Pre-war U.S. war games

[mexchiwa]

I was just thinking about the pre-1941 war games in the U.S., and wondering how they actually worked (I was never in the military so I have no idea)

Any good sources/pics on this? (I'm looking at you, pampa14)

Anything we tried war gaming that was a disaster in real combat, or vice versa?

Thanks in advance...

 

[fubar57]

Can't find any Pre-'41 war game photos.....yet. How about a Carolina Maneuvers '41 photo - 8th PG

You can download a free book about the Maneuvers here...

http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/070/70-41-1/CMH_Pub_70-41-1.pdf

Geo

 

[mexchiwa]

Thanks. In the U.S., 1941 was still pre-war, of course. I'm making something for the old Il-2 game, so trying to do some research.

 

[Capt. Vick]

Thanks again Geo!

 

[fubar57]

You're welcome Jim but that was kind of a fluke and the realization of lost opportunities. Several years ago i clicked on one of the PDF listings...

...it went straight to download and I was disappointed when I opened it. Sometime a while ago Firefox put in a preview page so that when you clicked the PDF file it gave you a preview so you could decide whether it was worth downloading. I bypassed several documents and books before I found this out

 

[GrauGeist]

"War Game" is not a term that was widely used in the 1900's.

Search instead, with keywords like "Maneuvers", "Exercises" or even "Strategic Exercises".

Also, the Navy had it's own term for Exercises: "Fleet Problem", "Joint Fleet Problem" and the Marines used the term "Field Problem".

The most recent Fleet Problem the USN conducted, was Fleet Problem XXI (1940), Fleet Problem XXII (scheduled for 1941) was cancelled. The first Fleet Problem was conducted in 1923, denoted by the Roman Numeral I, each following year gained another Roman Numeral value.