Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

126 THE ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY OF FIELD ARTILLERY
duty, to garrison overseas posts, and to provide cadres for wartime expansion. It
approved a ceiling of 280,000 enlisted men, including 37,000 field artillerymen, and
provided for 1,900 artillery officers led by a field artillery chief (with the rank of
major general) as well as setting up both tactical and administrative organizations
in the National Guard and Organized Reserves. The act divided the continental
United States into nine corps areas, each planned to have one Regular Army division,
two National Guard divisions, and three in the Organized Reserves, for a total
of fifty-four divisions. The Regular Army divisions, augmented by a training staff,
were to train the citizen troops in each area. Congress, however, never appropriated
enough money to bring the land forces even close to the specified ceiling. As early
as 1921, congressional appropriations forced a reduction in Regular Army strength
to 150,000; in 1922, to 137,000; and in 1927, to 118,750. 2
Even though the National Defense Act of 1920 was a milestone in legislation for
the United States Army, within a few years of its passage the military structure had
become almost useless, even as a mobilization base. Actual enlisted strength between
1924 and 1928 varied from 71 to 92.5 percent of that authorized. Although the act
had authorized 1,901 field artillery officers in the Regular Army, actual strength
between 1921 and 1928 averaged 1,335, with an average of only 816 serving with
the units. Colonel Palmer wanted to inactivate some of the divi sions in order to keep
a few up to full strength, but the General Staff modified the old Uptonian tradition
and skeleton ized the nine Regular Army divisions. Financial pressure was also a
reason the nine corps area training detachments were eliminated and their functions
placed into the skeletonized divi sions. The National Guard divisions, dependent on
federal pay, were seldom to achieve even 50 percent of their authorized strength.
In 1927, only 60 percent of the authorized National Guard field artillery units were
organized and federally recog nized. The number of Organized Reserves field artillery
officers considered necessary in an emergency had been calculated at 20,000,
but the number of officers in that com ponent between 1921 and 1928 never went
above 12,000 (of whom many held dual commis sions in the National Guard). 3
Despite reductions in personnel, the Army made great strides during the interwar
period in motorization, materiel, organizational structure, and doctrine. In December
1918, a board of officers, headed by Brig. Gen. Andrew Hero, Jr., was appointed to
study experiences gained by the artillery in the AEF. In the same month, Chief of
Staff General Peyton C. March, a former field artillery officer, appointed a board
of artillery and ordnance officers, headed by Brig. Gen. William I. Westervelt, to
study the armament, caliber of weapons, types of materiel, kinds and proportions
of ammunition, and methods of transportation to be authorized a field army. These
2 Act of 4 Jun 1920, ch. 227, 41 Stat. 759–812; Act of 30 Jun 1922, ch. 253, 42 Stat. 732; Weigley,
History, pp. 396, 399, 400–401; Millis, Arms and Men, pp. 217–18; WD Bull 25, 9 Jun 20; Memo for Dir,
War Plans Div, 10 Jul 20, sub: Report of Committee Number 2 on Army Reorganization, copy in MHI files;
Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1921, pp. 24, 231–34; National Defense Act, 1924 and 1942.
3 In NARA, RG 407, file 319.12, see Annual Rpts, CofFA: FY1921, box 1733, Entry 37c; FY1922,
box 637, Entry 37a; FY1923, box 1727, Entry 37c; FY1924, box 1727, Entry 37c; FY1925, box 1726, Entry
37c; FY1926, box 1342, Entry 37g; FY1927, box 370, Entry 37i; and FY1928, box 370, Entry 37c.