Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

CHAPTER 8
Postwar Reorganization
Myriad modifications and refinements of field artillery’s World War II organizations,
weapons, and techniques became the norm during the postwar years up to
the advent of the missile age in the mid-1950s. The Army devoted a great deal of
time and effort to evaluating and analyzing performance and effectiveness in much
the same man ner as it had immediately after World War I. As early as February
1945, the Army Ground Forces began to develop new tables of organization and
equipment for the infantry division that incorporated nondivisional artillery units,
among others, formerly attached to the division. The new tables were published in
June 1945, but no infantry division was organized under them before the end of the
war. In that same month, the Army established a review board in Europe, specifically
to analyze the strategy, tactics, and adminis tration employed by the United
States forces in the European Theater of Operations. Of the board’s one hundred
thirty-one reports, ten were devoted to field artillery. 1
Many of the board findings were reiterated during a two-week artillery conference
of Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and foreign military repre sentatives held at Fort
Sill in March 1946. The conferees, headed by Army Ground Forces commander
General Jacob L. Devers, recommended that the number of medium artillery battalions
in both the infantry and armored divisions be increased; that the strength
of all 105-mm. howitzer batteries be raised from four to six howitzers; that a third
battery be added to the observation bat talion; that the number of forward observers
be increased in all battalions; and that field artillery, antiaircraft artillery, and coast
artillery be consoli dated into a single arm. They also proposed that short-range
countermortar radar detachments be made organic to divisions, that self-propelled
weapons be provided to all field artil lery units except pack and airborne organizations,
and that the development of missiles be encouraged. Many of these recommendations
became reality by the end of the decade. 2
1 As stated in each study, the board was established by ETO GO 128, 17 Jun 1945, as amended
by USFET GO 182, 7 Aug 1945, and USFET GO 312, 20 Nov 1945. Field artillery is covered in
USFET Study nos. 58–67.
2 “Recommendations for Future Developments in Field Artillery, Organization, Equipment, and
Technique Based on Studies Conducted at the Artillery Conference, Field Artillery School, Fort Sill,
Oklahoma, 18–29 March 1946,” copy in FA School files; “Artillery Conference at the Field Artillery
School,” Field Artillery Journal, May 1946, pp. 273–75; Louis E. Hibbs, “Report on the Field Artillery
Conference,” ibid., July 1946, pp. 407–13; War Department Equipment Board Report (Stilwell Board
Report), 1946. On the six-gun batteries and self-propelled artillery, see also Ltr, Lt Gen Jacob L. Devers
to Comdt, FA School, 23 Feb 1944, sub: Development of the Field Artillery Fire Direction Center, copy
in FA School files.