always beentwo types of wea-ponsmissile andshock . During theFirst World W ar,the static, linearw arfare, featuring the use o fmissile weapons had its greatestdevelopment . The traditionalshock weapon, the cavalry, wasof little use in the face of the firethat could be directed against it.Armored tanks made their appear-ance in the First World W ar, butthe conflict ended before thedevelopm ent of their use couldbring about a general change instrategy and , tactics . W here theywere used, they were employed asthe cava lry had been earlierto

pierce the enemy line at some point,or to outflank him.The beginning of World War IIsaw the Allies still clinging to theconception of warfare that embodiedlong, relatively thin lines, whereasthe Germans, making better use ofthe brief lessons in the employmentof the tank as a shock weapon that

were learned in W orld W ar I,thrust forward with heavily armoredand highly mobilecolumns to pene-trate and envelopthose lines.

The answ er tothe tank has beento change the de-fense away fromthe continuous thinline into compactislands of resistancewhich are be tterable to withstandand absorb the im-pact of shock action.The answer, too,has been in

improved weaponsand the develop-ment of new tankfighting techniquesfor the individualsoldier and small 'combat team.Sometimes the new Infantry stops

the heavy stuff on tracks with itshighpowered antitank guns as itis coming in at a distance, or, if itgets close enough, the bazooka boysblast it out of existence.

TankBusting PerfectedSometimes the doughboys in theouter positions just lie low and allowthe enem y arm or, if i t ' s luckyenough to get through the mines, toroll right by or over them withoutany argument . Then they pop up

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6and let a big buggy have it withgrenades iii the tracks, or possiblytry to fricassee the crew with aflaming gasoline bottle bomb knownto the trade as the Molotov Cocktail.In plenty of cases just the riflefireof sharpshooting ground troops isenough to hamper badly the effec-tiveness of enemy tanks . Infantry-men have been taught to aim atthe apertures and vision plates, andthey have proved that they canpretty well blind a tank while theiron AT men draw a deadly bead.Riflemen Go In First

The . picture has so far changedfrom the days of the blitz that theInfantry has not only developed asuccessful tankbusting technique butnow is actually going out after them.One Infantry commander writingfrom Sicily a while back told howhis men liked to stalk tanks atnight.He said that they would

sneak up on the tanks and blastthem with grenades and bazookasat close range, that it was like biggame hunting on a grand scale .

ARMY TALKSAnd the Infantry, together withthe Engineers, is running interference

for its own tanks these days, too.When it turned out that the armorcould no longer crash straightthrough modern defenses, a specialforce to clear the way had to bedevised . So the Eng ineers wo rktheir way forward to locate andremove tank mines, while theriflemen of the team infiltrate the hostilepositions and try to wipe out theantitank forces holding up theadvance . If the operation is success-ful the tanks can storm through theresulting gap and get at the enemy 'ssoft underbelly.

S U M M A R YT he ' foot soldier has shown thathe can hold his own in this war.

Infantrymen are able to stop tankswith rtew weapons and tactics.W hy did Allied ground troopsfare badly in the early phases ofthe war ? H ow is the tank vs.infantry contest a repetition ofmilitary history ?

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26 April, 1944 Z

"....Dirt Behind Their Ears"Purpose of the Infantry . . .Battle of Cassino . . . Openformation fighting requiresselfreliance . . . Tacticaltraining . . . Importance ofphysical conditioning.The purpose of the Infantry inthe present war is the same as it has

always been to close with theenemy and destroy him, or to dig inand hold ground he is trying tooccupy . O nly the m ethods bywhich these missions are nowaccom plished are different thanthose of the last war and the warsbefore that . -

The Infantry must still take onthe battle job of g oing in anddriving the enemy from the placeswhere he cannot be knocked out . bythe artillery and tanks and planes,and there are always such places inevery battle.Small Combat TeamsReplace Solid Line

The B attle of Cassino was astriking example of Infantry closeinwork . Subjected to one of the mostintense bombardments ever laiddown by artillery and from the air,the defenders still hold on to theirpositions until riflemen, slowly work-ing themselves forward, can finallybring their grenades and bayonetsinto play.

