Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

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authorized six 105-mm. towed howit zers. The M3 model howitzer was standard
for the infantry cannon com pany during World War II, as it was for some of the
airborne division artillery. This model differed slightly from the M2A1 model used
in the infantry division artillery, and because it was twenty-seven inches shorter,
artillerymen often called it the “snub-nosed” or “sawed-off” 105. The cannon
company was not an unqualified success, primarily because of its lack of mobility
and because in many situations it was tied in with the fire direc tion center of the
supporting division artillery in mass fire missions. Most division com manders felt
that many problems would have been solved by using self-propelled howitzers (as
those in the armored division artillery) instead of towed ones. 12
Other Division Artillery
The field artillery battalions organized for motorized, light, and mountain divisions
were similar to those in the infantry division. The battalions authorized for the
motorized divi sion (deleted from the force structure in 1943) were the same as those
authorized for the standard infantry division. The light division artillery organizations
(for use in mountain, jungle, and amphib ious opera tions) were each authorized a
headquarters and head quarters detachment, three 75-mm. pack howitzer battal ions,
an antiair craft artillery machine-gun battalion, and an antitank battery. Each howitzer
battalion had a headquarters and service battery and three four-piece firing batteries,
for an aggregate personnel strength of 469. The antiaircraft artillery battalion
of 292 officers and enlisted men was armed with .50-caliber machine guns, and the
antitank battery, with an author ized aggregate strength of 133, was equipped with
an additional twelve pack howitzers and eight 2.36-inch bazookas. Eight airplanes
for observation were also included in the light division’s artillery. One division (the
89th) was authorized trucks instead of animals for the artillery, and the tables were
adjusted accordingly. The organization of the light division was approved in the
summer of 1943, but experience gained in maneuvers and in the Pacific proved that
such forces had to be reinforced immediately and that they needed artillery heavier
than the 75-mm. pack howitzer. Two of the three light divisions were reorganized
as standard infantry divisions by 1944, while one remained in the force structure
as a mountain division having a total strength of 13,459. 13
The 1944 tables called for the mountain division artillery to be organized with
an aggregate strength of 1,783 in a headquarters and headquarters bat tery and
three 75-mm. pack howitzer battalions (twelve howitzers in each battalion). The
antiaircraft artillery battalion was converted to an infantry antitank battalion, and
12 Mahon and Danysh, Infantry, pp. 53–54, 63–64, 66–67; General Board, USFET, “Organization,
Equipment, and Tactical Employment of the Infantry Divi sion,” Study no. 15, pp. 5–6, copy in CMH
files; Charles B. MacDonald, The Siegfried Line Campaign (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of
Military History, 1963), p. 621. For background on the idea of an accompanying gun, see Grotelueschen,
Doctrine Under Trial, pp. 78–81, 128–29.
13 TOE 72T, 21 Jan 1944, and related tables; TOE 72T (Truck), 21 Jan 1944, and related tables;
Greenfield, Palmer, and Wiley, Organization of Ground Combat Troops, pp. 339–50; Robert C. Gildart,
“Artillery on New Georgia, Field Artillery Journal, February 1944, pp. 88–89.