Army scout training for infantry

What type of scout training if any was offered for American infantry privates? I know cavalry were used as scouts, but I'm looking only into infantry.

 

This scout had none. He was an MP, got bored with it and put in for fighter pilot training. Then, the Battle of the Bulge started, and he was sent to the 90th ID. The platoon seargent came up to him and asked him to be a scout. His training was done at platoon level, but he did have some ROTC experience.

Article here.
A Scout in Patton’s Third Army - Warfare History Network

 

Here's a PDF of a Masters thesis titled "Training of the American Soldier During World War I and World War II" written by Maj. Roger K. Spickelmier. I have not read it, but it may have some information pertinent to your question.

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a185226.pdf

 

Many thanks guys. Both links were useful. Apparently not much thought was given to training soldiers as scouts. Guess you'd had better be a Boy Scout before the war if you wanted fieldcraft and scouting (pre-war Scouts could earn a merit badge in stalking).

 

..I would think it is like today's military--just about none--no ''advanced'' training ....I doubt they had time for ''specialized'' /long term training for your ordinary GI....they may have gotten rudimentary training and/or graduates of certain schooling, belonging to a company, battalion, or regiment might give some training to the '''BootCampers'''
.....in the 80s, there was a Scout/Sniper school for the USMC-regimental or division specific, I think .....but the ''ordinary''' Marine never got Scout training

 

Alamo Scouts were a different breed apart from the common infantry scout.

 

Found a WW II infantry scout manual. 1943 World War II Scouting & Patrolling Illust. Softcover 1st Edition 125pg | eBay

I think it was only used to train stateside soldiers before they deployed overseas. I read one account where a newly arrived soldier was appointed scout. He thought it was a compliment but it was let the Germans a shoot him before the rest of us old timers.

 

At Tarawa the Marines had a Scout/Sniper platoon led by 1st Lt James Hawkins, who won a posthumous MOH. They landed at the end of the pier that stuck out from the beach and cleared it of Japanese.

 

Unfortunately I can't find the book on Archive.org. They have the regular scouting, patrolling and sniping manual but the two books are quite different.

The book does mentioned never standing up to a window in la seniorita position and to stand back in the dark to make your observations. I read of one US sniper who learned that lesson and stayed in the dark to make his shot.

 

Thaanks OP. I have FM 21-75 but the other book is very different. It's not quite a manual as it has no FM designation and was published by the Infantry Journal and not the US Army. The latter has some basics that should probably be taught in Advanced Infantry (don't move when there's a flare, how to walk, how to crawl (yeah, I know they did that in BASIC), how to cut barbed wire silently, etc.

 

Just found a 1918 Scouting and Patrolling manual in CARL. If you have an account, it's available via e-book.