Short Problem 4
From the 'Infantry School Mailing List'
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:
The problem calls for players to step into the shoes of a sergeant who finds himself leading his section over two different pieces of ground. In both of these situations, the section in question consists of two eight-man rifle squads, each of which employs an automatic rifleman, a rifle-grenadier, and six riflemen (one of whom serves as the squad leader).
The rifles, automatic and otherwise, are effective at ranges out to five hundred yards. The grenades fired by the rifle-grenadier can reach as far as two hundred yards.
The section, in turn, provides a rifle platoon with a third of its fighting power.
PROBLEM NO. 4
To be once in doubt is once to be resolv’d.
Shakespeare, Othello
In Sketch A, the (six) scouts of the leading section of a platoon advancing northward have been fired on from hill X. The leading section, behind hill Y, is ordered to attack to the front. What does the section do?
In Sketch B the scouts, as they cross hill H are fired on from hill G. The section is just starting to advance from hill K. The section is ordered to attack to the front. What does the section do?
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, 7 June 2026.
Source
‘Infantry Problems’ Infantry School Mailing List (Fort Benning: US Army Infantry School, 1931) Volume 1 (1930-1931) page 32 (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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