1941: U.S. ARMY STAGES REALISTIC MASS WAR MANEUVERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA

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[WhiskeyX]

1941: U.S. ARMY STAGES REALISTIC MASS WAR MANEUVERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA

[WhiskeyX]

This 1941 Movietone newsreel provides a picture of how the U.S. Army has been conducting military exercises and maneuvers within American civilian communities since before the United States participation in the Second World War.

Note the use of the U.S. Army horse cavalry in this newsreel. The use of horses and mules by the U.S. Army became a controversial issue during WWII, because the Army chose to not use horses during the war in Europe. This lack of horses and mules became a problem in various war. Local Army units in Italy found it necessary to improvise pack horses and mules despite Army policy to the contrary. Patton's Third Army tried to obtain permission to use horses and mules and were refused. When the Third Army became bogged down in the mud they suffered needless losses and inability to maneuver due to the lack of the horses and mules of the cavalry.

[2ndDivisionVet]

The Germans, despite their image as a highly mechanized Blitzkrieg force, used horses, carts and pack animals heavily right up to the last day of the war.

[ansel12]

In 1941, Army reserves Lieutenant Reagan was still in the horse cavalry, his fifth year of it.

[Ken H]

Summary of Reagan's military service. Last line is the best =>

Reagan’s Reserve Commission automatically terminated on 1 April 1953. However, he became Commander-in-Chief of all U.S. Armed Forces when he became President on 20 January 1981.

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/military.html

[gaijin]

Later

[riverdawg]

“The Germans, despite their image as a highly mechanized Blitzkrieg force, used horses, carts and pack animals heavily right up to the last day of the war.”

I am reading a book on the Battle of Metz, autumn 1944. I don't have the book with me, but a passage I read last night indicated that, in preparation for an impending Allied offensive, the German army was trying to purchase horses and mules from local German citizens in order to be able to move artillery pieces to the front. Most of them, not wanting to back what was beginning to appear to be the losing side, refused to do so.

[JewishRighter]

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