Page:John Banks Wilson - Maneuver and Firepower (1998).djvu/177

 PRELUDE TO COMBAT

and Fourth Army commanders after the 1941 maneuvers, but assigned to General Headquarters (GHQ). This arrangement placed the units outside the control of the existing arms, thus creating basically a new homogeneous antitank force. The independent tank destroyer battalions would later prove an organizational error, denying division commanders a major resource that they habitually needed. It did, however, focus attention on an area that was a growing tactical concern.

The possible theater of operations shifted from the Western Hemisphere to the Pacific in 1941 as relations deteriorated between the United States and Japan. To be prepared for that contingency, Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, commanding the Hawaiian Department, requested permission to expand the square Hawaiian Division into two triangular infantry divisions with the primary mission of defending Oahu, the most populous of the islands and a major base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Recognizing that the Regular Army lacked the units required for the reorganization, Short proposed that Guard units complete the two divisions. The department approved Short's proposal, and on 1 October he reorganized and redesignated the Hawaiian Division as the 24th Infantry Division and activated the 25th Infantry Division. Elements of the Hawaiian Division were distributed between the two new divisions, and, as planned, each had one Hawaii National Guard and two Regular Army infantry regiments. Divisional strengths hovered around 11,000 men.