John B. Wilson

“ Summarizing the requirements for the future infantry division, the Superior Board recommended that it be organized to meet varying combat and terrain conditions encountered in maneuver warfare but have only those elements that it customarily needed. The army corps or army level would supply infrequently used organizations. The board's report endorsed a square division that numbered 29,000 officers and enlisted men—an organization "imbued with the divisional spirit, sense of comradeship and loyalty, that will guarantee service ... in critical moments when the supreme effort must be made." ”

“ Having an outline for field organizations and units available to prepare for war, the Army turned its attention to training. Combined arms training—artillery, cavalry, and infantry—had been a part of the school curriculum at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since 1881, but Secretary Root gave such training added meaning in 1899 when he noted that officers needed to see a corps, division, or brigade organized and on the march to perform their duties in war. ”

“ During major conflicts of the United States prior to the twentieth century, Army leaders sought to find the best command level at which to merge infantry, cavalry, and artillery into effective, coordinated combat units. Brigades and divisions usually comprised a single arm, while the army corps was the basic combined arms unit. Within the army corps itself, little specialization existed beyond the combat arms. Usually no field units were organized for signal, medical, transportation, military police, engineers, ordnance, or other combat support services. ”

“ Instead of an organization that could easily move in and out of the trenches, the division was to field enough men to fight prolonged battles. Both planning groups sensed that the French and British wanted that type of division but lacked the resources to field it because of the extensive losses after three years of warfare. To sustain itself in combat, the division needed more, not less, combat power. The infantry regiment reverted to its prewar structure of headquarters, machine gun, and supply companies and three battalions each with four rifle companies. ”

“ After World War I the Army quickly demobilized its forces, but memories of the unpreparedness of 1917 caused the nation to change the way it maintained its military forces. Infantry and cavalry divisions, rather than regiments or smaller units, became the pillars that would support future mobilization. Officers examined the structure of those pillars and adopted a modified, but powerful, square infantry division designed for frontal attack and a small light cavalry division for reconnaissance. ”

“ During the debate over force structure, the War Plans Division considered whether the additional divisions should be Regular Army or National Army units. Not all Regular Army infantry regiments authorized under the National Defense Act of 1916 had been assigned to divisions, thus raising the question of why those regiments should exist. The War Plans Division recommended that the Regular Army infantry regiments become the nuclei of the next group of divisions, which would be completed with National Army units. The National Army units would pass out of existence after the war. ”

“ To be successful, armies in the Civil War needed more than infantry, field artillery, and cavalry. As the Regular Army had few engineer units, volunteer infantry regiments often served as engineers. In the Army of the Potomac these regiments eventually formed a brigade. Army corps in other Union armies also employed infantry as engineers. As the medical, ordnance, signal, and quartermaster department lacked units, their field tasks were performed by personnel assigned to the departments or by soldiers detailed from the line regiments or by hired civilians. ”

“ He felt that mortars had no place in the division artillery because they could not provide close support for infantry and their rate of fire, range, and accuracy failed to meet field artillery standards. Another battery of 75-mm. guns in each direct support battalion was to replace the mortars. Because the reconnaissance squadron operated considerably in front of the division and on its flanks, he proposed that it be moved to the corps level. McNair sensed an overabundance of engineers. In a war of movement, engineers would not have the time to do extensive road work. ”

“ The board endorsed the addition of a litter battalion to the sanitary train to improve medical support and the elimination of all horse-drawn transportation from that unit and from the rest of the division, except for artillery. Because engineers had often been used as infantry in combat, some board members proposed reducing the number of engineer troops. The board concluded, however, that while engineers often had been employed as infantry, this practice stemmed from a failure to understand their role. It advised the retention of the engineer regiment. ”

“ Despite the difficulties, World War I brought about more coordination among the combat arms, combat support, and combat service organizations in the infantry division than ever before. Infantry could not advance without support from engineers and artillery; artillery could not continue to fire without a constant supply of ammunition. Transportation and signal units provided the vital materiel and command connections, while medical units administered to the needs of the wounded. ”

“ Organizational Trends During the Korean War the Army modified some aspects of its divisional organizations, but the basic triangular structures adopted during World War II and revised in the immediate postwar period for infantry, armored, and airborne divisions remained intact. In 1952 a divisional ordnance battalion replaced the ordnance company, which increased self-sufficiency in each type of division. The trend in most organizations, however, was to save personnel and increase firepower. ”

