Solutions to Short Problem 3
From the 'Infantry School Mailing List'
The first volume of the Infantry School Mailing List, which rolled off the press in 1931, offered readers a set of sixteen short tactical problems. On 24 May 2026, The Tactical Notebook published the third of these.
This article provides both the solutions published at the end of the problem, as well as an overview of the solutions offered by participants in on-line meetings (‘Zoomdezvous’) of the Decision Game Club. So, if you would like to play your way through the series, please engage that exercise before reading this post.
Please note that this problem calls for players to deal with two different situations, one in which a battalion has to move over a piece of ground devoid of cover and one in which an identical unit has been ordered to move through ground that is well provided with hills, copses, and creeks.
Published Solutions to Problem 3
First Battalion
The first battalion will advance in time to cross the line of departure (LD) at the time of attack. It cannot form up there. It will therefore advance with the two assault companies abreast, the machine gun company following, and the reserve later.
Assault companies would have leading platoons in squad columns preceded by scouts.
Machine gun company formations would be similar to those of the riflemen.
Rear elements of the battalion would be in section columns.
The battalion would depend for protection on supporting fire (largely artillery) and on an extended formation. Smoke might be used.
Note: In 1931, a war-strength infantry regiment rated three 3-inch mortars. The immediate ancestor of the 81mm mortar of the Second World War, these weapons could send their ten-pound projectiles out to a range of 2,000 yards.
Second Battalion
The second battalion would move, preceded by patrols, in column of companies. Companies would be in column of platoons and platoons in column of twos, taking advantage of cover and all under battalion control. On approaching the line of departure assault companies would move to their positions and form for attack under cover.
Solutions Proposed at Meetings of the Decision Game Club
On Saturday, 23 May 2026, participants in two on-line meetings of the Decision Game Club worked through this problem. In one meeting, participants worked through both parts of the exercise. In the other, they ran out of time before they could deal with the situation faced by the second battalion.
Where the solutions published in the Infantry School Mailing List focused entirely upon movement from the woods to the line of departure (LD), those offered at the on-line meetings focused on actions forward of the line of departure. In other words, the participants thought through the overall scheme of maneuver before given orders for the initial movement.
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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