Military historians have been debating the U.S. Army's World War II replacement system for decades, but no one has completed a detailed study of the War Department's policies and practice. Authors have focused primarily on how combat units overcame the system's limitations, but they have not conducted an in-depth examination of its creation, structure, and function. Nor did they question why infantry divisions had to devise their own replacement policies in the first place. The extant literature is too celebratory of the army and utilizes ultimate victory as a measure of efficiency and effectiveness. Such a myopic view has prevented these earlier studies from evaluating how the replacement system affected the overall course of the European war. This dissertation breaks new ground by presenting a comprehensive overview of the replacement system--from the War Department down to the squad, and from the last days of World War I through the post-World War II years. It will elucidate a process of failed administration and implementation at the highest levels of the War Department and army, but it will also relate a "grassroots" story of success at the divisional level and below. The War Department's managerial approach to the utilization of military manpower was both inefficient and wasteful. The army largely overlooked the impact of individuality, morale, psyche, experience, and training on a soldier's performance. Its insistence on rushing men to the line once combat operations began meant that it often neglected to train, orient, and equip replacements in a manner conducive to their favorable and effective integration into combat units. The GIs at the front, both veterans and replacements alike, suffered for this oversight. / History

Edward Mallory "Ned" Almond belonged to the generation of US Army officers who came of age during World War I and went on to hold important command positions in World War II and the Korean War. His contemporaries included some of America's greatest captains such as Omar N. Bradley. While Almond is no longer a household name, he played a key role in Army history. Almond was ambitious and gave his all to everything he did. He was a careful student of his profession, a successful commander at battalion and corps level, a dedicated staff officer, something of a scholar, a paternalistic commander turned vehement racist, and a right-wing zealot. He earned his greatest accolades commanding the American troops who landed at Inchon, South Korea, on September 15, 1950, an amphibious flanking movement that temporarily transformed the nature of the Korean War. A soldier of such accomplishments and contradictions has gone too long without a scholarly biography; this dissertation will fill that void. This biography of Lt. Gen. Edward M. Almond makes a significant and original contribution to the existing historiography by examining his life in the context of the times in which he served. Almond earned tremendous respect throughout his career for his work as a commander and military administrator from his superiors, including Gen. George C. Marshall and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, but his current reputation as the US Army's most virulent racist overshadows all of these accomplishments. Almond's attitude was not unique; racism pervaded both the Army and the United States of his day. His views reflected the dominant view of the rural white South where he grew up, and did not differ much from those of his more famous peers. Almond, however, would never accept the changes his contemporaries and the Army eventually acknowledged. Almond's reactionary posture stands in sharp contrast to the rest of his career, in which he distinguished himself as an innovator open to new ideas. This dissertation will attempt to reconcile that other Almond and show that there was more to him than his bigoted command policies. Almond's career paralleled these developments in American society and changes in the US Army. His highly professional attitude yet stubborn resistance to social change typified the senior military leadership of the era. When those racial attitudes began to change, Almond represented an increasingly outdated ideology that held black men were innately incapable of becoming good soldiers. At the end of a long life and successful career, Almond was better known for his repugnant racial attitudes than for his genuine successes. First, Almond performed better as the commander of the 92nd Division than is commonly reported, despite that unit's significant difficulties in combat. This dissertation will also explore how his experiences with the 92nd Division, and the Army's later desegregation decisions, embittered him toward black soldiers. Second, both success and failure marked his command of X Corps in Korea, and his personal relationships with other officers obscured some of his accomplishments. Third, while serving as commandant of the US Army War College, Almond would tap his rich store of military experience to push the Army toward a greater commitment to joint operations. / History

This study first offers a political, social, and economic overview of Texas during the first two decades of the twentieth century, including reaction in the Lone Star state to the declaration of war against Germany in April, 1917; the fear of saboteurs and foreign-born citizens; and the debate on raising a wartime army through a draft or by volunteerism. Then, focusing in-depth on northwest Texas, the study examines the Texas National Guard unit recruited there, the Seventh Texas Infantry Regiment. Using primarily the selective service registration cards of a sample of 1,096 members of the regiment, this study presents a portrait of the officers and enlisted soldiers of the Seventh Texas based on age, occupation, marital status, dependents and other criteria, something that has not been done in studies of World War I soldiers. Next, the regiment's training at Camp Bowie, near Fort Worth, Texas, is described, including the combining of the Seventh Texas with the First Oklahoma Infantry to form the 142nd Infantry Regiment of the Thirty-Sixth Division. After traveling to France and undergoing nearly two months of training, the regiment was assigned to the French Fourth Army in the Champagne region and went into combat for the first time. The study examines the combat experiences of these soldiers from northwest Texas and how they described and expressed their experiences to their families and friends after the armistice of November 11, 1918. The study concludes with an examination of how the local communities of northwest Texas celebrated the armistice, and how they welcomed home their "soldier boys" in the summer of 1919. This study also charts the changing nature of the Armistice Day celebrations and veteran reunions in Texas as time passed, as well as the later lives of some of the officers and men who served with the regiment.

This report is part of a bachelor thesis implemented at Saab training systems AB in Huskvarna. It treats the concept development of the driveline on Moving infantry target, MIT. Today Saab has a problem in the shape of that their customers uses the wrong moment when tightening the cog belt of the driveline. As a consequence the cog belt has a high risk of snapping if it is too tight or pluck off if it is too loose. Thereto the electrical motors used in the MIT has gone out of production. The task boiled down to produce a number of proposals that improves the chucking or driveline solution together with finding a new electrical motor to replace the outdated one. A concept study was made containing detailed examinations together with Saab. To answer the problems questions, several product development methods were used, like Quality function deployment and Pugh’s matrix, to reach a final concept. The last concepts were modeled in a 3D-program for an easier comparison between their feasibility. The chosen solution consisted of two motors that via a gearing actuates the respective axle. By replacing the belt drive and choosing more lubrication free gears the maintenance is expected to be improved. In addition the product price is lowered by careful choices of components. The production of a prototype could not be implemented due to lack of time.

