TABLE 14
Divisions Activated in 1943
| Component | Division | Date | Location |
| RA | 2d Cavalry | 25 February | Fort Clark, Tex. |
| AUS | 11th Airborne | 25 February | Camp Mackall, N.C. |
| OR | 9th Infantry | 25 February | Camp Swift, Tex. |
| AUS | 20th Armored | 15 March | Camp Campbell, Ky. |
| AUS | 106th Infantry | 15 March | Fort Jackson, S.C. |
| AUS | 17th Airborne | 15 April | Camp Mackall, N.C. |
| AUS | 66th Infantry | 15 April | Camp Blanding, Fla. |
| AUS | 75th Infantry | 15 April | Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. |
| AUS | 69th Infantry | 15 May | Camp Shelby, Miss. |
| AUS | 63d Infantry | 15 June | Camp Blanding, Fla. |
| AUS | 70th Infantry | 15 June | Camp Adair, Oreg. |
| AUS | 42d Infantry | 14 July | Camp Gruber, Okla. |
| AUS | 10th Light | 15 July | Camp Hale, Colo. |
| AUS | 16th Armored | 15 July | Camp Chaffee, Ark. |
| AUS | 71st Light | 15 July | Fort Benning, Ga. |
| AUS | 13th Airborne | 13 August | Fort Bragg, N.C. |
| AUS | 65th Infantry | 16 August | Camp Shelby, Miss. |
56th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized, but did not see combat. The former brigade's cavalry regiments went on to fight in the Pacific and China-Burma-India theaters.[1]
With ongoing manpower shortages, the Army continually examined the relationship between the total military force and the manpower pool available for military service. That relationship was constantly balanced against the manpower required to maintain the productive capacity of industry, which remained vital to the overall Allied war effort. As the war progressed, staff studies suggested that the number of divisions mobilized could be cut. Soviet armies had checked the German advance, and it appeared that the Allies would gain air superiority over Europe. Therefore, shortly before the invasion of northern France in 1944, the War Department approved a troop basis that contained 90 divisions rather than 100 within a total Army strength of 7,700,000. The French were to raise ten divisions, and the United States was to equip them, which created equipment shortages. That troop basis called for 1 light, 2 cavalry, 5 airborne, 16 armored, and 66 infantry divisions. With the inactivation of the 2d Cavalry Division in May 1944, the number of divisions in the troop basis was reduced by one and the number of divisions raised during World War II remained at eighty-nine. The decision to limit the number of divisions haunted War Department planners during the remainder of the war for they feared that mobilization had not gone far enough. Marshall, however, held to the eighty-nine divisions in the troop basis.[2]
- ↑ MacGregor, Integration of the Armed Forces, p. 33; Ltr, TAG to CGs, AGF and North African Theater of Operations, 11 Apr 44, sub: Inactivation and Disbandment of Units, AG 322 (8 Apr 44) OB-I-GNGCT-M, AG file, DAMH-HSO; Hinds, Second Cavalry Division, pp. 64–67: Ltr, TAB to CGs, Fourth Army and Southern Defense Command, 24 Apr 44, sub: Assignment, Reorganization and Redesignation of Certain Cavalry Units, AG 322 (22 Apr 44) OB-I-GNGCTM, AG Reference files, DAMH-HSO; Mary Lee Stubbs and Stanley Russell Connor, Armor-Cavalry Part II: Army National Guard, Army Lineage Series (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1972), pp. 167–87.
- ↑ Greenfield et al., Organization of Ground Combat Troops, table, "Ground Forces in the Army, Dec 41–Apr 45," and pp. 163–81; Maurice Matloff, "The 90-Division Gamble," Command Decisions, Kent R. Greenfield, ed. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1960), pp. 365–81.
