The Tennessee Maneuvers

In the summer of 1943, the 83rd Division was sent to participate in the Tennessee Maneuvers, partly to get it thoroughly dried out. It got dried out all right. It was bivouacked near Lebanon, Tennessee. Except for a few main highways, the roads were rocky, rough, and dusty. One canteen of water on a day's maneuver was just an irritant. It was a dry summer, and the Engineers were reduced to drawing water from ponds that were used as hog wallows. They did, however, draw the water at the opposite end from the one used by the hogs, and chlorinated it before it was used. It was never very cold, but  infantrymen are not accustomed to the amenities of civilization.

The maneuvers were not very tough. The 329th Infantry tied up the first exercise, and was not very popular thereafter. This maneuver was a fight for the bridge across the Cumberland river. After skirmishing around for half a day without progress, Lieutenant Magill, with his Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon, was sent to look for another possible crossing. He reported back before dark that he had found a cattle ford that jeeps could cross. Major Yanishewski took the 3rd Battalion, which had been in reserve, across the river at dark, marched all night, and at daylight captured Murphreesboro, the headquarters of the opposing army. The rest of the regiment had followed, and as the enemy couldn't very well turn around, the three-day maneuver had to be called off. The 329th Infantry was not very popular with anybody except the soldiers -- they got an unexpected rest.

The Army is not too bad in times of peace, but in time of war it does everything possible to make the civilian soldiers hate it. As General Ferenbaugh once said, "Must we always run things like a bunch of sons-of-bitches?" -- a remark that is close to the truth. The officers are on the make for promotion, and they know they will have a better chance if they put on all the pressure that the situation will stand. If a soldier objects to some stupidity the answer is, "Aw, you can't take it." When the public has been sold a war, the officers are always right. After the war is over, the officers were always wrong.

When the Tennessee Maneuvers were over, the 83rd Division was ordered to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, a distance of a hundred miles, to be covered by marching at about fifteen miles a day. This was a breeze. The bivouac areas were usually close enough to a town for the soldiers to walk into town after the pup tents had been pitched and the camp established. The towns were usually hospitable. Each company was issued two MP armbands and a truck, and was given the job of seeing that all its men were out of town and into camp by midnight. The drunks were brought back in the trucks. This proved to be a much better system than using regular Military Policemen. Most soldiers resented Military Police. They were too officious and wouldn't even allow military personnel to go into a drugstore to buy a paper because they weren't wearing neckties. The soldiers were much more cooperative when one of their buddies was wearing the MP brassard. It is probable that one of the greatest wastes of good and intelligent manpower by the Army is by using potential infantry non-commissioned officers as privates in the Military Police. In combat we used the walking wounded for M.P.'s.

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