Corps area

Corps area

A Corps area was a geographically-based organizational structure (area command) of the United States Army used to accomplish domestic administrative, training and tactical tasks from 1920 to 1942. Each corps area included divisions of the Regular Army, Organized Reserve and National Guard of the United States. Developed as a result of serious mobilization problems during World War I, this organizational scheme provided a framework to rapidly expand the Army in time of war or national emergency such as the Great Depression.

The nine corps areas, created by the War Plans Division under authority of War Department General Order No. 50 on 20 August 1920, had identical responsibilities for providing peacetime administrative and logistical support to the army’s mobile units as those provided by the territorial "Departments" they replaced. In addition, the corps areas took on the responsibilities for post and installation support units ("Zone of the Interior" units) created during World War I. Corps areas had the added responsibility for planning and implementing mobilization plans for all Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserve mobile units in their respective geographic areas; the development and administration of hundreds of new Organized Reserve and Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) units; and managing the personnel records for thousands of Reserve officers, enlisted personnel, ROTC cadets, and Citizens Military Training Camp (CMTC) candidates.

The composition of the corps areas divided the United States geographically by state lines and population density into nine multi-state area commands roughly equal in population. Each corps areas was responsible for organizing two tactical corps consisting of three infantry divisions each. Each corps area also had responsibility for organizing various other field army, General Headquarters Reserve, Zone of the Interior (later designated as Corps Area Service Command), and Communications Zone units. The First, Second, Third, Fourth, Eighth, and Ninth Corps Areas also organized units to man various fixed coastal defenses. The corps areas were further grouped into three army areas of two field armies each.

Contents

Early army administrative units

For the century preceding 1920 the U.S. Army was geographically divided into series of "departments" and smaller areas named "divisions." Departments and divisions were numbered or named for their geographic location. Before the War of 1812 these administrative units were geographically named starting with the Department of the East and Department of the West. After that war, the areas were numbered until after the Civil War. After the Civil War, the system used until after World War I was again geographically identified; i.e. Department of the East or Department of the Missouri and subordinate units were called divisions or districts.

The National Defense Act of 1920 and the establishment of corps area-level organizations

Authorized by the National Defense Act of 1920, which amended the National Defense Act of 1916, nine multi-state sized "corps areas" were established on 20 August 1920 by the U.S. Army Chief of Staff through War Department General Order Number 50. The corps areas were formed for administration, training, and tactical control of the army, replacing the six geographical (or territorial) military departments into which the continental United States had been divided since 1917 and with little variation since the Civil War. Three overseas commands: the Hawaiian Department, Panama Canal Department, and the Philippine Department continued to be identified as departments.[1]

Corps area commanding generals meet with the Chief of Staff and Secretary of War in Washington, D.C., 1 Dec. 1939.

The 1920 act was a realization that the mobilization of a citizen army could no longer meet the defense needs of the United States and for the first time placed an emphasis on peacetime preparedness. Yet with its passage, Congress never fully funded the program. Congress recognized the value of a professional officer education program by enhancing existing general service schools such as the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. The act authorized the establishing new schools to meet modern military educational needs, such as the Army Industrial College in 1924. Thirty-one additional special service schools were established or improved to provide training to the various branches of the Army.

The act established the division as a basic Army unit, replacing the pre-World War I notion of the regiment in war planning. Tactically and administratively, each corps area commander was the senior army officer for his geographical area, typically functioned as a commanding general of a corps or division in their area, and during times of civil unrest, labor troubles or natural disasters, provided the Army resources needed to address the emergency.

Each corps area was allocated two "type" corps (with a standard table of organization) and six infantry divisions. The corps were numbered in accord with their corps area designation, i.e. I and XI Corps in the First Corps Area. The lower numbered corps (I through IX) consisted of one Regular Army and two National Guard divisions among the various states of the corps area. The higher numbered corps (XI through XIX) each consisted of three divisions of the newly established (but rarely funded) Organized Reserve, also assigned by states. By 1925, in the face of steady Coolidge Administration and Congressional budget cutting, the United States Army only had three active regular divisions nationwide; the remainder of its divisions, both regular and reserve components, were only organized on paper.