The o ld military axiom that abattle is not won until the enem yterritory is actually occupied bysoldiers is as true as it ever was.

While it is true that the Infantry-man is still in the same essentialbusiness of closing with the enemythat he has always been in, it can'tbe said that he is still doing business

at the same old stand . As pointedout before, the front in today'sbattle is seldom a line at all . Moreoften it is an area fortified in depthby an irregular series of sm allseparate groups of fighting men,located according to the advantagesof terrain and cover.Frequently the farthest forwardof these individual combat teamswill be beyond the enemy's similarforward outposts . So situated, theymay be out of contact with friendlyunits for long periods of time.The ticklish conditions imposedby such open formation fighting areapparent . Greater reliance has

had to be placed on the small unitand the individual soldier than in

previous wars . Commanders mustnow think of the Infantryman assom ething of a tactical unit inhimself, for often he must think andact entirely for himself. No one canget over to his particular foxhole orslit trench to do it for him whenthe necessity for a quick decisionarises.

The shouldertoshoulder com-radeship and mutual dependence oftrench warfare are largely missingon the front in this w ar . AnInfantryman in combat today mustbe as straightthinking as he isstraightshooting if he wants to stayhealthy . He is on his own, plenty..Fortunately, American soldiers areby nature and background par-ticularly welladapted to meet the

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demands of presentday groundwarfare . They are able to operatealone or in small groups very wellbecause they are individualists atheart.They are resourceful and do notbecome rattled easily when some-thing goes wrong or they lose contactwith others of their unit . The sequalities have been demonstratedwherever American Infantrymenhave deployed for assault or dug in.

Stiff RequirementsFor Expert 's Medal

Two things make the new U .S.Infantry as formidable as any forcethat ever took the fieldtrainingand equipment.

A R M Y T A L K S6. Certain pre-scribed infiltra-

tion ,close combatand combat- in-ci t ies courses; and

7. Qualifica-tion in the gren-ade course prescribed in paragraph15, FM 2330.The actual tests which lead to themedal are prescribed by the WarDepartment, and cover :

I. Scouting and patrolling.2. First aid.3. Field sanitation.4 . Military discipline and cour-

tesy.5 . Bayonet (for men armed with

rifles).6. Field proficiency of soldierwith his individual weapon.7. Protective measures, individual

and small units (FM 2145).8. Personal appearance.Tactics Are Not New

The open nature of presentdayground fighting has ca lled foradditions to the tactical training ofInfantrymen . In many respects thenew style of warfare on foot isn'tnew at all ; it's a throwback to thedead ly business at w hich theAm erican Indian was so expert.And it isn' t quite right to refer toit as war on foot, either, for it islargely conducted flat on the oldbelly.The modern Infantryman learnsto " creep like a baby and crawllike a snake," and he further learnswhile doing so to " keep that taildown way down," unless he wishesone day in battle to find himselfsuddenly a freak.This manne r of getting aboutsounds easy to those who don't know,but let them negotiate about 200

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96 April, 1944yards of rough terrain withoutm aking a target of them selvesand they will begin to understand.It takes some doing . They practisethis sort of thing in the new Infantryover battle courses simulatingcombat conditions and situations,sometimes under the fire of liveammunition just to lend the lesson animpressive little touch of realism.

Expert At CamouflageThe Infantryman of today alsolearns to take advantage of every bit

of cover and concealment available.He develops an eye for spots thatare a few inches below the level ofthe surrounding ground, and heknows how to get the maximumprotection out of a tree that wouldhave trouble making a dozen goodmatch sticks.

He smudges his skin so that itwon't reflect light, and he wears abit of vegetation on his steel bonnetupon occasion so that he will fita little better into the countryside.And he gets wise to such things asbooby traps, barbed wire and anti-personnel m ines in two w aysoffensively and defensively.

Teach Knife FightingHe learns heelandtoe walking,and then he learns toeandheelwalking . He is taught how to swinga riflebutt or thrust a combat knifebefore an unsuspecting sentry can somuch as let out a squawk.Indian stuff ? Yes, but it is thatkind of simple, basic battlesavvy thatkeeps the Infantryman boring in,infiltrating the enemy 's positions,driving him out, destroying him.

