Page:John Banks Wilson - Maneuver and Firepower (1998).djvu/152

130 After reviewing the report, Craig decided to test the proposed division with attached antimechanized (antitank) and antiaircraft artillery battalions and an observation squadron. He selected the 2d Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. James K. Parson, to conduct the test between September and November 1937. The resulting Provisional Infantry Division (PID) included 6,000 men from the 2d Division and a similar number from other commands, which also furnished much of the equipment. The examination, the first in the history of the Army, was held in Texas, where space and terrain permitted a thorough analysis of the unit.

Even before the test ended, Maj. Gen. George A. Lynch, Chief of Infantry, vetoed the proposed organization in a report to the staff in Washington. Having witnessed part of the exercise, he viewed the separation of the machine gun from the rifle battalion and the attachment of the signal detachment and mortar battery to the infantry regiment as mistakes. The first prevented teamwork in the regiment, and the second interfered with unity of command. Lynch considered the attached antitank battalion an infantry unit because it used the same antitank weapons as the infantry regiment. He objected to the commander of the service troops, contending that the presence of a general officer in this position complicated the chain of command. Furthermore, since the movement of the trains depended on the tactical situation, only the division commander could make the decision to move them. Because field, supply, and ammunition trains operated to the rear of the combat units, Lynch discerned no need for them in the division. He suggested that the Army return to the fixed army corps, in which divisions did the fighting and the corps provided the logistical support.

Shortly after Lynch's negative account, the New York Times reported that Craig planned to appoint a special committee to design an infantry division based on the PID test. The article claimed that the committee was to include Maj. Gen. Fox Conner, Col. George C. Marshall, and a third unnamed officer. Eventually Brig. Gen. Lesley J. McNair, the Chief of Staff of the PID, was identified in private correspondence as the third member. Conner and Marshall, former members of the Lassiter Board, had supported Pershing's small division. Conner had also served as Craig's personnel representative at the PID test. Within a few days Marshall, writing from Vancouver Barracks, Washington, told a friend that such a board would look like a "stacked deck" to secure a small division. As it happened, any plans for the group fell through when Conner retired for medical reasons.

The final report on the PID test, mostly the work of McNair, noted many of the divisional weaknesses identified by Lynch, but, instead of assigning the division to a fixed army corps, McNair proposed a new smaller and more powerful division. To attain it, he recommended that the infantry regiment have an antitank company and three battalions, each with one machine gun and three rifle companies. The machine gun company was to be armed with both machine guns and mortars. Inclusion of the antitank company in the regiment eliminated the need to attach such a battalion to the division. Like Lynch, he suggested eliminating signal detachments in favor of infantry, artillery, and cavalry troops. To increase