Page:John Banks Wilson - Maneuver and Firepower (1998).djvu/159

A RETURN TO THE PAST; A LOOK TO THE FUTURE be extended to include the division headquarters, signal, and ordnance troops; quartermaster, medical, engineer, reconnaissance, and observation squadrons; and a chemical warfare detachment. One headquarters would assume responsibility for the administration and disciplinary control for these forces.

Although the study did not lead to a general reorganization of the cavalry division, the wartime cavalry regiment was restructured, effective 1 December 1938, to consist of a headquarters and headquarters troop, machine gun and special weapons troops, and three squadrons of three rifle troops each. The special troops remained as structured in 1928, and no observation squadron or chemical detachment found a place in the division. With the paper changes in the cavalry divisions and other minor adjustments, the strength of a wartime divisional rose to 10,680.

Such paper changes characterized much of the interwar Army's work. Although planners lacked the resources to man, equip, and test functional divisions, they gave considerable thought to their organization. They developed a new concept for the infantry division, experimented with a larger cavalry division, and explored the organization of a mechanized unit. Designing the new infantry division with a projected battlefield in North America, officers took into account the span of control, the number of required command echelons, the staff, the balance between infantry and field artillery, the location of the reconnaissance element, the role of engineers, and the best way to organize the services and supply system. The triangular infantry division appeared to offer the best solution to these requirements according to the planners, who Marshall thought were among "the best in the Army."