Memorandum for the Chief of Staff from Brigadier General Joseph Kuhn - February 20, 1917
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War College Division 9433-7 War Department Office of the Chief of Staff Washington WCD PDL AM J McA P TR February 20, 1917. Memorandum for the Chief of Staff: Subject: A plan for an expansible army of 500,000 men based upon universal liability to military service, localization of organization and decentralization of administration. 1. The following instructions have been received from the Chief of Staff:
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[Page 2] spared from their regular units should be assigned to duty with the new national army of 500,000 men. The resulting shortage of officers with regular organizations should be made up by the appointment of competent noncommissioned officers as temporary officers. 5. It is recommended that no new increments be added to the National Guard if this plan is adopted. Existing organizations of the National Guard will find employment in local defense and as an emergency reserve force. As many qualified officers and noncommissioned officers of the National Guard as can be spared from their present organizations should be received as officers and noncommissioned officers in the national army. If the ranks of the national army are filled by young men liable to military service, the existing organizations of the Regular Army and the National Guard will furnish a place for older citizens who desire to volunteer in advance of a call to service. 6. It is proposed to provide the senior officers of the national army by temporary appointments of regular officers with National Army rank, and it is proposed to increase the number of assignable regular officers by promoting competent noncommissioned officers to the temporary grade of second lieutenant. On December 22, 1916, the numbers of officers of cavalry, field artillery, coast artillery and infantry in the United States were as follows: Cavalry....624. Field Artillery...200. Coast Artillery...572. Infantry...1003. Total...2399. Assuming that sixty noncommissioned officers suitable for appointment as temporary second lieutenants can be found in each regiment or regimental equivalent at home, we have: Cavalry...820. Field Artillery...360.,. Coast Artillery...720. Infantry...1500 Total...3400. This would give a total of 5799 officers and temporary officers in these arms of the regular establishment. After leaving the proper quota for regular organizations, this would give 3001 officers assignable to the national army. FI the force of approximately 500,000 should be formed into sixteen divisions with enough auxiliary units to form six army corps and enough additional coast artillery personnel to complete our manning requirements, we would have about 266 regiments and regimental equivalents in the four arms concerned. To each of these regiments we would be able to assign ten officers of regular army training after providing for temporary general officers and division and corps staff officers and without drawing upon the detached offficers
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[Page 3] 9. The vacancies remaining in the organizations of the national army after assigning appointees from the Regular Army, should be filled by the appointment of suitable members of the Officers; Reserve Corps, the National Guard and the Organized Militia and other citizens who have had military training and experience. The method of appointment and assignments of temporary officers from all sources is given in the accompanying draft of legislation. Regulations should provide a prompt and decentralized means of determining the qualifications of all candidates other than from Regular Army sources, such as indicated in paragraph 15 below. 10. It is proposed to provide the men for the national army by calling out all young men who have or will become twenty-one years of age in 1917. After rejections for physical disability and exemptions, this will result in from 400,000 to 600,000 recruits. If the resulting number is less than required there will be another call for men from the next class. If the resulting number is more than required the surplus will be enrolled and furloughed subject to the next call. The machinery for enrollment provided in the proposed draft of legislation will apply to any future expansion of the force that may be required. 11. In organizing the proposed national army, it is recommended that the territory of the United States be divided into divisional areas, one for each division to be organized. Within each divisional area, a division of the field army should be formed with a portion of the auxiliaries required for forming higher units. In divisional areas on the seaboard the additional personnel required for the coast defenses also should be formed. The accompanying draft of legislation does not specify the number of such areas to be formed, but a mobile force of 500,000 men would comprise sixteen divisions with the additional auxiliaries required to form six army corps. 12. Each divisional area should be placed under the command of a division commander. This officer should be given his proper share of the available trained personnel and should be given full powers to organize and train the forces to be drawn from his divisional area. This provides a decentralized system of administration for the initial force of 500,000 men. It is also provides an organized machinery adapted to meet the requirements of future expansion. 13. The first step in any territorial plan of military organization is to divide the country into areas of substantially equal population. As time is not available for making a new system of subdivision based upon purely military requirements, it is believed that the present emergency plan might be based on the existing and well defined subdivision of our territory into Congressional districts. Counting two districts each for Idaho and Montana there are now 425 of these districts and a quota of 1200 men from each district will give a total of 510,000 or substantially the number required for the mobile force. If we form and Infantry battalion in each of 418 of these districts and 2 Infantry battalions in each of the remaining 7 districts, we will have 432 infantry battalions or the number required for 16 divisions. After provided the additional infantry personnel required for regimental headquarters this will leave 242,640 men, more or less, uniformly distributed over the county and available for assignment to the Coast Artillery and to such auxiliary units as will be required in completing the organization of divisions and higher units. Under this arrangement, each three battalion districts might then form a regimental district, each group of nine might form a brigade district and each group of twenty-seven battalion districts might form a divisional area. Within each divisional area, the division commander should then form the necessary divisional and corps
