Short Problem 13

The following problem appeared in the first semi-annual volume of the Infantry School Mailing List, which rolled off the press in 1931. (This periodical, which might well be described as a journal in all but name, replaced the collections of mimeographed instructional materials that the US Army Infantry School sent out to subscribers in the 1920s.)

For the philosophy behind theses problems, please see:

NOTE

This problem places players in the position of a regimental commander who must recommend a course of action to the commanding generals of the brigade and division to which his regiment belongs.

The black silhouettes represent friendly regiments. The red silhouettes stand for enemy forces of comparable size.

PROBLEM NO. 13

Blue troops are detraining 25 miles east of the woods shown in the sketch. Detachments have been pushed forward to the stream to cover detrainment. An enemy is advancing from the west.

A Blue regiment of veterans at war strength was ordered to prevent a crossing in the vicinity of A. Detachments from another division guard crossings to the north, and cavalry those to the south, where a strong hostile effort is not expected.

A hostile crossing at A early to-day drove back the defenders. In the afternoon, the regimental reserve made a successful surprise attack on the enemy’s northern flank. At 5:00 PM the enemy was still resisting but was being driven back toward A in confusion. A partly trained Blue regiment at peace strength is attached to the veteran Blue regiment and has just reached the hills near D.

At 5:00 PM the commander of the Blues near A learns that strong enemy forces have crossed the stream to the northeast and overrun the defenders and penetrated deeply. They are still advancing. As fast as additional Blue troops detrain, they are being moved toward B. All available Blue troops near B, some seven or eight battalions, will attack at dawn from the general position shown on the sketch in an effort to stop hostile progress and allow detrainment to continue.

The cavalry on the south after successful resistance up to noon was driven back by a hostile crossing at C. The situation is obscure but the cavalry still resists. The sketch indicates the situation at 5:00 PM.

At 5:00 PM the Blue regimental commander submitted to his superiors a recommendation for future operations of the force under his command.

REQUIREMENT

The recommendation. How would this be affected if all the Blue troops were only partly trained?

How to Play

I invite paid subscribers to to use the comments section to share their own answers to the questions posed.

I will post the original (1931) solutions to the problem, as well as my own commentary, on Sunday, 16 August 2026.

Sources

‘Infantry Problems’ Infantry School Mailing List (Fort Benning: US Army Infantry School, 1931) Volume 1 (1930-1931) page 50 (Internet Archive)

The Internet Archive preserves scans of microfilmed copies of all thirty volumes of the Infantry School Mailing List. However, it catalogs them under the heading of the Infantry School Quarterly, which succeeded the Mailing List in 1947. (Internet Archive)

The Hathi Trust provides links to scanned-from-paper copies of some, but far from all, issues of the Infantry School Mailing List (Hathi Trust)

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