General Headquarters Reserve Greenback Variant
With the outbreak of hostilities in Europe in September 1939, the War Department, already alerted by the activities of the Axis in Europe and the Far East, intensified its preparations for the possibility of war. Through the winter of 1939-40 Great Britain and France held the line of the Rhine, and the American public found it difficult to see the danger. In April and May the dam broke. Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France were overrun by the German armies and in June Italy declared war. With the Axis in control of Western Europe Great Britain faced immediate invasion. The threat to the position of the United States could no longer be disregarded, and public opinion rallied to the support of extraordinary measures to meet it. Mobilization and intensive training began during the early summer of 1940 on the basis of agencies and plans which had been elaborated within the framework of the National Defense Act of 1920.
One of the first steps towards mobilization, taken 26 July 1940, was the activation of a “nucleus of General Headquarters.”1 To understand this measure it is necessary to have in mind the organization of the military establishment in 1940 and the general plan of mobilization then in effect.
Organization of the Military Establishment in 1940
The field forces of the United States in being and on paper in 1940 were composed of the Regular Army, the National Guard, and the Organized Reserves. The Regular Army, with an actual enlisted strength of 243,095 in July 1940, was a standing army, based on short-term enlistments and led by a corps of professional officers, approximately 14,000 in number. The National Guard, with an actual enlisted strength of 226,937, was a force of civilian volunteers, trained by the States in accordance with standards set by the War Department and put through field exercises for two weeks each summer under Federal direction. The units of the Organized Reserve existed only in the blueprints for mobilization. A reservoir of trained officers, 104,228 in number, was available in the Organized Reserve Corps, which by 1940 was made up chiefly of the graduates of the Reserve Officers Training Corps and of Citizens Military Training Camps.2
Behind the field forces stood the arms and services, whose function was to develop and supply personnel and equipment and to formulate the tactical and training doctrines embodied in their technical and field manuals, the Bible of the Army. These branches were responsible for what may be termed the “developmental” functions of the military establishment—the preparation of personnel, equipment, and doctrine which the field forces were to employ. Their relation to the General Staff was not well defined. Their chiefs, having direct access to the Chief of Staff, could bypass the General Staff in its advisory capacity, and exercised a very considerable influence. In 1940 the branches commonly regarded as combat arms were seven in number: Infantry, Cavalry, Field Artillery, Coast Artillery, the Air Corps, Engineers, and Signal Corps. This distribution of “developmental” functions reflected the art of warfare as understood in 1921, but technology was rapidly producing new potentialities and arms. The need for exploring the military potentialities of the airplane had been recognized after the war of 1917-18 in the creation of the Air Corps, and experiments in mechanization and with new weapons were being continuously carried on in the established arms.
Each of the traditional arms and services had a standard institutional pattern. Each operated a service school and a board. The schools not only provided professional training, but developed the doctrine and training literature of the several branches.
With the outbreak of hostilities in Europe in September 1939, the War Department, already alerted by the activities of the Axis in Europe and the Far East, intensified its preparations for the possibility of war. Through the winter of 1939-40 Great Britain and France held the line of the Rhine, and the American public found it difficult to see the danger. In April and May the dam broke. Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France were overrun by the German armies and in June Italy declared war. With the Axis in control of Western Europe Great Britain faced immediate invasion. The threat to the position of the United States could no longer be disregarded, and public opinion rallied to the support of extraordinary measures to meet it. Mobilization and intensive training began during the early summer of 1940 on the basis of agencies and plans which had been elaborated within the framework of the National Defense Act of 1920.
One of the first steps towards mobilization, taken 26 July 1940, was the activation of a “nucleus of General Headquarters.”1 To understand this measure it is necessary to have in mind the organization of the military establishment in 1940 and the general plan of mobilization then in effect.
