Evening star., 1942-10-18

Stimson gave in his recent con-
pressional testimony, for these help
us to form some idea of what Is
being done and What is proposed to
be done with the young men who
have been called TO arms in the de-
fense of their country.
1t is particularly to be noted that
of the 100000 men which the Army
will have next year, 100000 men
will be In the air forces. This will
be "the largest air force, with sus-
tanning units which production and
transportation will permit"
It is, therefore, evident that the
charges which have been reckless
" made in some quarters that the
Army high command is not suf1i-
eisntly "air- minded have very little
foundation in fact. This will be
the largest air force in the world.
OF the overall 100000 total,
1000, 900 will be men under train
ing and 100000 will belong to the
services of supply.
This leaves 100000 for the
ground forces. Exactly how these
forces will be organized is, of course,
not matter of public knowledge.
This writer disclaims any particu-
lar knowledge on this point and
would not make it public If he had
any; but 1t may be interesting to
compare the Secretary of Wars fig
ure of 100000 with the existing or
sanization of the Army at the time
of American entry into the war.
There has grown up, even among
well-informed newspaper and radio
people, a comfortable but mislead-
Ing practice of breaking down any
given number of men mentioned as
belonging to a particular army by
the simple process of dividing the
total number by $4,000 and stat
ing the quotient as the number OF
divisions which the said army is sup
posed to contain.
This practice is just about 100 per
cent wrong, for in any modern
army, excluding the air force ana
the services of supply, the number
of men in the ground forces is just
about evenly divided between troops
belonging to the divisions and troops
belonging to corps, army ana gen.
eral headquarters reserve units ana
the defense units OF the lines OF
communication. y
In other words. after you have de-
Quoted the air forces and the sos
you should divide by two the re-
mining number before beginning to
estimate the number of divisions by
any rule thumb process based on
the average strength of the dlVl-
sions.
According to published figures
there are now IA armored divisions
already activated in the United
States Army. The pre-war total OF
infantry divisions was 54-9 from
the Regular Army, 18 from the Ma
tional Guard and 27 from the Or
eanized Reserve. There were also
three cavalry divisions.
Three Armored Corps.
There are known to be at least
IA corps and three armored corps
Let us see what all this works
out to.
II YOU have three armored corps
comprising total Of IA armoreo
divisions and assume that each dlVl-
sion has about 5000 men and each
corps has corps troops amounting
to about $4,000 men, and II the
further assumption is made that 1or
each armored division there is to
he q motorized infantry division IN
support, which is the German prac-
tice, and may perhaps be adoptec
bv our forces, 1t would be reason
able to assume that all these troops
might be organized into three mech
snised armies, and in addition II
3ts divisions and corps, each such
srrny would require approximately
10000 Army troops.
The total for these three armies
would be in the neighborhood o.
100000 men. The existing four flele
armies using the remainder of the
infantry divisions, after allowing fol
- to IA of these being Transformed
into motorized divisions, would take
up about 100000 men. A cavalry
corps of three divisions would b'
close to $4,000. and a general head
ouarters reserve unit for a fore
of this size would certainly not bt
less than 000-probably more
We have now accounted for a tota
of 100000 men.
In addition we must remember
that these troops will be operating
overseas at the ends of long line
of communication, with many ad
vance and intermediate bases anc
points of support each OF which
must be protected. The forces re
ouired will vary In strength accord
ing to the Importance of the base
Some positions, such as Hawai-
and Panama, will require very larg'
forces. some will be guarded b,
nothing more than a company o
perhaps an anti-aircraft battery
But due to the great length of tn
lines OF communication to be pro
tected, it would hardly be safe Il
assume that less than 100000 mel
would be adequate for this purpose
Nor must we forget the necessit.
for providing defenses for our hom
bases, including, of course, anti-air
craft artillery. harbor defense units
guards for airdromes and certain
reserve OF mobile units as protec
ton against raids. If we say tina
these would be half of the strength
of those on the lines of communi