Knowhowisn ' t all of i t ,though, and themen behind thetough Infantrytraining p ro-

gram in the American Army realizeit . They know that the stiffest testof all on the battle front is the testof physical fitness ; that a man musthe able to withstand the poundingof nature first before he can beexpected to take what the enemyhas to throw at him, or to do anyleadslinging of his own.

He must be able to go withoutsleep for long periods, and withoutfood or water, and still keep goingin fighting shape . It won ' t do himany good to know how to spring up,zigzag forward a few yards, hit thedirt and roll away, if he is too tiredto get some pretty fast action behindhis knowledge.Marching Today Is

Important As EverAn entrenching tool needs some-

thing more than cussing behind itto produce a hole in the ground.Bullets don ' t get tired so quickly.Marching, for another thing, isjust as important in this war as itever was, and perhaps even more so.There are a lot of places wheretrucks can t go, but where Americantroops must go.

Proof that the Infantry can hoofit if they have to is in such reportsas one that came out of Sicily of abattalion that made it from Riesi toSan Stefano, a distance of 54 miles,in 33 hours. During the m arch,made in intense heat on short waterrations, they even had some brusheswith the enemy

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10It is the combination of knowinghow to fight and having the staminato carry on that pays off in battle.

For that reason, there is nothinghalfway about the conditioning theInfantry gets nowadays.

S U M M A R Y 2UInfantrymen have the job in battleof closing with the enemy or dig in

A R M Y T A L K Sand hold . Training and equipmentm ake the Infantry m ore form idablethan ever.

How does ground warfare todaydiffer from the trench warfareof W orld W ar I ? W hy doAm ericans make particularlygood foxhole fighters ?

Footith Sudden DeathOnInfantry's m odernizedarsenal . . . Quality of heavyand personal equipment . . .Infantryman wins Congres-sional Medal of Honor . . .P lace of the Infantry ininvasion setup.An American Infantry outfit packsthe finest array of sudden death thatany army has ever assembled . Its.basic weapons are still the rifle andthe bayonet.The '03 Springfield has long beennoted for i ts ruggedn ess and

accuracy . It is the ideal weapon forthe sniper . The M t semiautomaticpiece gives the Yank Infantryman agreater firepower than that of anyrifleman he faces.The story is the same all throughthe Infantry arsenalsuperiority.Other Weapons Listed

Some of the weapons the Infantryfights with are, in addition to thestandard rifles, the new carbine,which is carried by officer personneland certain special troops ; theBrowning automatic rifle ; machineguns, both .30 and .50 calibre ; theThompson .45 submachine gun ;and antiaircraft and an titankcannon of 20 mm ., 37 mm., 40 mm .,

the new high velocity 57 mm ., andthe versatile, greatly improved 75mm . standby.

In the high trajectory class theboys operate, in addition to theamazingly accurate 6o and 8i mm.m ortars, the 75 and 105 mm .howitzers.

Keep TNT HandyThen there is the muchpublicizedbazooka, or rocket launcher, a nastyassortment of hand and rifle grenades,flame throwers with which to heatup the inhabitants of pill boxes andthe like, land mines of various sizesand a number of other lethal agents

right down to the new bayonet.. They even keep some TNT inthe cupboard just in case it seemsadvisable to blow a wireent angl m entrsom e o ther obs tac le ou t o fthe way, or to carry out som ebridge or bunker busting, as the casemay be.

The rest of the Infantry's heavyequipment layout is in keeping withits arms, from the useful little Jeepto the big personnel carrier at twoand a half tons . It's the best lineupthat American ingenuity can deviseand American industry can produce,and that makes it the' best there isin any man ' s army.

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26 April, 1944If the sailing is smooth, the newInfantry can get on its wheels andgo places at a maximum rate ofabout 50 m .p.h . And it can takealong its firepower, even the heaviestof it . The guns all wear big pneu-matic shoes these days.As far as the new Infantryman'spersonal equipment, such as cloth-ing, gas mask, canvas, webbing anda dozen other items are concerned,they, too, were designed for the

duty field: Th ey have double,built into them all the way . Lifeunder combat conditions is no picnicat best for the foot soldier, but goodgear can help a lot to keep him infighting trim and good spirits, evenon a prolonged C ration diet.Honor New Names

The Infantry is intensely proud ofthe men who fight on footmenwho have won the nation's highest

11New names for the role of honor arepresented by every fresh action inwhich the Infantry takes part ; newchapters are written in the historyof men whose service transcends thecall of duty.Anyone Here Seen Kelly ?

