AGF Study, NO. 7: Provision of Enlisted Replacements

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ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES, JANUARY-MARCH 1943

On 9 November 1942 the Army Ground Forces, noting that units functioning as pools could not train as units, again urged the establishment of zone-of-interior overseas replacement depots.²⁰ It was still believed by the Army Ground Forces that they should be operated by the Services of Supply.²¹ Two were established in January 1943, one at Shenango, Pennsylvania, another at Pittsburgh, California, for the holding and processing of overseas replacements in all arms and services except personnel of the Air Forces.²² In March the 76th and 78th Divisions reverted to normal training.²³ The handling of overseas replacements seemed to be, but was not, settled.

It was decided at this time to decentralize assignment procedures to the three major commands, effective 1 March 1943.²⁴ Henceforth the War Department allotted inductees in bulk to the Army Ground Forces, specifying only how many should go to replacement centers. The Army Ground Forces notified The Adjutant General to which units

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or particular replacement centers inductees should be assigned within its over-all quota. In practice this constituted no great innovation. The main innovation was that the headquarters of the Army Ground Forces now assigned graduates of its replacement centers and schools. AGF units henceforth requisitioned on the headquarters of the Army Ground Forces for personnel from all sources. To implement these new procedures a Classification and Replacement Division was set up in the office of the Adjutant General of the Army Ground Forces. While all higher control remained with the War Department, the headquarters of the Army Ground Forces was now in a position to gather statistics, codify its needs, plan the distribution of its personnel resources, anticipate difficulties or crises, and recommend action to the War Department. The Classification and Replacement Division became one of the most active and important elements of the headquarters, especially as the main work of the Army Ground Forces, with the progress of the war, shifted from the mobilization and training of new units to the maintenance of its own units at authorized strength, the economizing of manpower by accurate classification and assignment, and the provision of replacements to units in combat.

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