Central Louisiana's Role in World War II

Central Louisiana's Role in World War II. Kisatchie National Forest: Drafted for Military Service. , Central Louisiana played a vital role in preparing our Nation's military for World War II starting with the Louisiana Maneuvers in 1940. The Louisiana Maneuvers occurred from 1940 to 1943 and were the largest peacetime exercises in American military history. The maneuvers spanned over 3,400 square miles of central Louisiana and were primarily held between the Sabine and Red Rivers., Notable Army Officers such as Major General Walter Short, Brigadier General Adna Chaffee, Colonel George S. Patton, Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower, and LT Colonel Omar Bradley all participated in the Louisiana Maneuvers and would become highly decorated military leaders in World War II., The central Louisiana landscape provided optimum testing grounds for large, mechanized vehicles and tanks against the mostly mounted cavalry troops under realistic fighting conditions. Colonel Patton's observation of the maneuvers resulted in his statement: "If you can take these tanks through Louisiana, you can take them through hell.", Central Louisiana served as a vast laboratory for testing strategies and innovations such as C-rations, mobile kitchens, and hospitals. Lessons learned in central Louisiana helped the U.S. Army adapt to new, faster-moving infantry divisions. The Louisiana Maneuvers helped to bring a close to the once glorious role of horse-mounted cavalry troops as they gave way to tanks and other mechanized equipment., Kisatchie National Forest: Drafted for Military Service, In August of 1940, Army Chief of Staff, General George Marshall, visited Louisiana and declared that central Louisiana provided the "finest military training areas he had ever seen." Speculation immediately spread that the Army might choose Louisiana for the location of much needed new training camps and maneuver areas., In 1941, lands from the Kisatchie National Forest were transferred to the United States Department of War to establish Camps Claiborne, Livingston, and Polk. Shortly thereafter, within a 50-mile radius of Alexandria, Louisiana, four major Army military training camps, four Army airfields and numerous bombing and artillery ranges were constructed to support the growing military training needs of our nation., The U.S. Army's goal was to establish 100 divisions to support the war efforts in the European, North African, and Pacific Theaters. (A division consists of approximately 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers.) The Army activated 89 divisions from 1941 to 1945. Of those 89 divisions, 45 divisions, which is just over half of the total divisions, trained at either Camp Claiborne, Livingston, or Polk. Over 500,000 U.S. soldiers trained at Camp Claiborne alone