Christopher R. Gabel

I have multiple book resources dealing with military biographies, orders of battle and general history of the US Army. But I had not found many substantial books dealing with the 1940-1941 time period of large scale growth in the size of the Army. And how expansion issues, supply problems and balancing of the forces (infantry vs. armor vs. artillery) got resolved.

The US Army GHQ Maneuvers of 1941 covers the training angle of the emergent growing army. Lieutenant General Lesley McNair was show more leading force under Marshall to get the Army organized and trained for the pending WWII conflict. It was interesting to read about his handling and review of the exercise maneuvers.

As a former junior Army officer, I remember working with umpires that managed wargames. Always a never fully satisfying answer on how a simulated conflict is supposed to unfold. No exception during the Louisiana and Carolina maneuvers.

I recall organizing brigade level road marches and dealing with myriad of details to get a large unit from Point A to Point B. As a Bridge plans officer working for the S-3, I remember sitting through multiple planning sessions with the Brigade Commander to organize for a battle. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I never took to skills into a combat situation.

I enjoyed reading about various names and personalities who were budding field grade officers to be later launched into senior ranks during the war. It is with a new perspective that I read about Eisenhower’s role as the Third Army Chief of Staff during the Maneuvers. There is an appendix at the back of the book titled, Principal Officers in the GHQ Maneuvers and Their Wartime Careers. This appendix was an interesting glimpse into names and backgrounds involved.

I wish the book could have had foldout maps. The provided maps were single page and very small. Having fold-out maps that could have been easily accessed to better appreciate the reading would have been nice. As it was printed, the periodic maps were found a couple of pages into each exercise. Thus, you are left only with initial text descriptions of the maneuvers before viewing a map several pages later to put it all together. Having a readily available map to accompany the reading would have been effective.

I found this book an excellent complement to various books I own dealing with Army divisional (and higher) organization and their histories. show less