SMALLER DIVISIONS

Evening Star, Issue 22458, 1 October 1936, Page 16

SMALLER DIVISIONS

STUDIED IN AMERICA CHANGE IN THE ARMY 'A' special war plans committee of the United States Army General Staff has begun a study io determine whether modem warfare conditions necessitate reorganisation of the size of combat divisions (says the ‘ New York Times’). This disclosure coincided with the beginning of recruiting to bring the army’s ranks up to the full 165,000 strength-authorised by the new £IOO,000,000 Army Appropriation Bill. The present enlisted strength of 147.000 is to be increased at the rate of about 1,500 men a month. The divisional reorganisation survey was undertaken on orders of General Malm Craig, Chief of Staff, in furtherance of a five-year programme of modernisation. Tnis (plan, on which the United States arm 3' embarked two years ago, embraces every phase of military activity, from troop training to the development of fighting equipment. Some tacticians hold that great advances since the World War in motorisation and mechanisation of armed forces has, in the interest of speedier movements, necessitated a reduction m the size of divisions. The present division strength of the United States Army on paper is about 20,000. Those who advocate reorganisation contend that modern weapons, transport, and communication make it possible to reduce the size to 12.000 or 14.000 men, without affecting the fighting power of a division. TWENTY-SEVEN DIVISIONS. Other countries already have reduced the size of divisions. _ Officers generally expect the array high command to do likewise, although the committee has not yet reported. There are now 27 organised regular army and National Guard divisions, which comprise an army’s largest single combat group. Few, however, have anything like their normal peace-time numerical strength. In addition, the regular army has six brigades which could be converted into three divisions. Military strategists say that, should file reorganisation be ordered, it would be a logical development in the modernisation process, the first administrative measure under which was separa-

tion of the military force into four separate and self-contained armies. This step lias been credited with greatly simplifying the high command echelons. Hitherto the American army had consisted of an aggregation of unrelated divisions. The four armies are made up of regular troops and National Guardsmen in the four geographical divisions into which the country has been separated for that purpose. Administration of the military force has been further decentralised through the creation of nine corps areas, whoso generals report directly to the War Department. Usually the commanding general of the more strategic corps areas is also the commanding officer of the army located in his territory. NEWER EQUIPMENT. Of the present fighting forci, 115,000 troops are stationed in continental United States, and about 32,000 in Hawaii, the Philippine Islands, and the Panama Canal zone. A National Guard numbering 195,000 officers and men constitutes the country’s trained reserves, along with 90,000 members of the Officers’ Reserve Corps, ina ,• of whom arc veterans of the World War. Although numerically the army has almost attained the minimum strength which officers consider essential for adequate defence, War Department officials say that the country’s fighting force as a whole is only about “ two-fifths complete.” Most of the deficiency lies in inadequate supplies of modern equipment and the necessity for increasing mechanisation of various units. Officers say, however, that if legislative force is given to the high command’s carefully-worked-out plans for the next three years the army will be more efficient than ever before, and will be an adequate force for peacetime requirements. The objective is to maintain a fight-, ing fore- relatively small in numbers, but so well equipped and highly mobile that its striking power would be sufficient to deal with any emergency threatening American national security.