“ During the summer and fall of 1951 the six army commanders in the United States, staff agencies, and the Section V Committee, created after World War I for the reserve components to have a voice in their affairs, evaluated the plan. The army commanders urged that all divisions in the Organized Reserve Corps be infantry divisions because they believed that the reserves could not adequately support armored and airborne training. They thought thirteen, rather than twelve, reserve divisions should be maintained to provide a better geographic distribution of the units. ”

“ In march formation (infantry in fours, cavalry in twos, guns and caissons in single file) , a European army corps covered approximately fifteen miles of road, a day's march. To participate in a battle involving the vanguard, the corps' rear elements might have a day's march before engaging the enemy. Any greater distance meant that all corps elements could not work as a unit. In the continental United States an army corps actually required about thirty-five miles of road space because of the broken terrain and poor roads. ”

“ Reorganization of Reserve Divisions With the nation victorious in war and alone armed with the most awesome weapon known to man, the atomic bomb, a lasting peace appeared at hand. Some military planners believed, however, that the need for ground combat units remained unchanged. Planning for a postwar conventional force had begun in 1943, and over the next three years those plans, which included reserves, were debated in Congress and by the War Department and state officials. ”

“ Individual states organized their volunteers into regiments, which the War Department initially planned to brigade, mixing foot and mounted infantry [23] in the same units. Two or more volunteer brigades, each consisting of three or more regiments, were to form a division. Under the wartime laws, a brigade was to be authorized at least 3,000 men and a division 6,000. Since Army Regulations called for no fixed staffs, the president was to appoint a quartermaster, commissary, and surgeon for each brigade. Each staff officer was to have an assistant. ”

“ Although the War Department did not use divisions as a part of a universal military training program, it decided to use divisional designations for replacement training centers in the summer of 1947. The 3d Armored Division and the 4th, 5th, and 9th Infantry Divisions were activated and their elements reorganized for that purpose. The cadres who trained the recruits responded favorably to the use of divisions as a means of building esprit since they wore the divisional shoulder sleeve insignia, and the recruits were inspired by the accomplishments of historic units. ”

“ When a brigadier general commanded a brigade, his brigade major and aides were included in the staff. Major generals continued to command divisions, and their staffs consisted of a quartermaster, judge advocate, and two aides. The official handbook for infantry compiled by William Duane, the Adjutant General, in 1813 called for a brigade in the peace establishment to consist of any number of battalions, but for field service it was not to exceed 4,000 men. A division could have from two to four brigades. ”

“ In June 1950, when a Soviet trained and armed North Korean army attacked South Korea, the Cold War turned hot. The U.S. Army was forced to adopt emergency expedients during the first months of the war, but the maintenance of a significant military sustaining base after World War II, a response to Soviet-American tensions, allowed the nation to mobilize more quickly and easily than in the past. Within a year and a half the number of Army combat divisions on active duty went from ten to twenty. ”

“ The Allies argued that trench warfare, dominated by machine guns and artillery weapons, denied cavalry the traditional missions of reconnaissance, pursuit, and shock action. Mounted troops, possibly assigned to the division's headquarters company, might serve as messengers within the division but little more. The Allies further advised that the Army should not consider sending a large cavalry force to France. Horses and fodder would occupy precious shipping space, and the French and British had an abundance of cavalry. ”

“ Besides the shortage of trained manpower, the nation also faced a severe shortage of ships large enough to transport divisions to the combat theaters. For this and other military and political reasons, plans for an early invasion of Europe across the English Channel were postponed. Also, the expansion and deployment of Army Service Forces and Army Air Forces units placed heavy demands on available shipping, while the success of German submarines off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States made that shortage of tonnage even more acute. ”

“ When infantry regiments were eliminated in divisions as tactical units, they were also eliminated as nondivisional organizations. The Army replaced the nondivisional regimental combat teams with separate, flexible combined arms "brigades," shifting the concept of a brigade. Instead of being composed of two or more regiments or battalions of the same arm or service, the concept encompassed a combined arms unit equivalent to a reinforced regiment. ”

“ Light Divisions Early in 1943 Army Ground Forces developed a new type of unit, the light division, which the Operations Division of the Army Staff had suggested earlier as a possibility for the Pacific theater. Planners thought such a division could function in a variety of combat conditions, such as jungles and mountains, simply by varying the unit's mode of transportation. Initially, McNair, who disliked special units, opposed the idea because of the unique training it required. Given the shortage of shipping in the fall of that year, the Operations Division again put forth the proposal. ”

