Back to Bataan! U.S. Forces in the Far East, 1941-1942 (Part 3)

 In my last post, I looked at the higher echelons of  the American-Philippine ground forces prior to the outbreak of war in December 1941. In this part, I am going to look at the small unit organization of the troops in question. To do that properly, however, will require some speculation. Since 1940, the U.S. and Philippine Commonwealth had been more or less preparing for a conflict they hoped to avoid, but expected nonetheless. The Philippine Archipelago is primarily agricultural. Unlike the oil and metal rich Dutch and British colonies/possessions to the south, it was seen by the Japanese as primarily a block to the United States and its inevitable retaliation after December 7.

For the American armed forces, mobilizing since late 1940, the results of a parsimonious Congress in terms of military outlays after the Great Depression of the thirties was uneven. Industry was just gearing up and while the institution of a peacetime draft/conscription was producing numbers, the equipment and training had a ways to go.  Almost all were leftovers from World War 1. The Army, my primary focus, was undergoing significant changes.

In 1938, the American Arsenal in Springfield, Massachusetts, had developed and started producing the iconic M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle. As units were equipped, organization of low-level units were experimenting with adaptations to this new technology. It was now thought by military writers and commanders that the old Great War organization of the platoons and squads would need to be rethought. With such new levels of individual firepower, perhaps the venerable M1918 BAR automatic rifle could be eliminated. This led to the first of several re-organizations. The one below made official in October, 1940 (T/O 7-17). 

As stated in Part 1 of this series, these organizations will be modeled for Chain of Command v.2 by Too Fat Lardies. 

Under this organization the rifle platoon was organized as follows. This is the "wartime" organization. The "peace" establishment was considerably smaller.

Rifle Platoon:

    Headquarters

1 Platoon Leader, rifle, Senior Leader

1 Platoon Sergeant, rifle/SMG, Senior Leader

1 Platoon Guide, rifle, Superior Junior Leader

5-7 Basics (messengers, replacements), all rifle armed

    Rifle Squad (3 per platoon)

1 Squad Leader, rifle, Junior Leader

1 Assistant Squad Leader, armed with an M1903 Springfield for rifle grenades.

6-10 Riflemen, rifles 

    Automatic Rifle (AR) Squad

1 Squad Leader, rifle, Junior Leader

2 BAR gunners, pistol

2 Loaders, rifle

2 Ammo Bearers, rifle

Now, here's the speculation. The Army had both a peacetime organization and a wartime organization. In the first, the platoon headquarters was stripped of its 5-7 basics, and these were replaced by 2 messengers. The Platoon Guide, by the way, was primarily responsible for the platoon logistics. The role was later dropped. 

In peacetime, the squads were led by corporals (CPL) and had 7 riflemen. The AR squad was also led by a CPL did not change, although a third BAR could be made available in "defensive" situations.

The wartime models had squads led by Sergeants (SGT) with the CPL becoming the Assistant Squad Leader. Ten riflemen completed the squad. 

A legitimate question then would be how were the US Regulars (31st Regt.), and Philippine Scouts (1-43rd, 45th, and 57th Regts.) organized under the peace time model or war model? That's a question I can't answer, but I suspect the peacetime model. I would note, that several sources have confirmed that these units were all issued the M1 in lieu of the M1903 Springfield or M1917 Enfield. I'll include a more comprehensive list of sources at the end of this series. 

That's it for now. Next time, I'll look at the 26th Cavalry (PS). I will also take a look at the Commonwealth Forces, the Philippine Army (PA), both regulars and reserves.