The amended National Defense Act also grouped three corps areas into an "army level" mobilization organization whose boundaries were also identical for the two "type" armies located within them. For example, First, Second, and Third Corps Areas, and the First and Fourth (Field) Armies, comprised the First "Army Area". The 1921 mobilization planning that created the six field army headquarters did not envision a need for active field army-level commands in peacetime and thus the headquarters were constituted in the Organized Reserve rather than the Regular Army.

Until fully activated with its own headquarters staff, an army area was typically staffed, headquartered and commanded by the most senior corps commander in that area. Between 1927 and 1933 all six field army headquarters were demobilized as the Army wrestled with structure, mobilization, and manpower issues.

Corps area and army area organizations, 1921-1932

An army area included three corps areas, and in the early years was concurrently staffed and headquartered with one of the corps areas. For example, First Army Area headquarters staff was also the Second Corps Area headquarters staff based at Fort Jay at Governors Island in New York, New York.

First Army Area included:

  • First Corps Area replaced the Northeastern Department and was headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, encompassing Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut.
  • Second Corps Area replaced the Eastern Department, headquartered at Fort Jay on Governors Island in New York City and encompassed New York, New Jersey, Delaware and at various times, Puerto Rico.
  • Third Corps Area headquartered at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland and included Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Columbia and Virginia. From 1921 to 1927, Washington, D.C. was withdrawn from III Corps Area and established as the District of Washington.

Second Army Area included:

  • Fourth Corps Area, headquartered at Fort McPherson in Atlanta Georgia, replaced the Southeastern Department based in Charleston, South Carolina and encompassed the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
  • Sixth Corps Area was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, then Fort Sheridan, Illinois and covered the states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois.

Third Army Area included:

  • Seventh Corps Area was headquartered at Fort Crook in Omaha, Nebraska and included Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska.
  • Eighth Corps Area, variously headquartered in Dallas and Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio Texas, replaced the Southern Department and included Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.
  • Ninth Corps Area, headquartered at the Presidio of San Francisco, California, replaced the Western Department and included Alaska, Idaho, Montana, California, Wyoming, Washington, Utah, Nevada and Oregon.[2]

The Civilian Conservation Corps were organized roughly along army corps area boundaries since most of the logistical administration and support (food, housing, uniforms, transportation) for this 1930s Great Depression-era emergency work program was provided by the U.S. Army. The corps areas provided Regular Army officers to oversee these tasks. In time, they were replaced by officers of the Army Reserve, freeing Regular Army officers to return to their assigned duties and providing practical experience to the Reserve officers. [3]

The end of the "corps area" concept

General Douglas MacArthur, the Army’s Chief of Staff, believed that the 1921 mobilization plan was based on unsound assumptions and that the Army required active field army headquarters before the start of any mobilization to manage the integration and training of subordinate units as they mobilized. He also concluded that the existing three army area/six army arrangement was too ponderous to field a force that might be needed in a hurry and that existing mobilization plans were not flexible enough to tailor to various war plans then in existence. After a War Department study, MacArthur on 9 August 1932 constituted three new army headquarters in the Regular Army (the headquarters of the First United States Army was already constituted) and outlined the organization of what became known as the "four army" plan, which effectively abolished the three army area/six army system.

On 3 October 1940, the War Department transferred tactical command functions to General Headquarters, U.S. Army, separating the field armies from the corps areas. Corps areas were then limited to their Zone of the Interior functions as corps area service commands and the field armies assumed control of all tactical units.

In 1942, after the start of World War II and by executive order, the army level organizations took to training or the field as home defense and combat commands under the control of Army Ground Forces. In March 1942, home defense and training activities were assigned to the newly formed Eastern, Central, Southern, and Western Defense Commands, which overlaid the existing Corps Areas. The geographical corps areas were redesigned as numbered service commands under Services of Supply, renamed in 1943 as Army Service Forces to serve the Army's supply system, and perform administration, and "housekeeping" functions within the United States in support of the war effort such as the issuance of Army serial numbers and the operation of induction centers and domestic army posts. By this time, the corps area boundaries and departments experienced some minor readjustments:

