Short Problem 8
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, successively, into the shoes of five leaders of a rifle company of the type being tested at the Infantry School in 1931.
The company consists of three rifle platoons, each of two twenty-five man sections.
For more about these of units, see:
PROBLEM NO. 8
‘I’m the Prophet of the Utterly Absurd,
Of the Patently Impossible and Vain’
Rudyard Kipling
The Song of the Banjo
SITUATION
An interior company is attacking north-ward.
The enemy post at Y is being reduced by the company on the right.
The leading section of the 2d Platoon is held up on the forward slope of Hill B by the fire from a small enemy post at X to its front.
The rear section is behind Hill B. The 1st Platoon has advanced up the wooded stream between the enemy combat posts.
The rear section is closely following the leading section. The 3d Platoon is halted under cover.
The troops are well trained veterans.
REQUIREMENT
What are the intentions of the leader of the leading section, 1st Platoon?
The platoon leader 1st Platoon?
The platoon leader 2d Platoon?
The company commander?
If instead of being well-trained veterans, the troops are in their first fight, and have had little training, what are the intentions of the two assault platoon leaders and the company commander?
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, 5 July 2026.
Sources
‘Infantry Problems’ Infantry School Mailing List (Fort Benning: US Army Infantry School, 1931) Volume 1 (1930-1931) page 40 (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)
You can find the entirety of The Song of the Banjo on the websites of The Poetry Foundation and The Kipling Society.
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