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Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

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BETWEEN THE WARS<br />

Experimental self-propelled gun at Fort Eustis, Virginia, in 1931<br />

135<br />

and howitzers was most common. The <strong>Army</strong> also began to experi ment with halftrack<br />

vehicles for use as prime movers and transportation in the 1930s. Because<br />

of the success of tests for motorizing the 75-mm. guns, PWA funds were obtained<br />

for motorizing all light artillery units in the National Guard, and in August 1933,<br />

Chief of <strong>Field</strong> Artillery Maj. Gen. Harry G. Bishop requested that the <strong>Field</strong> Artillery<br />

School modify its courses so that officers could receive instruction in truck-drawn<br />

artillery. 19<br />

In December 1933, the War Department announced its motorization policy for<br />

the Regular <strong>Army</strong>: All field artillery in the Hawaiian and Philippine Departments,<br />

one-half of the divisional 75-mm. gun batteries serving in the United States, one<br />

battalion of 75-mm. guns serving with the experimen tal mechan ized cavalry force, all<br />

medium and heavy artillery units, and the field trains of horse-drawn, horse, and pack<br />

artillery units were to be motorized. In a memorandum for Chief of Staff General<br />

Douglas MacArthur, the G–3, commenting upon the con tinuation of the motorization<br />

19 In NARA, RG 407, file 319.12, see Annual Rpts, CofFA: FY1933, pp. 8, 10, box 1331, Entry<br />

37g; FY1934, pp. 2–4, box 1329, Entry 37g; and FY1935, pp. 3, 6, 8, box 370, Entry 37i. See also<br />

Sunderland, <strong>Field</strong> Artillery School, pp. 122–23. The <strong>Field</strong> Artillery School was officially redesignated as<br />

such in January 1920, although general usage of the term had begun in the spring of 1919 while it was<br />

still the School of Fire.

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