mikhailov
Posts: 20
Joined: 10/9/2001
From: colorado
Status: offline
|
Some books that may help are "World War II Order of Battle" by Shelby Stanton, "The GI Offensive in Europe" by Peter Mansoor, and "Eisenhower's Lieutenants" by Russell F Weigley. To paraphrase from these books, by the end of 1941 the Army had 36 divisions, and estimated at least 200-215 would be needed. 37 more divs were formed during 1942. The Army numbered over 5,000,000 men, with 1,940,000 in the Army Ground Forces. In '42, the USAAF grew from 270,000 to 1,270,000, and the Army Service Forces grew to 1,857,000. In August, Marshall proposed an Army of 7.5 million, consisting of 111 divisions and 224 air groups. At the beginning of 1943, the Army halted the creation of new divisions, because the anticipated cross-channel assault was postponed to 1944, and the shipment of units overseas was behind schedule. The Army had to postpone, then cancel plans for 12 more divs in 1944 due to an increased demand from the air forces and supply units. The US needed some men in the production economy, a large Navy (approx. 4 million men)for the Pacific war and to convoy the troops to Europe. The Army eventually grew to over 8 million, but only 2.5 million were in the AGF and only about 89 divisions were raised. Alot of the manpower was siphoned off the the USAAF, rear-echelon units, and the navy. The Army had expanded greatly, and lacked qualified commanders, and needed officers and enlisted men to train and serve as cadres for follow-on divs. Also, the Army relied heavily on non-divisional units (separate tank, AA, TD battalions) and replacements to keep existing divisions somewhat up to strength. The downside of this is that with fewer divs, the existing units had to remain in the line longer. The Army classified their recruits on a test called the AGCT, the USAAF had the highest percentage of category I and II recruits (the highest categories), followed by the Army Service Forces. The AGF had the lowest percentage of cat I and II recruits, and the highest percentage of Cat IV and V recruits. Basically, the USAAF and the ASF had a higher priority than the ground forces. Within the AGF, the airborne and other specialized units had further priority over the infantry. The books go into much more detail, but I hope this helps somewhat.
_____________________________
|
Printable Version
Books on US Army planning 1941-44...war buffs help! - 
- 
- 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread