Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

112 The OrganizaTiOnal hisTOry Of field arTillery
Colonel Baker (standing, sixth from right) and his mission with General Pershing
and the AEF staff in Paris
reinforce the attack in an offensive, which gave the enemy the opportunity of taking
over the offensive in sectors experiencing inadequate artillery support. The Baker
board believed that artillery had to be furnished in quantities unheard of prior to
the war in order to solve this problem. Both groups agreed that the division needed
two 3-inch (75-mm.) gun regiments, but they disagreed on the caliber of howitzers
for the general support regiment. The Baker board recommended 3.8- or 4.7-inch
howitzers, weapons known for their mobility; the Operations Section advocated
6-inch (155-mm.) howitzers. The Operations Section based its recommendation
on the belief that the war would not be one of great movement and that the French
155-mm. Schneider howitzer was superior to the current or prospective 3.8- or
4.7-inch howitzer. The men from Pershing’s staff also pointed out that the British
were reducing, by one-third, the number of 4.5-inch howitzers. Another impor tant
consideration was the possibility of obtaining 155-mm. howitzers from France
for the American divisions. The group finally settled on the Operation Section’s
recommendations. 56
The divisional trench mortar battery was to be armed with twelve French
58-mm. mortars (weapons the U.S. Army found less than satisfactory), later changed
to twelve British 6-inch Newton mortars. Other trench mortars included the 3-inch
Stokes mortars, which were used by the infantry, and larger weapons (the 240-mm.
mortar being the most common), which were assigned to corps artillery. Personnel
56 Ibid., 1:67–73, 108–15. The French and Germans measured their weapons in millimeters, while the
Americans and British measured theirs in inches. Thus, 155 millimeters equals 6.1 inches and 75 millimeters
equals 2.95 inches. The weapons were not exactly the same size, but were used for the same missions.