15 April 2025 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

The Infantry Schools West Wall, 5/4/1944. Ft. Benning, Ga. – Newest assault course at Fort Benning is the infantry school’s authentic exterior replica of a section of Germany’s famed West Wall, a series of pillboxes and blockhouses, which extends along the coastline from France to Norway and which our invasion troops must reduce from beachheads before they can drive inland to strike at the heart of Nazidom. Constructed after study from Allied photographs, the course covers 1,000 square yards and is used by the infantry school in the training of officers and officer candidates. Infantry school demonstration troops, some of whom are shown in these photos, carry out “assaults” for the benefit of each new class. Live ammunition is used and every three weeks the concrete pillboxes and blockhouses must be largely rebuilt and barbed wire torn by bangalore torpedoes must be restrung by engineer troops assigned to the school. Photo No. 3: Infantrymen with fixed bayonets advance from ravine and shell holes to support soldier with flame-thrower and to aid in reduction of the pillbox. No make-believe, the box in this picture has a four-foot concrete wall. Note the rugged terrain, the trees reduced to stumps by artillery fire, the pitted earth. 6/4/44