self-propelled 37-mm. antitank guns, self-propelled 75-mm. and 105-mm. howitzers, and two-way radios. The report recommended that the force begin as a small unit and build gradually to full strength. Since new mechanized equipment would not become available before fiscal year 1930, the board saw no need to assemble the unit until then. Davis endorsed the plan in November 1928.[1]
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Medium armored car of the Mechanized Force
Two years later, just before Summerall left office, Col. Daniel Van Voorhis organized the first increment of the unit, which was designated the Mechanized Force, at Camp Eustis, Virginia. Consisting of a tank company, an armored car troop, a field artillery battery, and an engineer company, it totaled roughly 600 men. There, however, the project stopped. Because of the Great Depression, Congress never appropriated money for more new equipment, and Van Voorhis' force had to make do with World War I-vintage equipment along with horses and wagons. Of more concern, the infantry, cavalry, and other arms and services opposed the use of scarce Army funds to finance the new organization. With limited amounts of new wine available, customers wanted their old bottles filled first.[2]
In May 1931 the new Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur, changed the direction of mechanization. He observed that recent experimental units had been based on equipment rather than on mission and that an item of equipment was not limited to one arm or service. He therefore instructed all arms or services to develop fully their mechanization and motorization potential. Under MacArthur's concept, cavalry was to continue work with combat vehicles to enhance its role in such areas as reconnaissance, flank action, and pursuit, while infantry was to explore ways to increase its striking power by using tanks. His decision spelled the end of the separate Mechanized Force, and five months later it was disbanded. Units and men assigned to the force were returned to their former assignments, except for about 175 officers and enlisted men. including Van Voorhis, who remained with mechanized cavalry. They transferred to Camp Henry Knox (later Fort Knox), Kentucky, to create a new armored cavalry unit.[3]
On 1 March 1932, Van Voorhis organized the 7th Cavalry Brigade to experiment with mechanization. At that time it consisted of only a headquarters, but the following January the 1st Cavalry moved from Marfa, Texas, to Fort Knox where it
- ↑ Rpt, sub: A Mechanized Force, 1 Oct 28, Memo, Deputy Cots for CofS, 31 Oct 28, sub: A Mechanized Force, AWC course material, OCS 18500—57, 84—20, MHI. The board included Maj. Adna R. Chaffee, who would become a beacon for mechanization in the next decade.
- ↑ Mildred Hanson Gillie, Forging the Thunderbolt (Harrisburg, Pa.: Military Service Publishing Co., 1947), pp. 360; Charles L. Scott, "Early History of Mechanization," draft Ms, Charles L. Scott Papers, LC; Nenninger, "The Experimental Mechanized Forces," pp. 33–34.
- ↑ Nenninger, "The Experimental Mechanized Forces," p. 39; Memo, OCS, 1 May 31, sub: General Principles to Govern Mechanization and Modernization Throughout the Army, Military Intelligence Division Correspondence, 1917–1941, 2045—1192/12, RG 165, NARA; Norman Miller Cary, "The Use of Motor Vehicles in the United States Army, 1899–1939," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Georgia, 1980, p. 244; Rpt of the Sec of War, 1931, p. 43; Daniel Van Voorhis, "Mechanization"; Robert W. Grow, "The Ten Lean Years," Ms, Feb 1969, pp. 19–22, DAMH-HSO.
