Thread by @usacac

THE INTERWAR YEARS (Part 2)

The first time the @USArmy General Staff devised a plan for assembling or mobilizing the Army during peacetime was in 1923.

This plan called for 6 field armies with an initial total of 400,000 men on the first day of mobilization (M-Day). And this would increase in the first 4 months to 1.3-million men, and then steadily increase every month thereafter.

For comparison, in December of 2019 the US Army included 475,595 Regular Army personnel, and 1,246,059 TOTAL – across Regular Army, Reserve, and National Guard. @USArmy @USArmyReserve @USNationalGuard

This 1923 plan acknowledged that there would be a need to synchronize the increase in manpower with the availability of equipment and the rate at which we could produce more equipment.

What the 1923 plan did not account for were the resources needed in order to produce that equipment, and thus the resources needed in order to mobilize the Army. There also were no contingency plans this time around.

Part of the problem was that the mobilization plan was based on antiquated concepts that had been used in planning during WWI.

The M-Day concept had been used in mobilizing the European armies in 1914. When armies would begin mobilization on their designated M-Days, this would trigger a complex series of events and processes that could not easily be reversed and required adherence to strict timelines.

When certain European armies began mobilizing, this would spark similar processes in their adversaries' armies, which were also rigidly scheduled and virtually irreversible, making hostilities inevitable.

This approach to planning for mobilization proved to be very unhelpful. The Army needs flexibility in plans and the ability to adapt or adjust as needed. It's also not just about the Army. Waiting for a war to begin before mobilizing was not going to cut it.

But this preoccupation with M-Day during the Interwar period kept American military planners blind to the possibility that the next war might require mobilizing in advance.

By the 1930s, the US Army was finally making a dent in the WWI surplus stockpiles, so new procurement, especially of modern weaponry and equipment, would be vital.

The Depression hindered government procurement, but this was followed by a period of appropriations that allowed for expanded procurement planning. We also saw the Army take advantage of “educational orders”.

Educational orders were small orders placed with manufacturers that allowed them resources to convert their facilities so they could produce military equipment, supplies, or other items.

Among other things, this allowed the government an opportunity to see how realistic industrial mobilization plans might be if the need ever arose.

From a 1920s perspective, industrial mobilization was focused on minimizing the burden of wartime procurement, but this perspective was based off the assumption that materials and supplies would be ready when needed to produce the necessary equipment.

The industrial mobilization plans of 1930-1939 acknowledged that the old assumptions were not valid – supplies would not just be ready.

In 1939, the industrial mobilization plan no longer included the same M-Day concept. The plan specified that a War Resources Administration (formerly the War Industrial Administration) would be established as early as possible once an emergency was on the horizon.

The War Resources Administration would be responsible for finance, trade, labor, and price control organizations. The Selective Service and the Public Relations components would be autonomous.

The ability to begin this industrial mobilization in anticipation of war, rather than having to wait for a war to breakout, meant that the US could potentially begin preparing at the first sign of serious danger.

These changes indicate awareness of the intensifying situation abroad in 1939, and an appreciation for the amount of time required to prepare for and produce sophisticated modern equipment, weaponry, supplies, and trained soldiers.

On Tuesday we'll have a look at the state of the @USArmy in 1939.

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