“ Shortly after Congress passed the militia law, it authorized the use of volunteers, a third category of soldiers, for national defense. Volunteers served freely, like soldiers in the Regular Army, but they were not part of any standing or reserve force. Generally, the states raised the volunteers that Congress considered necessary on a regimental basis, and the federal government used the volunteer regiments to form divisions and brigades. ”

“ In the mid-eighteenth century Europeans had developed small mixed units of cavalry and infantry, known as legions, to overrun or hold an area, gather information, and conduct raids away from the main army. Legions in the Continental Army were to comprise four troops of dragoons and two companies of infantry. They were not large, independent combined arms units capable of defeating the enemy such as the divisions and brigades in the Continental Army. ”

“ Initially overwhelmed by the tidal wave of demobilization after World War II, the Army had struggled to rebuild both Regular Army and reserve divisions during the late 1940s. Its new divisional structures were based on combat experiences during the war, under the assumption that atomic weapons would not alter the nature of ground combat. Units previously attached to divisions from higher headquarters during combat were made organic to divisions, which also received additional firepower. ”

“ Shortly thereafter Pershing revised the replacement system for the AEF. Instead of relying on a replacement and school division and a base and training division for each army corps, he split the replacement function between the army corps and the "communications zone," the area immediately behind the battlefield controlled by the "Service of the Rear." In the communications zone a depot (base and training) division would process personnel into the theater, while a replacement (replacement and school) division in each army corps distributed new personnel to their units. ”

“ Combat, particularly in the Meuse-Argonne campaign, tested the assumptions that lay behind the large square division. Designed to conduct sustained frontal attacks, not maneuver, it was thought to possess tremendous firepower and endurance. The division's firepower, however, proved ineffective. The lack of wire and the continual movement of infantry units in the offensive hindered communications between infantry and artillery. In addition, the French transportation network could handle only so many men, guns, and supplies. ”

“ The results of the infantry division test showed that independent infantry battalions and the combat commands added flexibility and that the support command provided an acceptable base from which to improve logistical functions. Generally, however, the division lacked the capability to wage sustained combat operations. It needed more on-the-ground strength to execute normal battlefield missions during an atomic war and larger reconnaissance forces to cover the extended frontages and depths envisaged for the nuclear battlefield. Additional antitank and artillery weapons were also required. ”

“ Andrews' initiative, made three days after the British evacuated Dunkirk, noted that the American Army had inadequate mechanized forces and that it needed to revise its policy of allowing both infantry and cavalry to develop such units separately. He suggested that the basic mechanized combined arms unit be a division of between 8,000 and 11,000 men. With the chief of cavalry planning to organize mechanized cavalry divisions, which mixed horse and tank units, such a conference seemed imperative. ”

“ For example, without a change in structure, the infantry division dropped from 18,212 men of all ranks to 17,452. In addition, the tables provided for a reduced peacetime strength division, with some 2,700 fewer men for each division in the General Reserve. Before its divisions were sent into combat, they would, of course, need sufficient time and personnel to be brought to war strength as required for sustained operations. The lessons of Task Force Smith and the deployment of other units to Korea in the summer of 1950 thus appeared to be already lost. ”

“ Agreeing with Humphreys, the General Staff decided that a command made up of divisions, designated as a field army, best fit the nation's needs. As described in the Field Service Regulations' of 1910, the field army comprised two or more infantry divisions, plus support troops, which included pioneer infantry (service troops for the forward area of the battlefield) , heavy artillery, engineers, signal and medical troops, and ammunition and supply units, which could maneuver and fight independently. Cavalry might be included in the division if appropriate. ”

“ As a result of debates over increasing the size of the Army, Congress had provided "That no Negro because of race, shall be excluded from enlistment in the Army for service with colored military units now organized and to be organized." ”

“ Before the 26th Division went overseas in September, many states had wanted the honor of having their units become the first in France and pressed Baker and the War Department for that assignment. To stop the clamor, Baker proposed to Bliss that he consider sending a division to Europe representing many states. Maj. Douglas MacArthur, a General Staff officer, had earlier suggested that when Guard divisions adopted the new tables some militia units would become surplus and might be grouped as a division. MacArthur described the division as a "rainbow," covering the entire nation. ”

“ Field operations usually involved less than a regiment or were conducted by gathering the geographically closest elements of several regiments on a temporary basis. Army Regulations, nevertheless, continued to repeat the ideas for organizing army corps, divisions, and brigades, with the division described as "the fundamental element and basis of organization of every active army." ”