AGF Study, NO. 6: The Procurement and Branch Distribution of Officers

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REORIENTATION OF OFFICER PRODUCTION TOWARD REDEPLOYMENT AND THE PACIFIC WAR

The arrangement put into effect in November 1944, by which Army Ground Forces supplied 700 officer candidates per month, The Adjutant General providing the remainder, continued during early 1945. Overseas theaters, finally convinced that ZI resources for officer production were limited, began to fill larger proportions of their own requirements.¹⁷³ Overseas shipments of officer replacements, after rising to almost unprecedented heights in January and February, owing largely to losses in the Battle of the Bulge, receded in March to lower levels than had prevailed in 1944 (see Table VI). Production of officers in the European Theater was facilitated by the establishment of an officer candidate school near Paris, for which Army Ground Forces provided a cadre of instructors from the Infantry School at Ft. Benning.¹⁷⁴ In February 1945 appointment of officers overseas rose to 994, the largest for any month since August 1943 (see Table X).

By March 1945 it seemed feasible to consider putting the provision of officer replacements by the Army Ground Forces on a standard basis.¹⁷⁵ March had previously been agreed on between the War Department and the theaters as the first month in which supply of officers from the United States would be reduced to a flat monthly rate, the remainder to be provided within the theaters. The replacement crisis following the Battle of the Bulge had delayed starting the system in March as planned. Representatives of G-1 War Department and Army Ground Forces now worked out a "Standard Monthly Call" for replacements to be supplied after 20 April:

Infantry	1,000
Armor	200
Antiaircraft	50
Cavalry (Mechanized)	80
Field Artillery	2200
Tank Destroyer	30
	1,560

To furnish this monthly call from April through September it was estimated by Army Ground Forces that some readjustments of officer strength would be required. In particular shortage of cavalry (75), tank destroyer (53), and armored officers (426) was in prospect, and an excess of field artillery (493) and antiaircraft (265). After

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September, when all possible conversions would have been made, it was estimated that monthly calls could not exceed anticipated school output:

Infantry	560
Field Artillery	70
Armor	35
Tank Destroyer	10
Cavalry	25
Antiaircraft	0
Harbor Defense	0
	700

On the basis of these calculations, steps were taken immediately to convert surplus field artillery and antiaircraft officers to armor, cavalry, and tank destroyer, Special Basis Courses being established at the schools of these arms for the purpose.¹⁷⁶ In all, during 1945, conversion courses in the service schools retrained over 3,000 officers of other arms:¹⁷⁷

Infantry	2,287
Armored	431
Field Artillery	341
Cavalry	77
	3,136

The projected standardization of monthly calls for overseas officer replacements was interrupted by the end of the war in Europe. V-E Day found AGF officer candidate schools operating considerably below planned capacity: although 2,000 candidates were scheduled to enter Infantry Officer Candidate School each month, actual enrollment during the first four months of 1945 had been only 1,400 a month, of whom experience had shown only about 1,000 would be commissioned. Two requirements made it essential to operate the Infantry Officer Candidate School at full capacity: a backlog of replacements had to be build up for the Pacific War, now expected to enter a more intense phase, and a reserve of officers was needed to replace officers discharged during redeployment. On 9 May Army Ground Forces requested the War Department to return 600 candidates per month from inactive theaters -- a category in which ETO and MTO now fell -- beginning in June, to bring Infantry Officer Candidate School enrollments up to the authorized 2,000 a month.¹⁷⁸ Although the War Department replied that officer candidates would be returned as rapidly as possible, no candidates from inactive theaters had been received or even reported available by early July.¹⁷⁹ Officer candidate schools in ETO and MTO had been discontinued and the authority of commanders of those theaters to make unlimited officer appointments had been revoked.¹⁸⁰ Army Ground Forces returned to the War Department on 8 July with another plea for expeditious processing and return of candidates from inactive theaters.¹⁸¹ At the same time, subordinate commanders in the Ground Forces to whom redeployed units were to be assigned were directed to process OCS applications from the moment units arrived from overseas until 30 days prior to their readiness dates for shipment to the Pacific.¹⁸² It was not anticipated that many candidates would be procured from redeployed units: they were to be in the United States for only a very short time and commanders faced with early combat against the Japanese were not expected to part willingly with good men, especially in view of losses they would have suffered under the point system.

A full-dress reappraisal of the officer procurement problem was sent to the War Department on 23 July 1945.¹⁸³ It surveyed resources and requirements for redeployment and the War in the Pacific to 31 December 1946. In the absence of definite instructions from the War Department, Army Ground Forces planned to discharge 9,307 officers, to convert 6,705 officers of other arms to infantry (a few going to harbor defense), and to increase monthly enrollment in Infantry Officer Candidate School to 2,940, a 50

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percent increase over the current input. No change was proposed in the capacities of the field artillery or the combined armored-cavalry-tank destroyer officer candidate schools. To implement this plan, Army Ground Forces, on 2 August, submitted to the War Department a proposal for procuring the new monthly candidate requirement.¹⁸⁴ The experience of the preceding four months had shown shortages in available candidates, noted in May, to be persistent:

	Infantry	Field Artillery	Cavalry	Armored	TD
Capacity Recommended 28 July	2,940	200	114	100	36
Average Input, last 4 months	1,098	162	51	105	37
Shortage	1,842	38	63	--	--

Army Ground Forces recommended that 2,000 candidates be returned to the United States each month from inactive theaters -- 1,875 infantry, 50 field artillery, and 75 cavalry. The increments for August and September, it proposed, should be returned by air, displacing high score personnel scheduled to be returned for demobilization.

The war with Japan ended only a few days after these proposals were submitted, throwing them into the discard. Officer requirements being immediately reduced, OCS capacities were cut to low levels pending determination of the size of the post-war army.¹⁸⁶

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