Survive as a World War II Soldier - Chapter 109



Only Noblemtl

##109

The Arkansas maneuvers were wrapping up just as I was arguing with Secretary of State Hull.

The mobile training report systematically described various problems discovered during the training process.

“The process of transmitting intelligence from the reconnaissance unit to the main force is unstable and slow.”

“More research is needed on communication systems. In particular, I think there is a need for a re-study of the radio type.”

“Regarding the movement process or road control···.”

“There has been considerable criticism of the lack of aviation security and air force fire support.”

As I was reading the report, I couldn’t hold back my anger and threw the report I was holding down.

“I think I’ve seen and heard this a lot. What does our Chief of Staff think?”

Marshall lowered his head with a dark expression at my question.

He boasted to the Secretary of State that if he came and saw our kids, he would immediately see how dumb they were, but he had a different feeling.

Still, how much care have you taken over the years?

Especially the guys I had raised while I was at West Point, they were all shedding their chick-like appearances and at the point where their abilities were just beginning to blossom.

How much training did they do there, with the Bonus Army and the military bases all over the country accepting people after the Great Depression?

So, I expected that even though he lacked some practical experience, he would at least have some human qualities.

But, didn’t they say that the instep always gets cut by the axe you trust?

“Let’s leave the radio aside. That’s a technical issue. The operation of reconnaissance units, marches, the use of air units… Aren’t these all the same issues that came up during the last war?”

The idea that something had changed or gotten better was nothing more than an illusion on my part.

Even more serious is,

“There was a scenario for this too.”

That’s right. Unlike actual combat, the Arkansas maneuver exercise was conducted in a situation where there was a script for how the military would operate and respond.

But the fact that problems like this have erupted means that our children are still more retarded than we can imagine.

“In the end, freely without a scenario···.”

“Oh, so that made it even more of a mess?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to make mistakes now than later?”

Marshall was right. That’s why I did Arkansas, and prepared for Louisiana and the Carolinas.

But then a thought suddenly occurred to me and I looked at Marshall and asked.

“But these things, are they going to be fixed just by doing Louisiana?”

“yes?”

Knock knock.

I pounded my desk and thought to myself, concluding that continuing with the training as it was was pointless.

“Louisiana, let’s go without a scenario.”

“yes?”

“As you said, mistakes should be made now. If you make a mistake in Europe, wouldn’t that be tantamount to murder?”

“Well, that’s true.”

Everyone was visibly shocked when I suggested that we completely free Louisiana, which was going to be a much bigger mess than Arkansas, where there was a script.

It seemed as though he knew that things were going to get even worse than in Arkansas.

however,

“You should know. There’s an oriental saying that if you know your enemy, you’ll be defeated in a hundred battles. It’s important to know your opponent, but shouldn’t you know how far you can go and what you should do?”

The fact that the soldiers’ level was a mess was bound to become a constant the moment they were filled with conscripts.

In that case, the level of officers had to be raised.

Shock therapy would have been much more effective for him.

“As the Minister said, that would certainly be better.”

And Marshall quickly figured out what I meant without me having to explain it to him at length.

Of course, the face of Lt. Gen. Leslie J. McNair, the chief of staff for mobile training who had to put this into practice, turned pale, but that didn’t really matter.

##

Boom.

Tata tata.

“It’s pretty noisy.”

“When you first go out to the battlefield, isn’t the noise the hardest thing to get used to?”

“That’s right. The new recruits are startled by the sound of their own rifles and drop their guns.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle as a vague old memory suddenly came to mind.

“Yes, that’s why I installed as many speakers as possible.”

“Hmm. You must have had a hard time preparing.”

At a quick glance, all those who had combat experience had expressions on their faces as if the gunshots and cannonballs coming from the speakers had brought back forgotten memories.

That’s how the training started.

“Huh. What is that?”

“It’s an idea that came to me after struggling because I couldn’t use an actual bomb.”

Instead of bombs, a sack of flour falling would have been quite plausible.

It exploded with a loud, dull noise, sending white powder flying everywhere. It was just the right amount of powder to make you feel like you had been bombed, except that it was white.

“Are all those guys covered in flour dead?”

“Yes, that’s right. You will be declared dead.”

“Oh my gosh, this feels so real.”

There can’t be no observers in a large-scale maneuver exercise.

Not only the local Louisiana celebrities who lent me their space, but also those who were glaring as if to see if what I was saying was true.

In addition to the command center where Marshall and I were, the outskirts of the area designated as a battlefield were filled with local residents who had come out to see tanks and other things.

Anyway, everyone was amazed by the realistic training situation, but then a situation reminiscent of an actual battlefield began to recreate itself in the training grounds.

“Eww.”

“Uh, where should I go···.”

“Why aren’t the orders coming….”

There has never been a mess like this.

“Have you prepared that too?”

When I asked with a pitiful expression, McNair kept wiping away the cold sweat.

The first battlefield set during the war along the Mississippi River.

The orders given to the 2nd Army under Lieutenant General Ben Lear were to cross the Red River and occupy the 3rd Army’s home territory.

The 3rd Army under Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, which was naturally designated as the response force, was ordered to intercept the invading forces and drive them back across the river.

And how to carry out the order was entirely at the discretion of each legion commander.

“We need to actively utilize armored units.”

“That’s right. If we advance the armored units across the river first….”

“Speed, we have to make the most of the speed of the armored units.”

Lieutenant General Lear, who had experience in the Arkansas Maneuver Training, worked hard to maximize the mobility of his armored units.

But there was something he hadn’t considered: the terrain called a river.

“There are not enough bridges.”