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[Page 4] auxiliaries form those recruits in each battalion district which are in excess of the number required for the Infantry. In coastwise divisional areas he should also transfer the required number of recruits to coast defense commands. 14. As a matter of fact, the distribution of military population will not be uniform in Congressional districts. There has been an increase of population since 1910 with different rates of increase in different districts. Nor is the ratio between military population and total population the same in all parts of the country. Due to these conditions the number of available recruits will be different in different Congressional districts, and all that can be said definitely is that in a call for 510,000 men the average per Congressional district will be 1200. But there is no time to wait for complete registration and enrollment before establishing the systems of territorial organization. In the proposed plan actual conditions will be met in a practical manner by authorizing the division commander to combine the levies from the several districts as he actually finds them. Undue variations in the military population of divisional areas can be met by authorizing the President to modify the boundaries of such areas when necessary. The Congressional district is, therefore, suggested solely as a convenient unit for initial enrollment and organization on a territorial basis. This organization should go to the extent of including initial arrangements or subsistence, shelter and enough military training to lay the foundation of discipline. After the levies are enrolled it is assumed that the division commander will distribute them according to arms and organizations and will assemble the newly formed units at suitable places for training, with due regard to special requirements of the several arms. 15. Assuming that the force of 500,000 is to be organized into sixteen divisions, the successive steps of organization should be something as follows: (a) the country is divided into sixteen divisional areas and a division commander and division staff are assigned to each area. Arrangements for enrollment of the first class called into service are made, but the military organization is advanced irrespective of the enrollment, with the view of providing for the shelter and subsistence of recruits immediately upon enrollment and for their orderly assignment to organizations and training centers as soon thereafter as practicable. (b) The division commander is given general instructions to organize an infantry division in his area with certain specified auxiliaries, and in areas on the seaboard a certain number of coast artillery troops. (c) The War Department immediately assigns to each division enough Regular Army officers to provide all of the general officers and field officers for the tactical units to be formed in the divisional area. In addition to these officers having the temporary rank of major or higher, the War Department also assigns as many other officers as can be spared. These officers are given temporary grades below that major. (d) Regular officers assigned to the national army are assigned so far as practicable to units of their own arm of the service, but where any arm of the Regular Army is unable to spare enough officers to meet the requirements of the same arm in the national army, the deficiency is to be made up by the appointment of suitable officers from other arms of the Regular Army. This arrangement will be absolutely essential in the field artillery as it will be necessary to form 66 regiments in that area. As the cavalry and coast artillery will have between them about 800 officers and temporarily commissioned in the field artillery must come from these two arms. In order to give the field artillery ten officers for each new regiments in the national army,
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[Page 5] about 364 officers must be appointed from other arms. (e) The division commander immediately assigns brigade commanders to their proper brigades, colonels and lieutenants colonels to their proper regiments and majors and junior officers to their proper battalions. The senior officer assigned to each Congressional district becomes the agent for the initial enrollment and organization. In this initial stage the division commander assigns all available junior officers and noncommissioned officers of all arms to duty in the battalion districts. They will be withdrawn from this duty as soon as the formation of auxiliary units begins, and by that time they will be replaced in the infantry battalion districts by newly appointed infantry officers of the national army. (f) Reserve officers appointed under existing law should be assigned to staff duty as reserve officers or appointed in the national army and assigned by the War Department to division commanders who should assign them to tactical units or to appropriate staff duties. Those serving with the national army should receive national army commissions. (g) Officers of the National Guard or Organized Militia or other citizens who have had military education or experience should apply through the commander of the infantry battalion district in which they reside for appointment as officers in the national army. Such applications to be made on forms prescribed by the Secretary of War and accompanied by such references and affidavits as he may prescribe, will be retained by the district commander for the action of boards of officers which will visit the several districts under orders of the division commander. These boards detailed from the field officers of the division not on duty as battalion district commanders and other available officers will examine such applicants orally and will forward their applications to the division commander with their recommendations as to the arm and review grade below that of major in which each such qualified applicant should be appointed. Based upon these recommendations the division commander will furnish the War Department with lists of applicants found suitable for appointment as