Camp Claiborne Louisiana WWII Army Camp

Camp Claiborne and the Louisiana Maneuvers History

Changes and impacts abounded in Alexandria as the war grew closer to the United States.

Suddenly there was a shortage of many of the basics of life, and a system of rationing was inaugurated. Families were issued ration books with stamps good for certain items such as gasoline, tires, meat, and sugar.

Camp Claiborne was originally created on June 10, 1930 as Camp Evangeline, for the "Evangeline District" of the Kisatchie National Forest.

Later, it was later renamed for William C.C. Claiborne, the Governor of the Territory of Orleans and first governor of the State of Louisiana.

In 1939 construction crews began to expand the camp for its reactivation as a U.S. Army camp during 1940. It included 30,176 acres.

Within a 30-miles radius of Alexandria, the military also constructed Camp Livingston, Esler Field, Alexandria Army Air Base (later England Air Force Base), and reactivated Camp Beauregard. Camp Polk was located further west of Alexandria near Leesville.

To speed military vehicles around the area, a new four lane loop named MacArthur Drive was constructed through what was farms and pastures on the western outskirts of Alexandria. It featured state-of-the-art traffic circles and interchanges. Gardner Highway became a straight paved highway, rumored to be an emergency airplane runway.

Thousands of acres of rural land in Louisiana were selected by General Leslie McNair and Colonel Mark Clark to conduct maneuvers to train the United States' rapidly expanding military forces.

The area ultimately selected to be used in the maneuvers extended over 2,400 square files, from the Sabine River to the Calcasieu River and north to the Red River.

During the Louisiana Maneuvers, Army strategists began by teaming division against division. Later the war games expanded to have corps fight against corps, and finally in the grand finale, Lieutenant General Walter Krueger's Third Army took the offensive against Lieutenant General Ben Lear's Second Army. Other key commanders included Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Chief of Staff, Third Army, and Brig. General Mark Wayne Clark, Maneuver Director, Omar Bradley, and George Patton, among other notables.

The armies of two mythical countries were assembled, totaling about 400,000 troops: Kotmk (Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Kentucky) and Almat (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee). Navigation rights for the Mississippi River was the reason for the "war".

During the maneuvers, Army commanders were able to test and simulate a variety of offenses and conventional defenses with attacks from armored vehicles.

Patton's tanks pushed back conventionally-armed defenders but failed to achieve a major, convincing victory. Army strategists also encountered recon and troop supply issues that would later be experienced in actual real-world battle situations, creating valuable experience for the Army prior to the U.S. entering the war.

Activation Day for the 101st Airborne (courtesy US Army)

The Army conducted similar, but smaller, Louisiana maneuvers in 1942 and 1943, but cancelled exercises in 1944 so soldiers could be part of the D-Day invasion in Europe.

Many activations occurred at Camp Claiborne. The Army's first airborne units were created here. The 82nd Airborne Division was activated on August 15, 1942, and a day later half of its troops were disbursed into the new 101st Airborne.

Training for engineering units and special service forces took place at Claiborne, and railroad construction battalions trained on and maintained the Claiborne-Polk railroad line between Camp Claiborne and Camp Polk near Leesville.