“At this rate, it will take too long for the armored units to cross the river.”

“The enemies are destroying the bridge.”

bang

“This bridge was destroyed by bombing. Go back.”

At the supervisor’s shout, the soldiers who were trying to cross the bridge hesitated and stopped.

“Uh, uh. What should I do?”

“I have to cross the bridge.”

Among the soldiers milling about, a sergeant stepped forward.

“Why are you standing? Follow me.”

The soldiers, who had been looking at each other at the sergeant’s shout, began to slowly cross the bridge.

“Oh, what? The bridge blew up. It completely collapsed.”

The supervisor shouted angrily at the soldiers’ movements.

“Yes, it collapsed. So, my men and I were swimming, but you couldn’t see it, Supervisor? If you could see that the bridge collapsed, you could see that we were swimming, right?”

“!”

The supervisor’s face turned red as if it was going to burst at the soldier’s calm response while crossing the bridge covered in flour.

“Hahaha.”

“Hey, that makes sense.”

A burst of laughter broke out among the local residents watching nearby.

“That guy, he’s a real deal.”

“Yes. Let’s find out who it is.”

“Yeah. But this is a total mess.”

No matter how shameless they were, only the infantry could boast that they were swimming while walking over a bridge that had been declared a wreck.

In the end, the armored units had to bypass the north to find a crossing location without a bridge, and they were unable to make use of their advantage of speed.

And the attack continued the next day.

The Panzer division, which had managed to make a large detour to the north and find a position where it could cross the river without a bridge, advanced to intercept the left flank of the 3rd Army.

But what awaited them was an ambush by an anti-tank gun unit.

“Beatan.”

“green onion.”

Of course, the armored division melted away like sugar in water.

And that night.

“Excuse me, please write to me.”

It was Patton who came to see me.

“Ben Lear, that guy doesn’t even know the armored reporter. How can he operate his unit like that? If it were me, it would have been different.”

Patton, who was very excited, was furious that if he had been given armor, the outcome would have been completely different.

“I guess so.”

“Yes. As expected, you are different, senior. But···”

I couldn’t help but sigh as I watched Patton whine that others didn’t recognize him.

“Yeah, haven’t you been doing well in the past?”

Who would want to believe that guy’s nonsense?

But, watching the training go on like this, I felt like I was going to explode.

“Okay. I’ll tell Lieutenant General Kruger.”

“Yes.”

“Do it properly.”

“sure.”

The second battle began the next day.

This time, it was Lieutenant General Kruger’s 3rd Army that took control of the armored division.

And Lieutenant General Lear’s 2nd Army, which had no armor and few men, chose to slowly retreat north.

“Still, it is not easy to retreat, but we are maintaining our formation well.”

“Is that so?”

Lieutenant General Ben Lear’s tolerance was not bad, but that was it.

In any case, what we had to do in Europe was to drive out the Germans and liberate countries including France.

So, what this means is that there is almost no need to retreat or defend.

“What matters is how well you beat up your enemies and drive them out.”

“Yes? But the defense too···.”

Defense? The US Army has to defend itself if the enemy knocks out all the seals and lands. Why should I think about something that has never happened in the 21st century that I have lived in?

Anyway, the situation on the battlefield remained calm until the morning of the third day.

But as the morning sun rose, something strange happened.

“Oh, oh. Where on earth did that come from?”

“oh my god!”

Patton’s armored units suddenly appeared behind Lieutenant General Lear’s 2nd Army, which was retreating.

Behind, there’s armor.

Lieutenant General Lear’s unit was hit in the back of the head and had to fall back.

Patton’s use of armored units was so extraordinary that it could be described as elusive.

It was a major detour that hit Lieutenant General Lear in the back of the head, covering a distance of nearly 500 km over three days.

“I wondered why you kept that author instead of kicking him out, and it was because of this?”

Marshall shook his head, referring to the Bonus Army incident long ago.

Patton’s gallop was a shock to everyone involved in the maneuver training.

Patton puffed out his chest and looked haughty.

“This is how armor should be used.”

Of course, Lieutenant General Lear, who was hit in the back of the head, did not stay still.

“This is against the rules. Didn’t you go quite a ways outside the designated battlefield area?”

however,

“I have never heard that there are rules in war.”

It wasn’t enough to pierce through Patton’s shameless face.

And the following critique.

“You see? The masters of the battlefield are tanks. More tanks are the future of our army! We need to build more armored units that have everything from mobility to firepower.”

Patton’s call to tanks wasn’t particularly surprising, but McNair’s call was unexpected.

“We need to give the infantry anti-tank guns. You can’t always stop a tank with another tank, right? If you look at the price-performance ratio, anti-tank guns are the answer, not tanks.”

McNair was an anti-tank gunner.

“You saw the performance of the anti-tank guns that stopped the armored units in the first battlefield. For the price of one tank, you could buy several anti-tank guns…”

“It’s not the tank gun, but the food truck that is invincible.”

It was Patton who interrupted McNair, who was passionately preaching about the power of anti-tank guns.

And while I and the others tilted our heads at the unexpected food truck story, Patton glared at McNair and continued his sarcasm.

“Isn’t it? From what I’ve seen, our military’s best weapon is neither aircraft, nor tanks, nor anti-tank guns. It’s the food truck. And isn’t the food truck the cheapest?”

But somehow the atmosphere was really strange.

The expressions on the faces of the officers of the 2nd Army and even the 3rd Army were too strange to dismiss as Patton’s nonsense.

“There’s something. What is it? Lieutenant General McNair?”

What the hell did you do with that food truck?

Why would you come here?