  • Eastern Defense Command (co-headquartered with First Army until October 1943)
    • 1st Corps Area – ME, VT, NH, MA, CT, RI
    • 2nd Corps Area – NY, NJ, DE
    • 3rd Corps Area – PA, MD, VA, DC
    • 4th Corps Area – NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, TN
  • Central Defense Command (co-headquartered with Second Army)
    • 5th Corps Area – OH, IN, KY, WV
    • 6th Corps Area – IL, MI, WI
    • 7th Corps Area – MO, KS, NB, CO, IA, MN, ND, SD, WY
  • Southern Defense Command (co-headquartered with Third Army until December 1943)
    • 8th Corps Area – AR, LA, TX, OK, NM
  • Western Defense Command (co-headquartered with Fourth Army)
    • 9th Corps Area – WA, OR, CA, ID, MT, NV, UT, AK
  • Hawaiian Department
  • Panama Canal Department
  • Philippine Department
  • Puerto Rican Department

Post-war organization

On 11 June 1946, service commands areas and Army Service Forces were abolished as the result of a long planned, post-war reorganization and downsizing. The nine service commands were replaced by six field army level organizations. These six Army Areas, though similar in name, operated on a functional rather than geographic basis but roughly followed along the old corps areas boundaries.

  • First Army Area, headquartered at Fort Jay, New York, New York included ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NJ, NY and DE.
  • Second Army Area, headquartered at Baltimore, Maryland included PA, MD, VA, WV, OH, IN and KY.
  • Third Army Area, headquartered at Fort McPherson in Atlanta Georgia included NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, TN and MS
  • Fifth Army Area, headquartered at Chicago, Illinois included IL, MI, WI, MN, IA, MO, KS, NE, ND, SD, WY and CO.

The Seventh United States Army and Eighth United States Army were outside the continental United States as they remain today, but under different names.

This organizational scheme served until the Army reorganization of 1973.

See also

References

  1. ^ The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac, Brooklyn, New York: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1921, pp. 295, OCLC 1586159 
  2. ^ Matchette, Robert; et al. (1995), Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration 
  3. ^ Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy, http://www.ccclegacy.org/camp%20lists.htm#Corps%20Areas [dead link]
  4. ^ Shalett, Sidney (14 May 1946), "Army is Revamped in Economy Drive", New York Times, http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10D17FA3D5C107A93C6A8178ED85F428485F9 

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • corps area — noun : a territorial division of the United States for purposes of administration and training of the army * * * corps area, one of the nine areas into which the United States was formerly divided for purposes of military administration, now… …   Useful english dictionary

  • corps area — /ˈkɔr ɛəriə/ (say kawr airreeuh) noun the geographical area within which a corps commander exercises military responsibility …  

  • Corps — This article is about a military unit. For alternative meanings, see Corps (disambiguation). v …   Wikipedia

  • Corps of Guides (Canada) — Corps of Guides Active Disbanded/Decommissioned/Inactive Country Canada Type Corps Role (Canadian Army) Permanent Active Militia Motto …   Wikipedia

  • area — ⇒AREA, subst. fém. A. ARCHIT. [Dans les monastères de l Église d Orient] Surface libre entourant l église et que délimite le cloître : • 1. Le cloître des monastères de l Orient est l enceinte qui enveloppe l area ou surface libre, dont l église… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • CORPS - Les usages sociaux du corps — Parler d’usages sociaux du corps c’est poser l’existence d’une correspondance globale entre, d’une part, l’utilisation que les individus font de leur corps, la relation qu’ils entretiennent avec le corps propre et même certaines de leurs… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Corps of the Port Captaincies — Coast Guard Racing stripe of the Italian Coast Guard Active 1865 Present …   Wikipedia

  • Area code 949 — is an area code in California that is contained mostly within the southern areas of Orange County. It also includes a small adjacent area of northwest San Diego County, specifically parts of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and San Onofre State… …   Wikipedia

  • Corps des Capitaineries de port - Garde côtière — Corpo delle capitanerie di porto Guardia Costiera Période 1865 – Aujourd hui Pays …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Corps des capitaineries de port - Garde côtière — Corpo delle capitanerie di porto Guardia Costiera Période 1865 – Aujourd hui Pays …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”