"mock village," "combat town," "village fighting course," "combat in cities course"

[gcartelli]

Hi all,

 

Figure this is a non-traditional post, but I'm currently involved in research on the mock towns built by the US Army and the Marine Corps from 1942 to 2016 to prepare soldiers for urban combat. They have gone through multiple names and iterations,

 

Combat Village

Combat Town

Street-Fighting Course

Village Fighting Course

Combat in Cities Course

Mock Village

Simulated City

Mock Nazi Town

Mock Vietnamese Village

Mock Japanese Village

Mock German Village

 

MOUT Facility

UTF

CACTF

(feel free to add more if I've missed.)

 

I'm interested in seeing if anyone might have images or text related to these sites in their own collections. Please do let me know if you have anything related.

 

Best,

[gwb123]

Moved this to BASES, AIRFIELDS, FACILITIES, AND INDUSTRIAL SITES section for better attention.

 

Home Front would be would be things like scrap drives, victory gardens, ration cards, etc. more related to the civilian war effort.

[PATCHRAT]

FORT HOOD TX had a Nazi Village during WWII have seen a post card on E bay for it. In the late 80's FT Hood had a URBAN COMBAT course and it currently has a couple MOUT Facilities. I dont know the exact dates the course existed.

 

An unofficial patch for the Urban Combat school. This was not worn on military uniforms to my knowledge but was used on jackets, black caps, etc and as a logo on T shirts.

 

 

 

[12thengr]

'Tiger Land' Ft. Polk during Vietnam. There is a trashy movie starring Colin Farrell of that name. Don't know if this relates.

[BagmanL6]

Camp Lejeune had a Combat Town which consisted of cinderblock/wooden structures. Built a modern MOUT facility mainside in the early 90s.

[Rakkasan187]

Berlin had 2 MOUT cities, "Doughboy City" in the American Sector and in the British Sector the name was Ruhleben fighting city.

 

I will post a few pictures of Doughboy City when I was stationed in Berlin (86-90)

 

Leigh

 

 

 

 

 

[Rakkasan187]

Here are a few more..

 

 

 

[Rakkasan187]

More...

 

 

 

 

I have several hundred photos but will have to resize them before I can post them.

 

If you have any questions about Berlin Combat in Cities I would be happy to share my experiences with you

 

Leigh

[Navybean]

I was at Fort Lewis back in the late 80s for some field exercises and there was a training village there called "Reaganville". The local Rangers used it as a staging area to attack us entrenched CB's

[gcartelli]

Thank you all so much for the assistance so far and I hope to have more replies !

 

Patchrat,

 

Thanks for the info: to my knowledge Fort Hood had the first Village Fighting Course / Nazi Village before the designs were codified and sent in a directive to all RTC's. The sites there from the 80's on are news to me and I will look into them.

 

12thengr,

 

I've a few images of Tigerland (mainly just of the gate, and some small res. aerials), would *love* more from that site, as well as any and all plans. I'll follow up with Fort Polk's historical division as I'm sure they were at least contacted for the film, or maybe not. Have seen the film (for better or worse...). Thank you for the response.

 

BagmanL6,

 

I've got a small collection of images from Lejeune, a few from the timber facilities in 1952 and a few more from the 1980's. Thank you for the response.

 

Navybean,

 

I've got a few images from Regensburg from NARA, and a few more from their vietnamese village (68-74) from the local post historian.

 

Leigh (Rakkasan187),

 

those images are amazing and I will be in touch shortly, perhaps we can arrange a different method of file transfer. I'm not focusing that much on Doughboy city, preferring to look at the more frequent constructions occurring stateside, but it definitely comes into play within my work. On another note, I was researching the german american Volksfest as it had begun cropping up in some of my searches. It was mentioned in the "Berlin Observer" but stated that they took place at Grafenwoehr. Were you in attendance at any of them? I'm interested in their overall purpose (good relations) as well as their architecture.

 

Looking forward to seeing more, and as a disclaimer to, while I'm aware of many of these sites since '42, please don't hesitate to contribute further. The information is scattered at best and every little bit helps form a better picture of these facilities.

