The following post provides the author’s solutions to one of the sixteen short problems published in the very first (1930-1931) issue of the Infantry School Mailing List.
If you have yet to read, or, better yet, work through this problem, please do so before looking at the solutions.
SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEM NO. 11
(1) With veterans the attack is at 4:30 PM. There is only a short distance to go and success is possible before darkness.
(2) The attack order is oral.
(3) It [the order] is general in character. Minute details with veterans are not necessary, there is not much time, and the lack of good maps makes detailed instructions almost
impossible.
(4) With partly trained troops the issuance of orders, and conduct of the approach march with necessary security precautions will be much slower. It is probable that a coordinated attack with everyone in place and knowing what he has to do cannot be launched until a considerable time after 4:30 PM. Indications are that the attack cannot be pushed to a successful conclusion to-day. Therefore the decision is made to attack at dawn [on the following day], even at the cost of allowing the enemy to strengthen his position.
There is more time for orders, there are good maps, the troops are only partly trained and details which are unnecessary for veterans should be included in instructions. All of these factors work for detailed, explicit orders. The brigade issues a written order. Orders to subordinate units are oral.
Commentary
Problem 11 differs from its predecessors in a number of ways. First, rather than asking students to make a plan, it asks them when to execute a course of action. Second, rather than placing students in the shoes of a sergeant, lieutenant, captain, or major, it asks them to play the role of a brigadier general. Third, in keeping with the position of the protagonist, the map depicted a piece of land that was five times the size of the areas described by the maps used with previous problems.
Because of these differences, the discussions that took place during the online meetings of the Decision Game Club paid a great deal of attention to timing, and, in particular, to the question of the location of the sun at various times of day.
Sources
‘Infantry Problems’ Infantry School Mailing List (Fort Benning: US Army Infantry School, 1931) Volume 1 (1930-1931) page 49 (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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