What basic training was used during World War 2?

Answer 1

There were many bases where the WWII US Army trained. With the beginning of the draft in 1940 the Army cranked up its division creating process. Initially the army reckoned it would take 200 divisions to fight the war, but in the end wound up creating about 90. Some of these were National Guard divisions, called into active service beginning in 1940. Others were "reactivated" WWI divisions, or brand new in army history. Low numbers - below 25, were "regular army" divisions. 26 to 50 were National Guard divisions, and above fifty were wartime formations, some of which had been in WWI, when these high number divisions were called "National Army" divisions.

Each division had its own base, where it did its training. These were mostly in the south and west. The weather was generally better in the winter, allowing year round training, and horrible tracts of undesirable land were plentiful and cheap. It took a year for a formation of new soldiers to shape up into what the army thought was ready for combat. It took TWO years to retrain a National Guard division, and weed out the political hacks holding officer positions because they were cronies of their states governor.

As the US began sending some divisions to the Pacific, and to North Africa and Italy, some bases got a second division and started over again with training. The army shut down its division-creating process in 1943, and no more new divisions were made after that. 90 divisions turned out to be none too many, in fact, just barely enough, to fight a world war.

Some camps trained infantry replacements, who went overseas and through a system of Replacement Depots ("Repple Depples") to take the place of men killed or wounded. By late 1944 the army decided "replacement" might cause unhealthy thoughts and started calling these men "reinforcements".

Some bases the army still has today got their start as WWII training bases, such as Fort Bragg, NC and Fort Polk, LA. Fort Jackson, SC is still a basic training center, but it was started during WWI, and greatly expanded for WWII. Camp Blanding near Jacksonville Florida was the training base for two divisions, now its a state National Guard Camp. Fort Lewis, WA was an existing army base also, and is the army's other current basic training facility.

The desert training center in the Mojave Desert was created early in WWII. The Field Artillery school was, and is, at Fort Sill, OK. The Armored Forces training center was already established at Fort Knox, KY.

Answer 2

Basic Training in World War 2 was not much different than today. They break down the recruit to get him or her to be a military person and GI. They drilled, drilled and drilled some more. They were taught war tactics and protocol. They were exercised ad nauseam and trained to use their weapons. The medics were given several months of training. The pilots received a lot of training. Many had to be trained in their specialty: tanks, guns, radios, crews on ships or planes, quarter master supply depot and even intelligence people.

Answer 3

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