and two squadrons each with two troops. The cavalry brigades' machine gun squadrons were inactivated, while the responsibility for training and employing machine guns fell to the regimental commanders, as in the infantry.[1]
About the same time that Crosby cut the cavalry regiment, the Army Staff, seeking to increase the usefulness of the wartime cavalry division, published new tables of organization for an even larger unit. The new structure summarized changes made in the division since 1921 (Chart 7), which involved increasing the size of the signal troop, expanding the medical unit to a squadron, and endorsing Crosby's movement of the machine gun units from the brigades to the regiments. A divisional aviation section, an armored car squadron, and tank company were added, and the field artillery battalion was expanded to a regiment. Divisional strength rose to 9,595. Although the new tables had little impact on the peacetime cavalry structure, the 1st Cavalry Division did eventually receive one troop of an experimental armored car squadron, and a field artillery regiment replaced its field artillery battalion.[2]
Even with austere conditions, the Army did not lose sight of its tactical missions. For example, Maj. Gen. Preston Brown, commander of the Panama Canal Department, urged the replacement of the Panama Canal Division with Atlantic and Pacific command groups. Having examined the supply system, the probable tactical employment of troops, and the advantages of other command systems, he decided that a divisional structure did not represent the best solution in the Canal Zone. The War Department agreed to inactivate the division headquarters in 1932 with the understanding that special tables of organization would be kept on file to facilitate the reorganization of the division within a few hours. Such a situation, however, never occurred, and the division remained inactive.[3]
Reserve Divisions
The condition of reserve divisions paralleled that of the Regular Army. In 1924, three years after the states began reorganizing the National Guard divisions, the Militia Bureau suspended federal recognition of new units because of the chronic lack of money. The suspension lasted two years, until Secretary of War Dwight R Davis lifted it to provide additional units for the states. That decision permitted further organization of the 40th Division (California), the least developed of all the Guard infantry divisions. The repeal also allowed Minnesota and New York to organize two infantry brigade headquarters, the 92d and 93d, respectively, for nondivisional units to meet mobilization needs.[4]
Infantry divisions in the National Guard remained basically stable organizations despite being extremely under strength, and before 1940 only a few regimental changes were made. In most divisions the artillery brigade's ammunition train was not authorized because it had an exclusively wartime mission. As in the Regular Army, the 155-mm. howitzer regiment was authorized in 1930, and by mid-1937 all divisions had a federally recognized 155-mm. howitzer regiment or
- ↑ Aubrey Lippincott, "New Regimental Organization," Cavalry Journal 32 (Jan 1929): 22–24.
- ↑ T/O, Table 401 W. Cavalry Division, 10 May 1928; "Extracts from the Annual Report of the Chief of Cavalry, Major General Herbert B. Crosby," Cavalry Journal 37 (Jan 1928): 108; Ltr, TAG to All Corps Areas, Departments, and Exempted Stations Commanders and other addresses, 26 Oct 34, sub: Reorganization of the Field Artillery, AG 320.2 FA (12-26-33) Pub, AG Reference files, DAMH-HSO; Ltr, TAG to CG, Eighth Corps Area, 16 Oct 28, sub: Armored Car Unit, 320.2 Cavalry (10-2-28) Misc-C, and Lt Col Regnier, "History of the 91st Reconnaissance Squadron, 1st Cavalry Division," undated Ms, 91st Armored Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion file, DAMH-HSO.
- ↑ Ltr, Panama Canal (PC) Dept to TAG, 7 May 31, sub: Organization of troops within PC Department, Ltr, PC Dept to TAG, 5 Feb 32, sub: Reorganization of the Panama Canal Department,with 1st Ind, TAG to CG, PC Dept, 17 Mar 32, AG 320.2 PC (5-7-31), and Returns, PC Division, all RG 407, NARA.
- ↑ Reports of the Chief of the Militia Bureau, 1925, p. 13, and 1926, pp. 17–18; Memos for Assistant Chief of Staff (ACofS), G-3, 30 Apr 26, 28 Feb 27, and 31 May 27, MB 325.4 Gen-6, War Department Mobilization Plan, 19 Mar 26, Miscellaneous files, DAMH-HSO.
