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 THE CRUCIBLE—COMBAT might keep pace with modern communication and transport facilities and to provide commanders with the greatest possible amount of offensive power through reduction in passive defensive elements.

Reorganization of infantry and armored divisions began shortly after publication of the new tables. Infantry and armored divisions, including those most recently activated in the United States, adopted the new organizations between 1 August and 11 November 1943. Overseas commands reorganized their infantry divisions as soon as possible but had the authority to delay the changes if units were under alert, warning, or movement orders or if they were engaged in maneuvers or active operations against an enemy. The divisions needed time to retrain. Except for the 3d and 34th Infantry Divisions, the eight infantry divisions in the European and Mediterranean theaters were reorganized by the beginning of the new year. The 34th came under the tables immediately prior to its participation in the Anzio campaign in March 1944 and the 3d after Rome fell in June. Of the twelve infantry divisions in the Pacific theater, eight were converted by the beginning of 1944 and the remaining four by the following August.

Reorganization of the three overseas armored divisions followed a somewhat different course. The 1st Armored Division adopted the new structure while in a rest and training area in Italy in 1944. The 2d and 3d Armored Divisions retained the 1942 configuration throughout the war. During the fall of 1943 the commander of the European Theater of Operations, General Devers, who had been a leading spokesman for the heavy armored division decided that the war was too advanced to permit changes in those units.

When the divisions in the Pacific adopted the new tables, MacArthur restructured the Americal Division to conform to other infantry divisions. On 1 May 1943 he placed it under the tables prepared by the Reduction Board, the only division to use them, but in September it was reorganized under the 15 July structure. Because of the unit's widely acclaimed combat record, which included a Presidential Citation (Navy) for its elements' service on Guadalcanal, the War Department retained its name rather than give it a numerical designation.

Early in 1943 Army Ground Forces developed a new type of unit, the light division, which the Operations Division of the Army Staff had suggested earlier as a possibility for the Pacific theater. Planners thought such a division could function in a variety of combat conditions, such as jungles and mountains, simply by varying the unit's mode of transportation. Initially, McNair, who disliked special units, opposed the idea because of the unique training it required. Given the shortage of shipping in the fall of that year, the Operations Division again put forth the proposal. By this time planners had extended the idea to include amphibious operations. When preparing for the invasion of North Africa, the Solomon Islands, and New Guinea, infantry divisions had to be reorganized,