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1st Cavalry Division maneuvers. Toyahvale, Texas, 1938
motorized and mechanized equipment. Taking into account recommendations from the Eighth Corps Area, the Army War College, and the Command and General Staff School, the board developed a new smaller triangular cavalry division (Chart 11), which the 1st Cavalry Division evaluated during maneuvers at Toyahvale, Texas, in 1938. Like the 1937 infantry division test, the maneuvers concentrated on the divisional cavalry regiments around which all other units were to be organized.[1]
Following the test, a board of 1st Cavalry Division officers, headed by Brig. Gen. Kenyon A. Joyce, rejected the three-regiment division and recommended retention of the two-brigade (four-regiment) organization. The latter configuration allowed the division to deploy easily in two columns, which was accepted standard cavalry tactics. However, the board advocated reorganizing the cavalry regiment along triangular lines, which would give it a headquarters and headquarters troop, a machine gun squadron with special weapons and machine gun troops, and three rifle squadrons, each with one machine gun and three rifle troops. No significant change was made in the field artillery, but the test showed that the engineer element should remain a squadron to provide the divisional elements greater mobility on the battlefield and that the special troops idea should
- ↑ Ltr, TAG to CG, Eighth Corps Area, 12 Oct 36, sub: Organization of the Cavalry Division, AG 320.2 (10–6–36 Misc. (Ret)-C, Memo, G–3 for the Commandant, AWC, 30 Dec 36, sub: Reorganization, Cavalry Division, G–3 35651, Ltr, TAG to CG, Eighth Corps Area, 15 Feb 38, sub: 1st Cavalry Division Maneuvers, Fiscal Year 1938, 353 (1–29–38) Misc. C., Report of Board of Review, vol. I, Fort Bliss, Texas, 2 Jun 1938, all in AWC course material, MHI.