[Rakkasan187]

The German American Volksfest was very much a part of Berlin and the American community. The fest was held every year and each year was a different theme. Old West, New Orleans Madi Gras, to name a few of the themes. The Volksfest in Berlin was held in the parking lot of the PX across the street from Clay Compound which was the US Headquarters in Berlin. Soldier's were involved with the set up and tear down of the booths and tents and they also worked some of the game booths and beer tents. This was usually a week long event with carnival rides, food vendors and music. These events really helped to strengthen the relationship between the Berlin people and the American forces, as well as the British and French forces also stationed there. Several thousand people would attend each year and it was one of the highlights of the Berlin Brigade and the American forces in Berlin.

 

 

Leigh

[ScottG]

Fort Custer in Michigan has a MOUT facility but I don't know the age of it. Its been there at least since the 1980s when I first used it and it was still there a few months ago when I stopped in for a visit. It has underground tunnels and above ground structures as well. I found a picture of one of the buildings by Googling Fort Custer Urban Training area. Scott

[patches]

As of the mid 70s Ft Benning had a little MOUT range for us Infantry AIT Trainees, it was though only a one day block of instruction. Cant remember what the buildings were made of, I think simple wood structures, nothing elaborate nor expansive.

 

 

 

Me around that time we went through it in late February 1980, though on that day we went to the MOUT range wore no foliage .

[Linedoggie]

Ft. Campbell- Craig Village MOUT site, even had a bridge to defend or seize

 

Ft. Pickett- has a decent MOUT site

 

Ft. Drum- has several in TA 12 I used to run units through lanes training there

 

USMA West Point has Camp Shea MOUT site

[BEAST]

Hammelburg has Bonnland at which the US used to train. It was used during WWII to train the German Army in urban warfare and was still in use in the late 1980s when I was there. If you search for "Bonnland" on the internet, you will see several sites with photos.

[USARV72]

Ft. Bragg has a large one, we used to re enact there as well as Pickett and Quantico. Have pics but no way to post.

[patches]

Ft. Bragg has a large one, we used to re enact there as well as Pickett and Quantico. Have pics but no way to post.

You don't have a scanner?

[USARV72]

Not motivated to get any more " puter" stuff. Pretty tired of all the hassles. Unless I get another lap top?

[patches]

Not motivated to get any more " puter" stuff. Pretty tired of all the hassles. Unless I get another lap top?

I here ya, but Hey too bad, we'd all loved to see it, sounds like photos from the 60s right?

[M422A1]

Back in the late 70's or early 80's I went to a WWII re-enactment at Fort Campbell, KY. They let us use the combat village and it did have a bridge as mentioned in a post above. I have pictures but I will have to dig them out & scan them.

 

Mike

[USARV72]

Patches, was from 80's- 90s, pm me your snail mail address and I'll copy them and send them to you. They have lots of " combat" but can get good idea of site. Ft Bragg was the 50th of WWII, we got to go through " jump training", 30' towers and all, good time. IIRC , the only pics taken in the MOUNT SITE were at night after the " battle" was over. Have them all in severall photo albums. Dont think took any at Quantico, there is another member here that may have some, he carried the BAR. We went to Ft Dix for the Battle of the Bulge way back, then it moved back to Ft. Indiantown Gap, thus called " The Gap" by re enactors. Cold, but lots of fun. The " flea market" at the Gap was fantastic, never knew what you could buy at decent prices. The large original uniforms had the F.B.T. added, ( fat boy tax) ,yea we wore original uniforms. Guys look at the albums and cringe when they see the uniforms and equipment is original, those were the days. Flage Guy knows all about it too, LOL.

[patches]

Patches, was from 80's- 90s, pm me your snail mail address and I'll copy them and send them to you. They have lots of " combat" but can get good idea of site. Ft Bragg was the 50th of WWII, we got to go through " jump training", 30' towers and all, good time. IIRC , the only pics taken in the MOUNT SITE were at night after the " battle" was over. Have them all in severall photo albums. Dont think took any at Quantico, there is another member here that may have some, he carried the BAR. We went to Ft Dix for the Battle of the Bulge way back, then it moved back to Ft. Indiantown Gap, thus called " The Gap" by re enactors. Cold, but lots of fun. The " flea market" at the Gap was fantastic, never knew what you could buy at decent prices. The large original uniforms had the F.B.T. added, ( fat boy tax) ,yea we wore original uniforms. Guys look at the albums and cringe when they see the uniforms and equipment is original, those were the days. Flage Guy knows all about it too, LOL.

OK, sounds good.

[patches]

And here are some of USARV72's fotos of the Camp Pickett MOUT site, fotos taken by him with his reenactment group in 1988.

 

[patches]

Pickett

 

 

 

[patches]

Pickett