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Monday, 05 May 2008
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3ID Reorganizes before WWII
In May 1940 the Third Division completed the reorganization of its infantry regiments. Although its field artillery units still had to complete their reorganization, doctrinally the 3ID now existed in the form that would fight and win World War II. While it would be too much to say that the US Army could not have won the War without this reorganization of its infantry divisions, it is certainly true that reorganization increased the mobility and flexibility of the 3ID and enabled it to move quickly in locales as varied as Sicily, Southern France and Germany.
The Third Division that fought in World War I was huge and unwieldy. Fully staffed it contained 27,120 soldiers: two infantry brigades of 16,000+ men in four infantry regiments; a field artillery brigade of 5,000+ men in three FA regiments and a trench mortar battalion; an engineer regiment; signal battalion; several trains for various kinds of supplies and ammunition; and other smaller units. Training requirements and transportation problems were so great that field artillery units sometimes could not fight with their own division infantry in World War I.
The political results of World War I—the fall of five empires and the rise of communist and fascist governments—are well known, but the military results were equally important. After the Western Front, divisions designed to fight on a static front and endure heavy casualties were no longer acceptable. Armies needed divisions that could defeat an opponent with maneuver and firepower; that meant both motorization, the use of machines to move men and equipment, and mechanization, the use of machines like tanks on the battlefield. The US Army had used cars, trucks, motorcycles and motorized ambulances for transportation in France; how best to use them was the question. The doctrinal debate over whether to use mechanized equipment such as tanks as infantry support or independent units was even more important.
The need for reorganization became even more pressing in 1934 after Hitler started rearming Germany in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles. Finally, in January 1936 Army Chief of Staff Craig created the Modernization Board to examine Army reorganization. With some modifications, the “triangular” infantry division that fought World War II came from this Board’s work. By the time the Third Infantry Division landed on the beach near Casablanca, it was much leaner and more mobile. Its four infantry regiments of 16,000 men had become three regiments totaling fewer than 10,000; its 5,000-man FA brigade had become the 2,200-man Divarty with four FA battalions; its engineer regiment was now an engineer battalion; its signal battalion, a signal company and part of special troops; all the trains had gone, replaced in part by an ordnance and a quartermaster company in special troops.
For the Third Infantry Division reorganization also meant that some units that had fought with great distinction in World War I left the Division in 1939-40. Of its four WWI infantry regiments, only the 7th Infantry would be unaffected by reorganization: It remained part of the 3ID through World War I, World War II, and Korea. However, on 16 October 1939 the 38th Infantry, that had borne the brunt of the attack at the Marne, was relieved from its assignment to the 3ID and assigned to the Second Infantry Division. That brought the division down to three infantry regiments, but the changes did not end. On 12 January 1940 the 30th Infantry was relieved from the 3ID and the 15th Infantry, which had no WWI experience, was assigned to the 3ID. Finally, on 15 May 1940 the 30th Infantry was reassigned to the Division, but the historic 4th Infantry, whose lineage went back to the War of 1812, was relieved from its assignment to the Third Infantry Division. The infantry regiments were now fixed and their officers and men could begin to prepare for the conflict that was coming.