temporary officers in the grades of second lieutenant, first lieutenant and captain, with a statement of the vacancies existing in such grades in the units authorized for his division. These lists, with the names of qualified applicants, will be submitted to the President for his consideration. Upon the appointment of officers to fill vacancies existing in a division, they will be assigned by the War Department to the division. The divisional commander will assign them to regiments and separate auxiliary organizations. Regimental commanders will assign them to battalions and companies. After providing the officers needed for temporary duty in the Congressional districts, there will be enough officers left in each divisional area to form examining boards composed of officers of all arms. This will make it possible to make intelligent recommendations based upon special qualifications of the candidates for the several areas. (h) As recruits are enrolled the officers on duty in the several Congressional districts will form them into provisional companies and will make temporary arrangements for their shelter and subsistence. Each Congressional district will thus furnish the recruits for a battalion of infantry with a variable number of surplus recruits who will ultimately be assigned to unite of the other areas. All of these recruits in due time will be assigned to their proper units which will be assembled in suitable camps of instruction, but pending the location and proper equipment of such camps the recruits will be retained in provisional organizations within their respective Congressional districts. Until suitable tentage or other shelter is available, they will be sheltered in public or hired buildings and they will be subsisted by contract until cooking arrangements can be organized. During this period of organization, the school of the soldier and other disciplinary instruction can be begun and men having special
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[Page 6] aptitudes for the several arms can be segregated and told off for immediate assignment when their proper organizations are prepared to receive them. The time taken to make an initial classification of recruits in this way will be well spent and will result in more rapid training later. Men who are accustomed to animals in civil life will be especially adapted for service in the cavalry, the field artillery and the trains. Men who are accustomed to work with industrial machines already have some technical foundation for work with military mechanisms. IF we are to form a large army in a limited time we must make the fullest use of the previous training of our recruits. during this period of provisional organization, officers designated as future commanders of auxiliary unites will be able to concentrate on problems of future supply, equipment and training and will not be concerned with the difficulties of enrolling and assembling their scattered personnel. They will know that when arrangements are made to receive them their recruits will come to them immediately in the proper number and with some initial disciplinary training. 16. The following table shows the organizations, exclusive of ammunition and supply trains, required in a mobile force of sixteen divisions, with the auxiliaries required to form four army corps of three divisions each and two army corps of two divisions each: Regiments of Infantry 144. Regiments of Cavalry 32. Regiments of Light Artillery 48. Regiments of Heavy Artillery 16. Regiments of Horse Artillery 2. Regiments of Engineers 16. Mounted Battalions of Engineers 2. Field Signal battalions 16. Field Signal Battalions, Mounted 2. Aero Squadrons 26. Balloon Companies 8. Ambulance Companies 80. Field Hospitals 80. Field Bakeries 22. 17. Coast Artillery Troops. It is estimated that the full manning requirements for existing fortifications, exclusive of antiaircraft batteries, is as follows: United States, gun defense [Enlisted Men] 34,658 [Officers] 1,440 United States, wins defense [Enlisted Men] 5,772* [Officers] 211 Oversea fortifications [Enlisted Men] 6,816 [Officers] 291 Total, U.S. and oversea [Enlisted Men] 47,246 [Officers]1,942 *Includes enlisted specialists. The present authorized strength of the Coast Artillery Corps is short 400 officers and about 9,000 enlisted men of the personnel required to man the fortifications, less one-half of the gun defense at home. The policy of the War Department has contemplated that one half of the gun defense at home shall be provided from the National Guard of the seaboard States, but based on the present enrolled strength of the Coast Artillery of the National Guard, it is estimated that the available National Guard Coast Artillery will be short about 200 officers and 11,000 enlisted men of the number required under the adopted policy. In order to provide a complete manning body of the fortifications it will, therefore, be necessary to provide about 600 officers and 20,000 enlisted men in addition to the present authorized
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[Page 7] strength of the Coast Artillery Corps of the Regular Army and the available National Guard Coast Artillery personnel. The additional enlisted men will be obtained form the class called out for service in the national army. The additional officers will be obtained by temporary appointment as already described for the mobile organizations of the national army. 18. Assuming that a complete division is raised in each of sixteen divisional areas and that the necessary auxiliaries for army corps or field armies are distributed over the divisional areas, the average number of mobile troops in each divisional area would be about 31, 625 men and the total number of mobile troops raised would be about 506,000 men. With 20,000 additional Coast Artillery troops drawn from the coastwise districts we would have a total force of 526,000. 