Typical is the case of Sgt . CharlesE . Kelly, an automatic rifleman,whose exploits ., against the enemySeptember 13 and 1 4, 1943following his landing at Salernowith the Fifth Army, caused him tobe awarded the first CongressionalMedal of Honor won in fighting onthe Italian mainland.Kelly, then a corporal, accordingto the official citation ; " voluntarilyjoined a patrol which "located andneutralized enemy machinegunpositions . After this hazardousduty he 'volunteered to establishawards for their valor in this war contact with a battalion of U .S

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Infantry which was believed to belocated on Hill 315, a miledistant." He traveled over a route com-manded by enemy observation and

under sniper, mortar and artilleryfire ; and later he returned w iththe correct information that theenemy occupied Hill 315 in organ-ized positions.

Gets More Ammunition" Immediately thereafter Kelly,again a volunteer patrol member,

assisted materially in the destructionof two enemy machinegun nestsunder conditions requiring greatskill and courage."Having effectively fired h isweapon until all the amm unitionwas exhausted, he secured permis-sion to obtain more at an ammuni-tion dump . Arriving at the dump,

which was located near a storehouseon the extrem e flank of his regi-ment 's position, Kelly found thatthe . Germans were attacking fero-ciously at this point." He obtained his ammunitionand w as given the m ission ofprotecting the rear of the storehouse

ARMY TALKSHe held his position throughout thenight.

" The following m orning theenemy attack was resumed . Kellytook a position at an open windowof the storehouse . One m achinegunner had been killed at . thisposition and several other soldierswounded.

Hurls Mortar Shells" Kelly delivered continuousaimed and effective fire upon theenemy with his automatic rifle,until the weapon locked from over-heating . Finding an other auto-m atic rifle, he r again directedeffective fire upon the enemy untilthis weapon also locked . At thiscritical point, with the enem ythreatening to overrun the position,Kelly picked up 6o m m . mortarshells, pulled the safety fuses arid . .used the shells as grenades, killingat least five of the enemy.

" When it became , imperativethat the house be evacuated, Kelly,despite his sergeant's injunctions,volunteered to hold the positionsuntil the remainder of the detach-ment could withdraw . As thedetachment moved out, Kelly wasobserved deliberately loading andfiring a rocket launcher from thewindow .

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136 April, 1944" He was successful in covering

the withdraw al of the unit, andlater in joining his own organization." Kelly ' s fighting determinationand intrepidity in battle exemplifythe highest traditions of the armed

forces of the U .S .," the citationconcluded.Commando Kelly, as his fellowsoldiers have affectionately named

him, has earned the acclaim andgratitude of an Army and a wholepeople for his valor. The nationsalutes a real Infantryman.

Infantry Is BasicIn Invasion Scheme

The Allied powerhouse whichsmacks Hitler's Fortress Europe inthe West is going to be agroundseaair combinationthe greatestmilitary team ever assembled . Andthe Infantry, as always, will be thebasic element of the whole operation.

The primary job of the otherelements will be to get the Infantry-man ashore and give him some coverwhile he gets set to start boring in.The Navy 's big guns and the AirForce w ill see to that, with thebombers ranging ahead constantlyto soften up the defenses.

Its Importance GrowsAs the show progresses, the role

of the Infantry will receive moreand more emphasis . The supportis going to elim inate plenty ofenemy positions, all right, but theNazis have been preparing for thistest a long time.

It will remain for the Infantrymanto induce those who stay on in theirconcrete and steel nests to admitthat it was all a big mistake . Thenew does its coazing insuch matters With flame throwers

and TNT . The se are very per-suasive.

They are so persuasive, in fact,that many experienced officersbelieve that the com ing attackswill produce far fewer casualtiesthan the men themselves may expect.There are others who think that istoo optimistic a view.

