Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

176 The OrganizaTiOnal hisTOry Of field arTillery
Because of large probable errors, rockets could not be used on pinpoint targets
or in close support of ground troops. Of the six battalions organized under the TOEs
during the war, only two served overseas but neither saw combat. 30
When the Army adopted the triangular division, it eliminated the fixed field
artillery brigade with its organic ele ments. The new arrangement of four selfcontained
battalions proved more respon sive in providing artillery support to the
division’s maneu ver elements. Corps artillery, however, retained the fixed brigade
organization. The corps artillery brigade in 1940 consisted of a headquarters and
headquarters battery, two 155-mm. howitzer regiments, one 155-mm. gun regiment,
and an observation battalion. The number of field artillery weapons in the brigade
was seventy-two. 31 No action to correct the deficiencies of the fixed organization occurred
until 1942, when General McNair reviewed the structure of the nondivisional
units and recommended that artillery be organized into self-contained battalions
that could be allocated to an army and then further attached to corps as necessary.
The corps could then vary the number and types of units attached to the divisions
to meet the requirements of the situa tion. The units were also to be capable of being
combined into task forces to carry out specific missions. 32
In place of the regiment, McNair recommended the artillery group—a tactical
headquarters with limited administra tive capabilities and a variable number
of administratively self-contained attached battalions. This concept had already
been used to a certain degree in the organization of nondivisional armor units.
Artil lery officers also had previ ously advocated grouping two or more batteries,
battalions, or regiments to perform a common mission. Temporary grouping of
units for counterbattery fire, long-range fire, or reinforcement of division artillery
had been rou tine.
In December 1942, the War Department authorized the separate battalion arrangement
for nondivisional field artillery units and a group headquarters and head quarters
battery for every three to four battalions. The fixed field artillery brigade disappeared,
and the new brigade (only a headquarters and headquarters battery) was authorized
for the control of three to four groups. Except for a few brigades of heavy artillery
at the field army level, however, field artillery brigades were seldom seen. Groups
instead were usually attached directly to the headquarters and headquarters battery of
the corps artillery, as it was not generally considered necessary for an army to maintain
tactical control of field artillery units. The principal missions of nondivisional
artillery were the neutralization or destruction of hostile artil lery (counter battery
fire), destruc tion of hostile defenses, long-range interdiction fire, and reinforcement
30 TOE 6–85, 30 Nov 1944; “The Rocket Field Artillery Battalion,” Field Artillery Journal, September
1945, pp. 515–22. The 421st Rocket Field Artillery Battalion was present during the Ryukyus campaign in
the Pacific, but the 422d Rocket Field Artillery Battalion arrived in the Philippines too late to participate in
combat. The other four bat talions never left the United States. See Cmte on New Develop ments, Question
1, Artil lery Conference, 18–29 March 1946, pp. 1–9, copy in FA School files.
31 TO 6–50, 1 Nov 1940, and related tables. The number of seventy-two weapons for the corps field
artillery brigade does not include 75-mm. guns and 37-mm. guns used for antitank defense.
32 The best analysis of the organization of nondivisional field artillery is contained in Weathersby,
“Field Artillery Group,” thesis.