Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

POsTwar reOrganizaTiOn
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organic battalions to be deter mined by future studies. They also recommended
that all non divisional artillery battalions be organized into permanent groups or
regiments of mixed or similar caliber weapons. 13
For planning and instructional purposes, the Army Ground Forces in 1947
outlined a table for a field army organization in which regiments were the parent
units of nondivisional battalions. As outlined, the nondivisional field artillery in
each of the three corps in a typical field army consisted of a headquar ters and
headquarters battery, an observation battalion, four field artillery regiments, an
armored 105-mm. howitzer battalion, and a rocket battalion. In addition, either an
8-inch gun or 240-mm. howitzer battalion was allocated to each field army. But
the proposed TOE was never published, and the field artillery group remained the
tactical headquarters for nondivisional artillery. When a new TOE for the group
headquarters and headquarters bat tery was published in December 1948, no real
changes were made except to increase the personnel to 21 officers and 109 enlisted
men. In July 1949, when the Army Field Forces, the successor to the Army Ground
Forces, revised the model field army organization, the nondivisional artillery organization
closely resembled the 1947 outline except that the field artillery group
replaced the regiment. The group was reduced through minor changes to 188 officers
and men by 1953. The principal changes in the corps artillery headquar ters
and headquarters battery were the addition of an administra tive section, a light
aviation section with three liaison air craft (an increase of one plane), and five
liaison sections, bringing the aggregate authorized strength of the unit up to 189
from 112. Through minor reductions, the personnel decreased to 168 by 1953. 14
Peacetime cuts in defense spending and strength ceilings were the primary
causes of deficiencies in postwar Army organizations. Of the ten Regular Army
divisions active at the out break of the Korean War in 1950, only one was at full
strength. The others averaged about 70 percent of their author ized strengths. All
had major shortages in equipment. Of the fifty-nine active field artillery battalions
in the Regular Army (Table 20), about two-thirds were divisional units. Most of the
105-mm. how itzer battalions had only two active firing batteries instead of three.
In addition to the twenty non divisional field artillery battalions, one corps artillery
headquarters and head quarters battery and two field artillery group headquarters
were active. Heavy artillery was virtually nonexistent. 15
The Korean War
Jumping off on 25 June 1950, North Korean troops achieved surprise and substantial
initial success. The slow U.S. intervention, the uncertainty regard ing the intentions
of the Soviet Union, and the wavering position by the United Nations blunted the
13 Cmte on Organization, Question 5, Artillery Conference, 18–29 March 1946, pp. 1–2, copy in
FA School files.
14 Weathersby, “Field Artillery Group,” thesis, pp. 117–18, 120; TOE 6–12, 2 Dec 1948; TOE 6–401,
4 Jan 1953; TOE 6–50–1, 8 Aug 1949; TOE 6–501A, 11 Sep 1953.
15 Directory and Station List of the United States Army, July 1950. Field artillery battalions in the
four training divisions (3d Armored and 4th, 9th, and 10th Infantry Divisions) are not included.