19. Provision for future expansion. The plan as outlined covers the organization of an army of substantially 500,000 men, but so far does not make any provision for replacement of losses or for future expansion. It is believed that if any army of this size should be formed, provision should be made to meet future requirements in these particulars. This can be done by calling out at the start enough additional men to form depot units. Even if it is not practicable to begin training this over-strength at once, the men should be enrolled and furloughed, subject to call as soon as their training can be undertaken. At the start it is probable that we would not have more than enough officers and noncommissioned officers to begin the training of the units provided, but in a few months it would be practicable to form the necessary depots. The territorial machinery provided for organizing the national army would require no modification in order to undertake this work. The necessary additional officers and noncommissioned officers could be selected from picked men in the original force, after a sufficient period of observation. The same machinery will also make it possible to expand the original organization in an orderly manner. For example, if we should start the organization of sixteen divisions and in a few months it should become apparent that this number must be doubled, we would already have made the utmost progress in the development and training of officers and noncommissioned officers, and the force could be doubled by splitting each unit in two and adding thereto the recruits resulting from a second call. The proposed machinery is planned to draw one division from each divisional area, but it is obvious that, given sufficient time, each area could produce as many more units as might be desired up to the limit of available military population, and that they could be organized and trained more quickly under this decentralized system than in any other way. 20. If, during the present emergency, it becomes necessary to raise a large army for temporary purposes, such an army raised on the plan proposed herein can be perpetuated for future emergencies even after disbandment, by simply providing for the training of annual contingents of recruits. After one year of service the large emergency army would furnish trained cadres for the training units of the future. We would thus make a system of emergency preparedness, the basis for permanent preparedness on a sound national basis. 21. Training. The question of training is of special importance for this force to be made up so largely of inexperienced and untrained men. The fighting required will be against tired and efficient troops, fully equipped with every modern device for waging war. It will require many months of drill, military instruction and control, to give our raw levies the necessary discipline. The methods of training must suit present conditions. The developments of the European war have resulted in great specialization. This is especially true of stationary trench warfare, which has become a
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[Page 8] sort of siege warfare, in which are used many old as well as modern devices. Training has been divided into a number of schools, of which there is a school of trench warfare, school of musketry, school of bayonet fighting, school for machine gunners, school for bombers, school for snipers, and school for signalists. Extensive instruction is given in entrenching, the building of wire entanglements, the use of gas masks, rifles, grenades and flares. A system of musketry training has been devised to develop rapidity in loading, aiming and firing in which a greater part of the practice takes place at ranges from 35 yards to 300. Therefore it would seem that a progressive course of recruit drills having plenty of disciplinary or close order work should be given the new men. They should be well grounded in all fundamentals before being instructed in specialties. The present Infantry Drill Regulations furnish a sufficient guide for the preliminary training of recruits of all arms. In the plan under consideration, it is proposed to enroll and care for recruits until the proper training camps are prepared to receive them. As soon as these arrangements have been made their instruction should be pushed as rapidly as possible. As it is extremely important that this instruction should be uniform throughout this large force, it is believed that standardized courses of instruction should be prepared for each arm, and proper bulletins and circulars prepared with the idea of furnishing all of the new members of the officer corps proper guidance for their new duties. With this object in view, it is believed that a board should be formed, composed of selected officers of all arms, and that this board should be instructed to prepare standardized courses of instruction suited to the requirements of each branch of the service. The records of the War College Division contain much data on this subject, derived from the experience in the existing war in Europe. If we had enough General Staff officers, this would be essentially General Staff work, but in view of the shortage of officers and the requirements of other duties, it is believed that qualified officers should be specially detailed for this purpose. Separate boards should not be formed for each arm; better results may be expected from a single board in which the several arms are represented. This will make it possible for sub-committees to submit plans for special courses subject to coordination by the entire board. The success of this or any other plan of emergency organization depends very largely on the original assignment of suitable officers to original vacancies in the national army. The assignment should be based so far as practicable upon definite knowledge as to qualification and aptitude. If the selections for this purpose should be deferred until an emergency arises, it is probable that we would not get the best results. For this reason, it is recommended that a board of officers constituted as prescribed from the selection of Ceneral Staff officers be appointed at once to pass on the records of all available officers of the army, and to recommend each officer for those duties in the enlarged force for which he is probably best qualified. The board should state the arms or corps in which each officer is qualified to serve and the maximum command for which he is recommended. The board should make special recommendations in the cases of those officers who are believed to be best qualified for employment in arms other than their own. Commanders of regular regiments, coast defense commanders, and commanders of separate battalions should be directed at once to from boards with the view of naming all enlisted men in their commands who are considered suitable for appointment as temporary second lieutenants, and to list them in the order of suitability. Such boards should be directed to report not later than a specified date. The boards should make special recommendations in the case of those non-commissioned officers who are believed to be qualified for appointment as temporary officers in arms other than their own.
