Accompanying Artillery

A poll from 1940

A 75mm pack howitzer in the test of the Provisional Infantry Division in 1937 (National Archives)

The questionnaire that the chief of field artillery of the US Army sent out in January of 1940 included a section on ‘accompanying artillery’. Borrowed from the French Army (which called it artillerie d’accompagnement), this concept called for the attachment of small numbers of artillery pieces (whether individual pieces, two-piece sections, or complete batteries) to infantry companies, battalions, or regiments.

Of the forty-nine officers who responded to this part of the survey …

• twenty-nine thought that the new triangular infantry divisions should set aside artillery units for this purpose

• eighteen thought that the US Army should abandon the practice of accompanying artillery

• two thought that the question should be answered by infantry officers.

Of the twenty-nine advocates of accompanying artillery …

• nine thought that all artillery units designed for this duty ought to be exclusively equipped with 75^mm pack howitzers of the towed persuasion

• six advocated the use of 75^mm pack howitzers mounted on self-propelled carriages

• two championed thoroughbred units armed with 75^mm field guns

• five proposed accompanying artillery establishments armed with two different kinds of weapons

• seven declined to offer an opinion on the subject of armament

A battery of 75^mm pack howitzers organized into three two-piece sections

Of the twenty-two officers who offered designs for accompanying artillery establishments, fifteen described the number of pieces of each type that they wanted to assign to each battery. Of these …

• five organized 75^mm howitzers into six-piece batteries, each of which was divided into three two-piece sections

• three proposed batteries composed of eight self-propelled pieces (six 75^mm howitzers and two 105^mm howitzers)

(The last-named proposal may have inspired the structure for the cannon companies of infantry regiments adopted on 1 April 1942.)

A battery of eight self-propelled howitzers (six 75^mm and two 105^mm )

Of the officers who provided designs …

• fourteen wished to attach units of accompanying artillery to infantry regiments

• one wanted to assign a single two-piece section of 75^mm howitzers to each infantry battalion

• one placed a battalion of three five-piece batteries of 75^mm field guns under the direct control of the commanding general of each infantry division

A battalion of three five-piece batteries armed with 75^mm field guns

Of the officers who wanted to provide each infantry regiment with its own accompanying artillery …

• ten wanted that unit to be organized as a battery

• two provided each infantry regiment with two batteries

• two called for the assignment of three batteries of accompanying artillery to each infantry regiment

In three of the cases in which a respondent wished to provide an infantry regiment with more than a single battery of accompanying artillery, he mentioned his desire to form those batteries into a battalion.

The prize for the most unusual proposal goes to the officer who called for the assignment of two batteries of 75^mm howitzers and one battery of 155^mm mortars to each infantry division. (Not to be confused with a 155^mm howitzer, a 155^mm mortar was an experimental weapon that fired a 63-pound projectile.)

Sources

Analysis of Questionnaire on Field Artillery Matters, unsigned, undated document found in Folder 320.2 AA-65, Box 17, Record Group 177 (Records of the Chief of Field Artillery), US National Archives.

War Department (G-3) Weapons for Jungle Warfare (typescript dated 21 June 1944) pages 85-87 (Combined Arms Research Library)

For Further Reading

Cannon Companies (1942-1945)

The US Army (1939-1945)

Mortars