Page:John Banks Wilson - Maneuver and Firepower (1998).djvu/71

THE TEST—WORLD WAR I tions. The Allies argued that trench warfare, dominated by machine guns and artillery weapons, denied cavalry the traditional missions of reconnaissance, pursuit, and shock action. Mounted troops, possibly assigned to the division's headquarters company, might serve as messengers within the division but little more. The Allies further advised that the Army should not consider sending a large cavalry force to France. Horses and fodder would occupy precious shipping space, and the French and British had an abundance of cavalry. Engineer, signal, and medical battalions and an air squadron rounded out the divisions.

To conduct operations, the French advocated a functional divisional staff, that would include a chief of staff and a chief of artillery as well as intelligence, operations, and supply officers, along with French interpreters. Although small, such a body would have sufficient resources to allow the division to function as a tactical unit while a small headquarters troop would furnish work details. Adjutants alone were to comprise the staff of the infantry and artillery brigades, which had no headquarters troop for work details. The next higher headquarters, the army corps, would provide planning and administration for active operations.

Based on the report of 10 May, War College Division officers prepared tables of organization that authorized 19,000 officers and enlisted men for the division (Chart 3), an increase of about 1,300. No basic structural changes took place; self-sufficiency justified the additional men. On 24 May Maj. Gen. Tasker H. Bliss, the Acting Chief of Staff, approved the tables, but only for the initial expeditionary force. He hoped, as did the staff, that Congress would authorize a larger infantry regiment, providing it with more firepower. Bliss also recognized that the expeditionary commander might wish to alter the division. With these factors in mind, he felt that time would permit additional changes in the divisional structure because a second division would not deploy in the near future. If a large expeditionary force was dispatched in the summer of 1917, its deployment would rest on political, not military, objectives.

Early in May Scott alerted Maj. Gen. John J. Pershing, commander of the Southern Department, about the possibility of sending an expeditionary force to France and asked him to select one field artillery and four infantry regiments