Whether the job turns out to beeasier or tougher than mostpeople expect, there is one surething.

Power Play Can't LoseIt will be doneand done well

by the mudpounding Infantry,the foot soldiers of whom newspapercorrespondent Ernie Pyle wrote :" I loved the Infantry because

they were the underdogs . Theywere the mudrainfrostandwindboys . They had no comforts, andthey even learned to live withoutthe necessities . In the en d theywere the guys without whom theBattle of Africa could not havebeen won . "

Such is the spirit of the newUnited States Infantry as it lookstoward the. Continent, awaiting thesignal.

SUMMARY 3 nA merican Infantry weapons are

equal - or superior to anything theenemy has to off er. infantrymenare winning the nation's highestawards for valor in battle.

In what way is infantry fightingtoday a throwback to the tacticsof the American Indian ? Whyare the Infantry's losses in theinvasion of the Continent likelyto be much less than some haveanticipated ?

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14 A R M Y T A L K S

PreparationI T doesn ' t matter what service your men are inthey will all beinterested in this article about the " foot slogging infantry ." Theyhave been the backbone of our armies from the beginning : Theywaded through sw arms of mosquitoes and bullets in the Spanish-AmericanWar, and covered themselves with honor at Chateau-Thierry and theArgonne . The infantry have had -a proud record and they're addingto it in all Theaters of the war.If you belong to another service it will be a good idea to have some

infantrymen sit in with you to answer questions or tell some of theirexperiences . Perhaps you can get a veteran of World War I to contrast20's techniques and training of the two wars . A quick look at the Formor the service records is likely to reveal several men with infantry experiencein your own unit . It might be valuable for an infantry outfit to invitea few T om m ies over to acqua int the boys w ith their oppositenumbers in the British Army . This will make for not only better under-standing of the subject but of our allies as well.

The November 22, 1943, issue of Life featured the American foot soldieron the cover and included a full page tribute by General Eisenhower tohis importance . You, as a discussion leader, will certainly want to readit, and you may want to pass on all or part of it to your group . Any issueof the Infantry Journal will provide some background material about theway the infantry do their job . The issues of Yank, dated March 26 andApril 9, carry stories about infantry action, " The Town That W asCassino " and " Counterattack ." Put some last minute punch in yourdiscussion by using Stars and Stripes stories to show how our doughboysare shaping current events all over the world.

You can't always gauge a man's ideas by his outward appearance.There are probably several mem bers in your group who sit throughdiscussion after discussion without making any contribution at all . D onot assume that they are uninterested, without ideas, or halfasleep . Itmay be they are just a little shy about offering their ideas in a group meeting.Throw an occasional question their way . Ask your questions like a manseeking information or a valued opinionnot like a school teacher checkinga spelling lesson . The results may surprise you . In m any cases bothgroup and individual will profit.

Printed by Newnes & Pearson Printing Co ., Ltd ., Exmoor Street, N . Kensington, London, w.10

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26 April, 1944 lb

I . W hat are the major differences between the new and oldedition of the " Queen of Battle " ? p . 3.2. W hat was the role of the Infantry in the Blitz tactics of theGerm ans ? p . 3.

3. W hat are the two basic types of weapons and how do theydiffer? p . 5.4. W hy has the defense in depth using " com pact islands ofresistance "" replaced the " continuous thin line " of World War I ?p. 7.

5. What trumps does the modern American Infantryman have inhand when he faces an armored attack ? p . 6.

6. Can you suggest specific instances from recent news illus-trating the importance of teamw ork between the Infantry andother services ?

7. Why is individual initiative more important in this war thanthe last ? p . g.8. Can any com parison be drawn between m odern Infantrytactics with frontier Indian fighting ? How does it differ ?9. What is the fundamental purpose of the Infantry it this asin earlier wars ?to . Why is it ever necess ary for Infantry outfits to make longmarches when so much emphasis is laid on motorized transport ?

p . II .11. W hat, in year opinion, made T/Sgt Charles Kelly the out-

standing soldier he is? Can such soldiers be "m ade" or dothey have to be " born " ?12. What sort of cooperation can the Infantryman expect in the 'combined operations aimed at establishing a beachhead ? p . 13 .

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