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CHAPTER 3

 

The Test—World War I

 

Both [French and British] commissions were anxious for an American force, no matter how small. … I opposed this on the ground that the small force would belittle our effort; was undignified and would give a wrong impression of our intentions. I held out for at least a division to show the quality of our troops and command respect for our flag.

Maj. Gen. Hugh L. Scott^[1]

 

World War I, an unprecedented conflict, forced fundamental changes in the organization of United States Army field forces. The infantry division remained the Army's primary combined arms unit, but the principles governing its organization took a new direction because of French and British experiences in trench warfare. Column length or road space no longer controlled the size and composition of the infantry division; instead, firepower, supply, and command and control became paramount. The cavalry division received scant attention as the European battlefield offered few opportunities for its use.

 

First Revisions

Between 6 April 1917, when the nation declared war, and 12 June, when the first troops left the United States for France, the War College Division of the Army General Staff' revised the structure of the infantry division extensively. British and French officers spurred the changes when they visited Washington, D.C., to discuss the nation's participation in the war. They believed the American division lacked firepower and presented command and control problems because of its many small units. But they also had their own political-military agenda. Believing that time precluded organizing and training U.S. units, they wanted the nation's immediate involvement in the war to be through a troop replacement program for their drained formations, a scheme that became known as "amalgamation."^[2]

Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Hugh L. Scott opposed Americans' serving in Allied units, believing that the U.S. division could be reorganized to overcome any French and British objections. Such a unit would prove the quality of the American soldier and ensure that the Allies did not underestimate the nation's war efforts. Scott directed the War College Division to study a divisional structure comprising two infantry brigades, each having two large infantry regiments, as a means of reducing the span of control. It was also to include light and heavy

 

1. Hugh L. Scott, Some Memories of a Soldier (New York: Century Co., 1928), p. 552.
2. Scott, Memories, pp. 550–56; Frederick Palmer, Bliss, The Peacemaker: The Life and Letters of General Tasker Howard Bliss (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1934), pp. 146–56.