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[Page 9] 22. Equipment. Equipment should be procured through the supply departments of the Regular Army, and the provisions of Section 120, National Defense Act, approved June 3, 1916, put into operation immediately that war seems inevitable. The heads of the respective supply departments should be authorized to place orders with individuals, firms, associations, companies, corporations, or organized manufacturing industries, without recourse to the methods that are normally required. These orders should receive precedence over those of any other country unless the joint interests of other belligerents engaged in operations against our enemies are very adversely affected thereby. If the method of purchase above noted does not give adequate results, the provision of the Act that authorized the President through the head of any department to take immediate possession of plants, should be put into affect; especially should this be done in case any plants refuses to give preference in execution of orders or to the manufacture of United States arms, ammunition, and supplies that require considerable time to furnish. The need of arms, equipment and ammunition is pressing, and the inevitable delay is so great that the Ordnance Department should immediately put into effect the above provisions if necessary to secure these supplies. The supplies required are those necessary to equip a force of about 526,000 men, exclusive of the supplies needed for the existing Regular Army and National Guard. Supplies are now on hand or have been appropriated for to the amount of $155,472,000. Since the Secretary of War has directed the various bureaus to consider the matter of supplies and equipment for a larger force than the above, it is not considered advisable to go into the question in further detail. 23. After civilian candidates for appointment as junior officers in the national army have made their applications through district commanders and pending their final appointments, it is believed that they would be of great service is assisting the regular officers assigned to such districts. It is, therefore, recommended that division commanders be authorized to accept their services voluntarily, subject to a district understanding that no obligation or liability is thereby incurred on the part of the United States or the officers concerned. A provision authorizing the acceptance of such voluntary services is included in the accompanying draft of legislation. 24. As soon as the organization under the national army plan is begun, as many detached officers as practicable should be relieved from their present duties. Wherever practicable, active officers should be relieved by retired officers and, as a general rule as detached officers are relieved, they should be assigned to divisional areas where they can be best employed under the decentralized system proposed. The draft of legislation provides for the appointment of retired officers and noncommissioned officers as temporary officers in the national army. 25. It is recommended that the Postmaster General and the Attorney General be consulted relative to the increased facilities and personnel which will be required by their respective departments in order to carry out the provisions of the accompanying draft of legislation relative to registration and exemptions. These officials should also be requested to furnish estimates as bases for the appropriations required. 26. A draft of legislation to carry this plan into effect is submitted herewith. Joseph E. Kuhn, 1 encl. Brigadier General, General Staff, Chief of War College Division whg
Details
| Title | Memorandum for the Chief of Staff from Brigadier General Joseph Kuhn - February 20, 1917 |
| Creator | Kuhn, Joseph E. |
| Source | Kuhn, Joseph E. Memorandum for the Chief of Staff. 20 February 1917. Crowder, Enoch H. (1859-1932), Papers, 1884-1942. C1046. The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, MO. |
| Description | In this memorandum for the Chief of Staff, Joseph Kurn outlined his plan to create an army of 500,000 men. His plan included details for recruiting officers, and training men. This letter is part of a collection compiled by Enoch Herbert Crowder, the Edinburg, Grundy County, Missouri native who served as Judge Advocate General. Crowder devised the Selective Service Act in 1917 which drafted America's forces during World War I. |
| Subject LCSH | Crowder, E. H. (Enoch Herbert), 1859-1932; Kuhn, Joseph Ernst, 1864-1935; Military training; United States. War Department; World War, 1914-1918--Equipment and supplies; United States. Army--Physical training; United States. Army--Recruiting, enlistment, |
| Subject Local | WWI; World War I |
| Site Accession Number | C1046 |
| Contributing Institution | The State Historical Society of Missouri |
| Copy Request | Transmission or reproduction of items on these pages beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the State Historical Society of Missouri: 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, Missouri, 65201-7298. (573) 882-7083. |
| Rights | The text and images contained in this collection are intended for research and educational use only. Duplication of any of these images for commercial use without express written consent is expressly prohibited. |
| Date Original | February 20, 1917 |
| Language | English |