When World War II Came to Town

by Michael Depp

For two towns in Louisiana, World War II started in the summer of 1941—four months before Pearl Harbor—when 400,000 soldiers conducted the largest military dress rehearsal in the nation’s history.

By 1939 it was clear the nation would not be ready for the inevitable war in Europe. The U.S. Army ranked 17th in military manpower and effectiveness, and soldiers still used equipment from World War I, including mounted cavalry, horse- and mule-drawn wagons, and antiquated rifles. Under the leadership of Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall, mechanization soon would begin—but tanks and trucks had to be tested, and new soldiers needed experience in combat maneuvers.

The Army found the perfect location for such practice in Louisiana, where Pineville (pop. 13,829) and Alexandria (pop. 46,342) face each other across the Red River, and 3,400 square miles (spilling into East Texas) were available for war games and field testing. Camp Beauregard in Pineville became U.S. 3rd Army Headquarters, and construction began on several new bases to accommodate a massive influx of troops to the area, including Camp Polk in Leesville, Camp Livingston, and Camp Claiborne.

Col. Richard Stillman was among the many soldiers who came to Pineville for an early maneuver in the spring of 1940, when approximately 66,000 soldiers were divided into Red and Blue armies. “I was impressed with the difficult conditions people were living under at the time,” he says, “and this was a tremendous shot in the arm.”

Amid the flurry of new construction, the first war games began. Since these were exercises, no bullets were actually fired, no bridges or buildings destroyed. Officers and soldiers relied instead on an elaborate rulebook and decisions of umpires who noted “casualties” taken, equipment disabled, and structures destroyed.

From encounters with future world leaders—Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower was 3rd Army chief of staff—to everyday intermingling with soldiers, residents of Pineville and Alexandria were profoundly marked by the Louisiana Maneuvers, especially during the summer of 1941.

Jack Wainwright remembers a moment from that summer.

“Do you want to see a real live Army general?” asked Wainwright’s father. He motioned over his shoulder at Gen. George S. Patton Jr., asleep in the back seat of an Army Packard. In Alexandria, a town boasting three small movie theaters and one hotel with air conditioning, the invasion of the town and neighboring Pineville had begun, and for the 15-year-old boy and everyone he knew, nothing in his hometown would ever be the same after the Louisiana Maneuvers.

Wainwright says the military brought entrepreneurial opportunities to the community. A paperboy at the time, he tailored his sales pitch to the visiting soldiers.

“We’d find out what state they were from and, at one particular time, there were a whole lot from Missouri,” Wainwright recalls. “So we’d go out in the woods hollering, ‘St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Yankees World Series,’ and those Missouri boys couldn’t wait for those papers.”

Don Armand, also in high school at the time, remembers when troops set up encampments in the pasture across the road from his home.

“We had milk by the gallon that we’d take across the street and give to those fellas in pup tents,” Armand says. “You’d have thought we were giving them milkshakes or something.”

In all, more than 1 million soldiers trained in the area between 1939 and 1945, infusing millions of dollars into the local economy.

The effects are still felt today. “World War II brought a military-related industry to the area and it remained after the war,” says Greg Jones. A Pineville attorney, Jones serves as president of the board of directors for the Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum, which commemorates the period from its site on the grounds of Camp Beauregard. He notes that nearby Fort Polk still operates as a Joint Readiness Command Center, and hundreds of local civilians remain in military employ.

Jones points out a display that illustrates the change the Louisiana Maneuvers forever made on the nation’s military. “You see horse troops next to mechanized guys, and this is the last time you’ll see this kind of picture.”

Michael Depp is a regular contributor to American Profile.

first appeared: 5/19/2002