The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-10-06
Hundreds of Field Pieces
Trench Mortars and
Radid-irers Added
EIGHTY EIGHT"
NEAR WAR STRENGTH
Plenty Of Infantry Arm at
Camp Dodge, But Artil-
lery Incomplete

organization plan and not until today
would the chief OF staff of the Eighty
eighth infantry division at this camp
authorize the publication Of the wal
strength Of the several units making
up this division. The Eighty eighth
infantry division proper, excluding
the 163rd depot brigade, which does
not figure in the divisional unit, will
have a maximum war strength OF
27,152 officers and men. There are
enough selected men now in camp
here to form a complete infantry
division, but as a number of these
are assigned to the depot brigade ia
be transferred to the Thirty fourth
division at Camp Cody the Eighty
eighth division will not reach full
war strength until this month, when
the third group of selected men ar
rives here.
Division Organization.
The division organization for this
camp will be as follows: One division
headquarters, with 1874 officers and
four companies with 1853 officers and
men. two infantry brigades, each
consisting Of two infantry regiments,
and one machine gun battalion of
three companies with 1920 officers
and men, one field artillery brigade
consisting OF three field artillery
regiments and one trench mortar
battery with 5,068 officers and men,
one field signal battalion with 262
officers and men, one regiment OF
engineers with 1855 officers and men,
one train headquarters and military
police with 337 officers and men, one
ammunition train with 692 officers
and men, one supply train with 472
officers and men, one engineer train
with 81 officers and men and one
sanitary train consisting Of four field
hospital companies and four field
ambulance companies with $40 off,
GERS and men. making a grand total
Of 27,152.
Increase in Machine Guns.
1t will be noted that there is a ma
terial increase in the number Of ma
chine gun companies over the old or
ganization plan. Under the old divi-
sion plan there were three infantry
brigades OF three regiments each, and
each regiment under the old plan had
one one machine gun company. While
the old division under that plan had
only nine machine gun companies,
the new division has II machine gun
companies. Each of the four infan-
try regiments i'm the new division has
a machine gun company and each
two infanry regiments which make
mp an infantry brigade have a separ-
ate machine gun battalion Of three
companies. Thus each infantry
brigade has, FIVE machine gun COM
panies. In addition to the five ma
chine gun companies of each Of the
two infantry brigades there is a
division machine gun battalion Of
four machine gun companies, making
a total Of II companies
& The number Of artillery regiments
In a division is not increased, the
new plan calling for only three regi-
ments of field artillery. Two of
these are light artillery, equipped
with three-inch guns, and one is a
heavy field artillery regiment, equip
ped with six-inch howitzers. A new
unit Of the field artillery brigade,
however, is the trench mortar bat
terry. This is made necessary by the
trench warfare. The trench mortars
are used at close range and are fired
from the trenches.
Other Machine Gunners.
In addition to the machine gun and
artillery units just named, each infan-
try regiment also will have other ma
chine gunners-auto rihemen they
are calIed-who will be armed with
automatic rifles, and each headquart-
ers company of each infantry regi-
inent will be provided with three one
pound cannon. This adds IL small
cannon to the artillery equipment Of
the division and 678 automatic rifles
TO the machine gun equipment of this
unit. The machine gun companies
proper will have IL heavy machine
guns each in action and four in re-
serve, making a total Of 224 heavy
machine guns and 678 automatic rifles
or 60
sion.
The organization of the infantry
regimental unit under the new plan
lis radically different than the old
plan OF organization. At maximum
strength the new infantry regiment
will have 1913 officers and 1862 men.
II will be composed Of the following
units: One headquarters and head
quarters company, with 30S officers
and men; three battalions of four
rife companies each, with 3,078 ofic-
ers and men; one supply company,
with lao officers and men; one ma
chine gun company, with 17S offic-
ers and men: and one medical de-
tachment, with Sc officers and men,
making a total for the regiment Of
3,765.
Each rife company has a strength
OF ESQ men and six officers. 1t con-
ststs of a company headquarters,
with 2 officers and IS men and
platoons. Each of the four platoons
in each rife company contains the
following units: One platoon head
quarters, with two officers and men;
one section of bombers and rife
grenadiers, with % officers and men;
two sections Of ridemen, with IL Of
ncers and men to each section; and
one section of auto rifemen, with IL
o3fieeFs and men and four automatic
rifies. These auto rife sections give
the regiment 1872 automatic rifles, in
addition to the ordnance of the one
fantry regiment. -
Four Spare Guns.
Each machine gun company Of the
Infantry will have six officers and
Il2 men. The company will consist
"a the headquarters. with three of
fcers and Il men; three platoons.
each with one officer and 36 men,
and q machine gun train with 10
men. The armament for the machine
gun company is 10 machine guns
"a heavy type and four spare guns.
The regimentaI headquarters COM
any Of the new infantry regiment
III made up Of seven officers and 294
men, as follows: One headquarters
platoon, With S3 onlceFs and men,
Including one staff section with 36
officers and men; one orderlies sec
zion with 20 men and one regimental
band section with 2S men; one sig
nal platoon with n officers and men,
Including a telephone section with
81 men: one section with headquar-
tsrs, 10 men, and one section with
three signal battalions Of 16 officers
and men "a all: one sappers' and
Members platoon with A3 officers and
men, including one section OF sap
rers, nine men, for digging and spec
1 work and one section Of bOmbers