situations. With the ratification of the Italian peace treaty in the fall of 1947, the Army inactivated the 88th Infantry Division (less one infantry regiment, which remained in Trieste) and, as noted, withdrew its forces from Korea at the end of 1948. To make room in Japan for the 7th Infantry Division, the 11th Airborne Division, which had been stationed there since 1945, redeployed to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where it was reorganized with only two of its three regimental combat teams. The reduction of forces in Korea also resulted in the inactivation of the 6th Infantry Division.[1]
Four years after the end of World War II the number of Regular Army divisions had fallen to ten. Overseas the 1st Infantry Division was scattered among installations in Germany, while the 1st Cavalry Division and the 7th, 24th, and 25th Infantry Divisions were stationed throughout Japan. In the United States the 2d Armored Division was split between Camp (later Fort) Hood, Texas, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The 2d Infantry Division was based at Fort Lewis, Washington; the 3d Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Fort Devens, Massachusetts; the 11th Airborne Division (less one inactive regimental combat team) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and the 82d Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The twenty-five Organized Reserve Corps and twenty-seven National Guard divisions were at various levels of readiness.
Initially overwhelmed by the tidal wave of demobilization after World War II, the Army had struggled to rebuild both Regular Army and reserve divisions during the late 1940s. Its new divisional structures were based on combat experiences during the war, under the assumption that atomic weapons would not alter the nature of ground combat. Units previously attached to divisions from higher headquarters during combat were made organic to divisions, which also received additional firepower. Although the postwar divisions of the era were not fully prepared for combat because they were not properly manned and equipped, they nonetheless represented an unprecedented peacetime force in the Army of the United States, reflecting the new Soviet-American tensions.
- ↑ Ltr, TAG to CG, USAF in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, 12 Nov 47, sub: Inactivation of Units, AGAO-I 322 (12 Nov 47)–M, Ltr, TAG to CG, Second Army, 10 Mar 49. sub: Reorganization of the 11th Airborne Division, AGAO-I 322 11th Abn Div (12 Feb 49) CSGOT-M, Ltr, TAG to CinC, Far East, 24 Jan 49, sub: Inactivation of Certain Units in FECOM. AGAO-I 322 (31 Dec 48) CSGOT-M, and Ltr, TAG to CinC, Far East, 22 Jut 49, sub: Reorganization of Certain Infantry Divisions, AGAO-I 322 (22 Jul 49)-M, all AG Reference files. and AGAZ 373 Historical Data Cards, 6th. 7th, and 88th Infantry Divisions and 11th Airborne Division, division files. all DAMH-HSO.
