CHART 2-THE WAR DEPARTMENT GENERAL STAFF, 26 AUGUST 1918 Source: Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War (1917 19), Zone of Direct liaison with the Adjutant General. Direct liaison with all supply bureaus and the War Industries Board. EXECUTIVE OFFICER GENERAL BRANCHES: 1. Administrative Control STATISTICAL BRANCHES: 1. Administrative 2. Purchase Summaries 3. Storage Summaries 4. Reports 5. Publicity Service SURPLUS STOCKS DIVISION BRANCHES: 1. Administrative 2. Interbureau Transfers 3. Domestic Surplus Sales 4. Overseas Surplus Sales 5. Planning SOURCE: Annual Report of Chief OVERSEAS DISTRIBUTION ICHES: Administrative Q. M. Subdivision a) C&E Br. b) Sub Br. c) M&V Br. d) Raw Materials Br. e) Gen. Sup. Br. Engineer Subdivision Motor Transport Subdivision Ordnance Subdivision Signal Suistivision Aircraft Subdivision Medical Subdivision Chemical Warfare Subdivision SALVAGE DIVISION ANCHES: Administrative Clothing Renovation shoe and Harness Repair Laundries Faste Materials Farms Canvas Repairs ment throughout the Army. The personnel branches of the several bureaus and other agencies were specifically abolished.95 The August reorganization also removed the Military Intelligence Branch from the Office of the Executive to the Chief of Staff and made it a directorate on a par with the other major General Staff agencies. The Quartermaster Corps was responsible for the majority of the Army's supplies and 80 percent of its depot storage space. On the principle of assigning responsibility for any particular commodity to the bureau that purchased most of the Army's requirements, the Quartermaster Corps was becoming the Army's supply service. In September the Quartermaster Corps itself was redesignated the Purchase and Storage Service. On 12 September General Wood, Acting Quartermaster General, was appointed also Director of Purchase and Storage, replacing General Johnson who on 1 September had become Assistant Director of Purchase, Storage, and Traffic, in turn replacing Robert J. Thorne who became Assistant Director of Purchase and Storage under General Wood.96 This action prepared the way for transferring all supply functions from the Quartermaster Corps and other bureaus to the new Purchase, Storage, and Traffic Service. The intent of this change, which was ordered on 18 September, was to "transfer existing supervisory controls into actual executive controls," as General Goethals had argued.97 At the end of September the actual transfer of functions and personnel began but was not completed when the war ended. The vestigial remnants of the Quartermaster Corps and its Remount and Cemeterial Services were transferred after the armistice. Indeed transfer of functions was still taking place as late as 30 June 1919. The organization of the Purchase, Storage, and Traffic Service headquarters on 1 November 1918 is outlined in Chart 3. The organization of the various formerly Quartermaster Corps zones throughout the United States was also changed to 95 War Department General Order 86, 18 Sep 18. Order of Battle (1917-19), ZI, p. 231. "Adriance, Dana, and Douglas, Draft History of the Purchase, Storage, and Traffic Division, p. 228. parallel that of the new headquarters organization in Washington.98 While the Purchase, Storage, and Traffic Service absorbed the common supply functions of the Army, the Quartermaster Corps had been divested of all its nonsupply functions, including motor transportation, traffic, embarkation, and commissioned personnel management, all referred to previously. A final function it lost along with other bureaus was finance. Before 1912 finance had been the province of the Paymaster General. For the next six years it became part of the reorganized Quartermaster Corps. The War Department on 11 October 1918 restored the independence of the Paymaster General with Brig. Gen. Herbert M. Lord as Director of Finance. As head of the Finance Department he became responsible for War Department budgets, disbursement of funds, including the pay of the Army, and internal accounting. The new agency did not, during the war or after, attempt consolidation and standardization of the many separate accounting systems in the Army.99 The Overman Act also allowed General March to create a number of new staff agencies and services. On 21 May 1918 the new Directorates of Military Aeronautics and of Aircraft Production, previously Signal Corps functions, were formed. They were eventually consolidated under a single Director of Air Service, patterned on the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), on 19 March 1919. The Chemical Warfare Service began as part of the Bureau of Mines in the Department of the Interior. In August 1917 certain Chemical Warfare functions were assigned to the Surgeon General's Office, later others to the Ordnance Department and the Corps of Engineers. These scattered agencies were consolidated into a new Chemical Warfare Service on 28 June 1918. A new Tank Corps drawn from units previously in the Ordnance Department and the Corps of Engineers was created on 22 March 1918. A short-lived Transportation Service was created on 11 March 1919 by consolidating the Embarkation and Inland Traffic Services which lasted until 15 July 1920 when Congress ordered these functions returned to the Quarter98 Order of Battle (1917-19), ZI, pp. 430–43. (1) Report of the Chief of Staff, Annual Report of the War Department, 1919, pp. 410-14. (2) War Department Supply Circular 398, 11 Oct 18. |