which included a truck company to transport personnel and rations, a service company to furnish laborers, and a headquarters and headquarters company. The headquarters company could do minor motor maintenance requiring less than three hours, while major motor maintenance moved to the army corps level. The quartermaster light maintenance and ordnance companies were removed from the division. Medical service within the division was based on the assumption that it would be responsible for the collection and evacuation of the sick and wounded to field hospitals established by corps or higher echelons. The former headquarters company, service troops, was incorporated into the division headquarters company.[1]
With no change expected in total Army strength, the new division had two authorized strengths, a wartime one of 11,485 officers and enlisted men and a peacetime one of 7,970. During peacetime all elements of the division were to be filled except for the division headquarters and military police companies, which were to be combined. Other divisional elements required only enlisted personnel to bring them up to wartime manning levels.[2]
After the Modernization Board redesigned the division, Craig decided to spend a year evaluating it before he determined its fate. The 2d Division, selected once more for the task, again borrowed personnel and equipment from other units to fill its ranks. Between February 1939 and Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September, the "Provisional 2d Division" commanded by Maj. Gen. Walter Krueger tested the proposed unit. Krueger found the organization sound except for the quartermaster battalion and the need to make some minor adjustments in a few other elements. The quartermaster battalion lacked enough laborers and trucks to supply the division, and he recommended increases in both. With its many pieces of motorized equipment, the division required more maintenance personnel. Minor changes included augmentations to the divisional intelligence (G–2) and operations (G–3) staff sections, a slight increase in the signal company to handle communications for the second field artillery regiment, a complete motorization of the engineer battalion, and the replacement of the five regimental bands with one divisional band.[3]
Maj. Gen. Herbert J. Brees, Eighth Corps Area commander and the test director, concurred with most of Krueger's findings except for the engineer and quartermaster battalions. He opposed completely motorizing the engineer unit because the engineers were to be limited to the divisional area instead of a broad front. He favored an increase in the number of trucks in the quartermaster battalion but not to the extent suggested by Krueger. Brees also saw no need for infantry and artillery sections having their own general officers, because the commander could easily deal with all elements, but he recommended a staff officer, not necessarily a general officer, to coordinate field artillery fire. To make room for a second general officer in the division, he suggested that the division's chief of staff become the second-in-command with the rank of brigadier general because he would know more about the division than anyone else except for the commander.[4]
- ↑ Ltr, TAG to CG, Eighth Corps Area, 24 Jan 39.
- ↑ Ltr, TAG to CG, Eighth Corps Area, 15 Oct 38, sub: Reorganization of the 2d Infantry Division, AG 320.2 (9–3–38) Misc. (Ret) M-C, 2d Inf Div file, DAMH-HSO.
- ↑ Memo, G–3 for CofS, 3 Sep 38, sub: Reorganization of the Infantry Division, G–3/35651–55, RG 165, NARA; Special Report based on Field Service Test of the Provisional 2d Division conducted by the 2d Division U.S. Army, 1939, AWC course material, MHI; Ltr, Provisional 2d Division, 7 Sep 39, sub: The test of the New Division Organization, AG 320.2 (9–7–39), RG 165, NARA.
- ↑ Ltr, Provisional 2d Division, 7 Sep 39, sub: The test of the New Division Organization, and 1st Ind, CG, Eighth Corps Area to TAG, Sep 1939, AG 320.2 (9–7–39) RG 165, NARA.
