deleted and a howitzer company added to the infantry regiment. The infantry was to continue to use 37-mm. guns and 3-inch Stokes mortars temporarily, but eventually howitzers were to replace the mortars. The board found that mortars lacked mobility, accuracy, and range and were difficult to conceal and supply. The board looked upon tractor-drawn artillery pieces as a success in combat and felt that retention of motorized artillery was appropriate if future wars were fought in countries having an extensive road net like that in France. For flexibility, however, the board advised that one 75-mm. gun regiment remain horse-drawn and the other be motor-drawn, along with a motorized 155-mm. howitzer regiment. They decided that the new weapon, the tank, used during the war to break up wire entanglements and to reduce machine gun nests, belonged to the infantry, but instead of assigning tank units to the division, the officers placed them at army level. Tanks could then be parceled out to divisions according to need.
The board also addressed the combat support needs of the division. Since the division routinely employed aircraft for artillery observation, liaison, registration of fire, and reconnaissance, the board suggested the addition of an air squadron, a balloon company, a photographic section, and an intelligence officer to the division. 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.
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."[1]
Although Pershing had not employed a cavalry division in France, the Superior Board also examined its structure in light of Allied experiences, particularly in Italy and Palestine. The board concluded that, except for distant reconnaissance by airplanes, the missions of mounted troops—screening, shock action, and tactical reconnaissance—remained important on the postwar battlefield. To conduct such missions, the cavalry division needed to capitalize on its mobility and firepower. Finding the 1917 unit of 18,000 men too large, the board entertained two proposals for reorganizing it. One called for a division of three cavalry regiments, an artillery regiment, and appropriate combat and service support units; the other comprised two cavalry brigades, each with two cavalry regiments,
- ↑ Rpt of the Superior Board, p. 85.
