Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

a Time Of grOwTh
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the general pattern still remained. Of the regimental numbers, with 351st being the
highest in World War I, one hundred sixty-seven were never used. 52
At some time during the war, all but five of the one hundred eighty-four field
artillery regiments were assigned to brigades as either divisional or corps artillery.
Of the five, the 9th Field Artillery and the 1st and 14th Field Artillery stayed on
duty throughout the war as school troops at the School of Fire at Fort Sill. Organized
as a mountain unit with 2.95-inch mountain howitzers, the 4th Field Artillery (less
Batteries E and F) served along the Mexican border; prior to the war, Batteries E
and F were deployed to the Canal Zone. The 82d Field Artillery, a converted cavalry
regiment armed with 3-inch guns, patrolled the Mexican border as an element of
the 15th Cavalry Division. 53
The General Staff began making plans for sending troops to France soon after
the United States entered the war. After studying various problems, the War College
Division of the General Staff prepared tables of organization, based on the National
Defense Act and approved by the Chief of Staff on 14 May 1917, authorizing each
infantry division one field artillery brigade of two 3-inch gun regiments and one
6-inch howitzer regiment. The number of field pieces in the three regiments totaled
seventy-two. The division also included a trench mortar battery. 54
Four days after approval of the infantry division tables, Secretary of War Newton
D. Baker directed Col. Chauncey Baker to head a mission to Europe to visit training
camps and other military establishments to observe the organization, equipment, training,
transportation, operation, supply, and administration of the allied forces. At the
end of six weeks, the so-called Baker board was to return to Washington and make
its report. Simultaneously, Maj. Gen. John J. Pershing, who had assumed his duties as
the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) Commander in Chief on 26 May, and his
staff were on their way to Europe. While Pershing’s staff and the Baker board were
in England conducting similar investigations, they decided to meet in Paris and arrive
at some agreement regarding the types of organizations needed for war. 55
The Baker board arrived in Paris in early July, and immediately thereafter, General
Pershing directed his Operations Section and Baker’s staff to form committees
for studying the infantry, cavalry, artillery, and engineers and to exchange ideas as
to organization, equipment, and training of their respective arms. One of the salient
disagreements between Pershing’s staff and the board was over the organization
of the divisional artillery brigade. Investigations by the Baker board indicated that
the allies, because of the lack of artillery, had been unable to conduct an offensive
on a broad front sufficient to break down enemy defenses and make the opposing
forces withdraw. The allies were taking artillery from the quiet sectors of the line to
52 WD GO 88, 11 Jul 1917; WD GO 115, 29 Aug 1917; WD GO 73, 7 Aug 1918.
53 See unit folders on 1st, 4th, 9th, 14th, and 82d Field Arty, CMH files. Although the 82d served as
divisional artillery, cavalry divisions were not authorized field artillery brigades.
54 AEF GO 14, 15 Jul 1917; Memo, Chief, War College Div., to CofS, 24 May 1917, sub: Plans for
Possible Expeditionary Force to France, and Memo, ACofS to CofS, 26 May 1917, sub: War College
Div, file 10050–21, box 488, Entry 296, RG 165, NARA.
55 United States Army in the World War, 1917–1919, 17 vols. (1948; reprint, Washington, D.C.:
Center of Military History, United States Army, 1988–92), 1:3–4, 53, 55–56, 91.