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To: Homer_J_Simpson
US plans 7,500,000 army in 1943

You have to stop and think about this. At the old 20,000 men per division (4 regiments) that would be 375 divisions. At the more modern change then of 3 regiments, that would be 500 divisions. A division is a complete self contained unit ready to go to war from administration to cooks.

This may have been hype for the press. The earliest planning I read was approx 250 divisions and provided a 2:1 advantage over the enemy that was need to defeat them. In reality I think we ended up with approx 100 divisions, two that never saw combat?

But there were a lot of planning scenarios at the time.

14 posted on 10/15/2012 7:38:14 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple ( (Lord, save me from some conservatives, they don't understand history any better than liberals.))
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To: PeterPrinciple
You have to stop and think about this. At the old 20,000 men per division (4 regiments) that would be 375 divisions. At the more modern change then of 3 regiments, that would be 500 divisions. A division is a complete self contained unit ready to go to war from administration to cooks.

According to the article the breakdown of the 7.5M is 2.2M for the Air Force, 3.3M ground forces, 2.0M supply and training. That last part doesn't make sense to me. I thought it took more than one rear echelon type for every actual combatant.

This may have been hype for the press.

"The Secretary of War said he was making public the figures on the Army because of the circulation of estimates ranging from 10,000,000 to 13,000,000 which did not come from the War Department. His was a conservative estimate, he added, 'and any changes will be upward.'"

15 posted on 10/15/2012 8:06:41 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson ("Every nation has the government that it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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