Organization of the Military Establishment in 1940
The field forces of the United States in being and on paper in 1940 were composed of the Regular Army, the National Guard, and the Organized Reserves. The Regular Army, with an actual enlisted strength of 243,095 in July 1940, was a standing army, based on short-term enlistments and led by a corps of professional officers, approximately 14,000 in number. The National Guard, with an actual enlisted strength of 226,937, was a force of civilian volunteers, trained by the States in accordance with standards set by the War Department and put through field exercises for two weeks each summer under Federal direction. The units of the Organized Reserve existed only in the blueprints for mobilization. A reservoir of trained officers, 104,228 in number, was available in the Organized Reserve Corps, which by 1940 was made up chiefly of the graduates of the Reserve Officers Training Corps and of Citizens Military Training Camps.2
Behind the field forces stood the arms and services, whose function was to develop and supply personnel and equipment and to formulate the tactical and training doctrines embodied in their technical and field manuals, the Bible of the Army. These branches were responsible for what may be termed the “developmental” functions of the military establishment—the preparation of personnel, equipment, and doctrine which the field forces were to employ. Their relation to the General Staff was not well defined. Their chiefs, having direct access to the Chief of Staff, could bypass the General Staff in its advisory capacity, and exercised a very considerable influence. In 1940 the branches commonly regarded as combat arms were seven in number: Infantry, Cavalry, Field Artillery, Coast Artillery, the Air Corps, Engineers, and Signal Corps. This distribution of “developmental” functions reflected the art of warfare as understood in 1921, but technology was rapidly producing new potentialities and arms. The need for exploring the military potentialities of the airplane had been recognized after the war of 1917-18 in the creation of the Air Corps, and experiments in mechanization and with new weapons were being continuously carried on in the established arms.
Each of the traditional arms and services had a standard institutional pattern. Each operated a service school and a board. The schools not only provided professional training, but developed the doctrine and training literature of the several branches.
With the outbreak of hostilities in Europe in September 1939, the War Department, already alerted by the activities of the Axis in Europe and the Far East, intensified its preparations for the possibility of war. Through the winter of 1939-40 Great Britain and France held the line of the Rhine, and the American public found it difficult to see the danger. In April and May the dam broke. Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France were overrun by the German armies and in June Italy declared war. With the Axis in control of Western Europe Great Britain faced immediate invasion. The threat to the position of the United States could no longer be disregarded, and public opinion rallied to the support of extraordinary measures to meet it. Mobilization and intensive training began during the early summer of 1940 on the basis of agencies and plans which had been elaborated within the framework of the National Defense Act of 1920.
One of the first steps towards mobilization, taken 26 July 1940, was the activation of a “nucleus of General Headquarters.”1 To understand this measure it is necessary to have in mind the organization of the military establishment in 1940 and the general plan of mobilization then in effect.
Organization of the Military Establishment in 1940
The field forces of the United States in being and on paper in 1940 were composed of the Regular Army, the National Guard, and the Organized Reserves. The Regular Army, with an actual enlisted strength of 243,095 in July 1940, was a standing army, based on short-term enlistments and led by a corps of professional officers, approximately 14,000 in number. The National Guard, with an actual enlisted strength of 226,937, was a force of civilian volunteers, trained by the States in accordance with standards set by the War Department and put through field exercises for two weeks each summer under Federal direction. The units of the Organized Reserve existed only in the blueprints for mobilization. A reservoir of trained officers, 104,228 in number, was available in the Organized Reserve Corps, which by 1940 was made up chiefly of the graduates of the Reserve Officers Training Corps and of Citizens Military Training Camps.2
Behind the field forces stood the arms and services, whose function was to develop and supply personnel and equipment and to formulate the tactical and training doctrines embodied in their technical and field manuals, the Bible of the Army. These branches were responsible for what may be termed the “developmental” functions of the military establishment—the preparation of personnel, equipment, and doctrine which the field forces were to employ. Their relation to the General Staff was not well defined. Their chiefs, having direct access to the Chief of Staff, could bypass the General Staff in its advisory capacity, and exercised a very considerable influence. In 1940 the branches commonly regarded as combat arms were seven in number: Infantry, Cavalry, Field Artillery, Coast Artillery, the Air Corps, Engineers, and Signal Corps. This distribution of “developmental” functions reflected the art of warfare as understood in 1921, but technology was rapidly producing new potentialities and arms. The need for exploring the military potentialities of the airplane had been recognized after the war of 1917-18 in the creation of the Air Corps, and experiments in mechanization and with new weapons were being continuously carried on in the established arms.
Each of the traditional arms and services had a standard institutional pattern. Each operated a service school and a board. The schools not only provided professional training, but developed the doctrine and training literature of the several branches.