War Games in Area 1941

War Games  A little over two months before Pearl Harbor, the U. S. Army conducted war games in a wide area that included Shreveport, the target of the aggressor "Blue" Third Army, in the Louisiana Maneuvers. This was one of a series of war games conducted in 1940-1941 for the purpose of assessing the Army's preparedness and testing new strategies. The article below describes the invading "Blue" having entered Shreveport (defended by the "Red" Second Army) from the north, by crossing over the Caddo Lake bridge.   

Oakland (CA) Tribune 28-Sep-1941 Page 6

The map and verbiage below shows and describes the approach taken by the Blues, led by General George S. Patton, in circling around Caddo Lake and invading Shreveport from the north.

Source: U.S. Army GHQ Maneuvers of 1941 (1991), Page 104

To the north, I Armored Corps' outer column closed in on the enemy without interference from nature. Although the master plan called for General Patton LO attack Shreveport from the west astride the Marshall-Shreveport highway, he chose not to launch a frontal attack against the Red forces stationed at Greenwood, especially after they were reinforced by a battalion of the 1st Antitank Group. Instead, he led his column even farther north in a march that took it around Caddo Lake and behind Shreveport's defenses. About noon a Red reconnaissance plane spotted the column advancing on Shreveport from the north and erroneously reported that Patton's regimental-size force comprised half of the 2d Armored Division. Second Army hurriedly dispatched the 6th Division's antitank battalion into the path of the Blue advance and later reinforced it with the 1st Antitank Group (less one battalion at Greenwood). Infantry and reconnaissance elements of the Red antitank units met the Blue column fifteen miles north of Shreveport and halted it before the gun batteries could be brought to bear. The day ended with Patton's forces and the Red defenders facing each other along the line Dixie-Mooringsport. For reasons unknown, however, Second Army withdrew the much-traveled but unfought 1st Antitank Group that night, sending it to Greenwood, where there was no Blue threat, and leaving the 6th Antitank Battalion to face Patton's raiding force alone."

Source: Maneuvers of 1941, Page 108

The cited book provides a complete description of all related war game activities.