Background
When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, starting World War II, the United States military began preparing for probable war in Europe. The very small peacetime U.S. Army, with far fewer troops than most European armies, sought large bases in which to train an expanded force. Thousands of acres of unused land in Louisiana were selected by General Leslie McNair and Colonel Mark Wayne Clark as a good place for large-scale training. The area they used spanned from the Sabine River all the way East to the Calcasieu River and up North to the Red River.
The U.S. Army in 1939 was largely an infantry force with supporting artillery, engineers, and cavalry, as well as combat support and combat service supporting arms. Few units were motorized or mechanized. As war approached, there was a need to both modernize the force and to conduct large-scale maneuvers to test all aspects of a fast-growing, inexperienced force.
Read more about this topic: Louisiana Maneuvers
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