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67th Infantry (Provisional Tank Brigade), at Third Army maneuvers, 1940
the Louisiana and Texas border, a step envisaged at the turn of the century to train an army corps. Not surprisingly, the exercises highlighted weaknesses in most units in almost every area of concern, including organization.[1]
To improve the infantry division, it was again reorganized, making it more powerful and easier to command and control. A headquarters and headquarters battery, which provided a fire direction control center and a brigadier general as commander of the division artillery, replaced the field artillery section in the division headquarters. Four field artillery battalions, three direct support and one general support, replaced the two regiments. The direct support battalions were to be armed with newly approved 105-mm. howitzers, while the general support battalion fielded 155-mm. howitzers and 75-mm. guns, the latter retained primarily as antitank weapons. Each field artillery battalion also was outfitted with six 37-mm. antitank guns. To counter operations such as the German blitzkrieg, which had proven so successful in Poland, antitank resources were centralized in the infantry regiments to form regimental antitank companies outfitted with 37-mm. antitank guns. In infantry battalions the number of antitank "guns"—the .50-caliber machine guns—was doubled. For targets of opportunity, more 81-mm. mortars were added to the heavy weapons company and three 60-mm. mortars were authorized for each rifle company. A reconnaissance troop appeared in the division, reflecting the growth in its operational area on the battlefield, and the number of collecting companies in the medical battalion was increased from one to three. Finally, new tables of orga-
- ↑ Jean R. Moenk, A History of Large-Scale Army Maneuvers in the United States, 1935–1964 (Fort Monroe, Va.: Continental Army Command (CONARC), 1969), pp. 26–37; History of the Third Army, AGF Study 17 (Washington, D.C.: Historical Section, AGF, 1946), p. 7; Army and Navy Register 61 (14 Sep 1940): 10.
