Page:John Banks Wilson - Maneuver and Firepower (1998).djvu/247

 AN INTERLUDE OF PEACE line or exploit success on the battlefield. He questioned, however, the appropriate rank for commanders of the new infantry combat teams (formerly infantry regiments) in the infantry division and combat commands in the armored division—a colonel or brigadier general.

Eisenhower sent the divisional proposals to senior officers, including his own advisory group, for comment. He was concerned that units were too large, possessing everything they might need under almost any condition, violating the principles of flexibility and economy of force followed during the war. He also requested the officers' views as to whether the Army should break each division into three smaller units, and if so whether the infantry regiment should be renamed an infantry combat team.

The advisory group concurred with the Army Ground Forces proposals. It did not believe that divisions had too many people and too much equipment; they had only those units habitually attached during combat. The group did not fear a diminution of morale because the infantry regiment was to be known by another name. Moreover, it supported the rank of brigadier general for the commanders of infantry combat teams in the infantry division and combat commands in the armored division because it was commensurate with the assigned responsibilities.

Among the other general officers who commented on the divisions, General Omar N. Bradley, head of the Veterans Administration, wanted the staff to develop a division organization that combined aspects of both infantry and armored divisions. For the time being, however, he deemed the proposed units sound. Lt. Gens. Walton H. Walker and Oscar W Griswold, the Fifth and Seventh Army commanders, also endorsed the organizational proposals but disagreed on the appropriate rank for combat command and infantry combat team leaders. Eisenhower approved the divisions on 21 November 1946, but disapproved the change in general officer positions and the new name for infantry units. The following month Army Ground Forces prepared draft tables of organization for a 17,000-man infantry division and a 15,000-man armored division.

In 1948, when the Department of the Army finally published new tables for the infantry division, it authorized 18,804 officers and enlisted men (Chat 23). The division, however, remained basically the same as approved by Eisenhower. The ratio of combat to service troops was 4 to 1, and a 50 percent increase in firepower was attained by merely authorizing each field artillery firing battery six pieces.

Some changes made between the time Eisenhower approved the division and publication of its tables, however, are noteworthy. In the medical service, a medical company replaced the attached medical detachment in each infantry regiment, and artillery, engineer, and tank battalions fielded organic medical detachments as did the division headquarters. The medical battalion was to provide only clearing and ambulance services. The reconnaissance troop was redesignated as a reconnaissance company to eliminate the term "troop" from the Army's nomenclature except for cavalry and constabulary units. At the insistence of officers who attended an Infantry conference in 1946 that discussed the status of the arm,