This thesis is the about the life of Rudder. The emphasis of this work, however, is that Rudder was successful primarily because of his character and leadership style. Much of the study was drawn from primary sources. Secondary sources were also consulted. This thesis opens with a brief Introduction, which discusses the need for this work. Chapter 1 discusses Rudder's life prior to WW II, emphasizing particular characteristics that benefited his leadership ability. Chapter 2 examines the 2nd Ranger Battalion's transformation under Rudder's leadership and guidance. Chapter 3 chronicles the 2nd Ranger Battalion's assault on the Pointe du Hoc battery, ending in December 1944, when Col. Rudder was reassigned to the 109th Infantry Regiment. Moreover, the controversy surrounding the Ranger's mission is also examined in this chapter. Chapter 4 describes Col. Rudder's leadership with the 109th in the Battle of the Bulge. A chapter accounting Rudder's political career and leadership follows. Chapter 6 examines his term as chancellor and president of the Texas A&M University system, until his death in 1970, and the major institutional changes that he enacted during his tenure, which resulted in A&M becoming the respected research university it is today. This significance and recapitulation of Rudder's life and leadership will follow in the Conclusion.

Most people’s perceptions of the Second World War leave little room for static, attritional fighting; instead, free-flowing manoeuvre warfare, such as Blitzkrieg, is seen as the norm. In reality, however, much of the terrain fought over in 1939-45 was unsuitable for such a war and, as a result, bloody attritional battles and trench fighting were common. Thus ordinary infantrymen spent the majority of their time at the front burrowing underground for protection. Although these trenches were never as fixed or elaborate as those on the Western Front a generation earlier, the men who served in Italy, Normandy, Holland and Germany, nonetheless shared an experience remarkably similar to that of their predecessors in Flanders, Picardy, Champagne and Artois. This is an area which has been largely neglected by scholars. While the first war produced a mountain of books on the experience of trench warfare, the same cannot be said of the second war. This thesis will attempt to fill that gap by providing a comprehensive analysis of static warfare in the Second World War from the point of view of British infantry morale. It draws widely on contemporary letters and diaries, psychiatric and medical reports and official documentation – not to mention personal narratives and accounts published after the war – and will attempt to interpret these sources in light of modern research and organise them into a logical framework. Ultimately it is hoped that this will provide fresh insight into a relatively under-researched area of twentieth century history.

La présente thèse de doctorat analyse l’influence du fusil à baïonnette sur la tactique de l’infanterie française au XVIIIe siècle. Les travaux concernant cette arme ont, jusqu’ici, surtout traité des modèles produits, des méthodes de fabrication et de l’approvisionnement des régiments. Notre approche est celle d’un historien au contact des collections d’un grand musée militaire. Elle consiste à étudier le fusil du point de vue du maniement et, plus généralement, de sa mise en œuvre contre l’ennemi. L’objectif est de comprendre comment l’armée royale s’est adaptée à une arme aux faibles capacités techniques et balistiques. Les sources exploitées sont nombreuses et variées : archives techniques et tactiques de l’armée de Terre, ouvrages imprimés relatifs à l’art de la guerre, objets des collections du musée de l’Armée, à Paris.La première partie est consacrée aux origines, au développement et à la description matérielle du fusil. La deuxième partie examine ses usages tactiques. Le grand débat qui en résulte, opposant les partisans de l’ordre profond aux défenseurs de l’ordre mince, fait l’objet d’une relecture documentée. L’entraînement des soldats, les conditions du combat de ligne et l’émergence de l’infanterie légère sont également étudiés. La troisième partie tente de mesurer l’efficacité du fusil : à l’observation de son rôle au cours des batailles de Höchstädt (1704), de Dettingen (1743), de Fontenoy (1745) et des Plaines d’Abraham (1759), succède l’analyse des blessures causées par les balles et les baïonnettes. Après un siècle d’emploi du fusil par l’armée de l’Ancien Régime, les bases tactiques des guerres de la Révolution et de l’Empire sont posées. / This PhD dissertation analyses the influence of the flintlock musket upon the French infantry in the 18th century. Until now, studies of this weapon have particularly focused on the manufactured types, the manufacturing methods and regiment supplies. Our approach is one of a historian’s, working in a major military museum. It consists of studying the handling of the flintlock and more broadly speaking, how it was used against the enemy. The objective is to understand how the royal army managed to adapt to a weapon with little technical and ballistic capacity. We used various source materials: the technical and tactical archives of the French Army, numerous printed works on the art of warfare and objects from various collections of the Army museum in Paris.The first part of this dissertation is devoted to the origins, the development and the technical description of the musket. The second part examines its tactical uses. The main ensuing debate opposing supporters of the deep order against those of the thin line order has been re-examined in the light of new documents. The soldiers’ training, the conditions of line warfare and the emergence of the light infantry are also studied. The third part tries to assess the efficiency of the musket: the part it played during the battles of Blenheim (1704), Dettingen (1743), Fontenoy (1745) and the Plains of Abraham (1759) is carefully studied, then an analysis of the wounds caused by its bullets and bayonets logically follows. After a century of the Old Regime Army's use of the musket, the tactical basis of the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars are set down.

<p>Syftet med uppsatsen var att studera hur Försvarsmakten bör organisera, utbilda och träna ett skyttekompani i framtiden inom några områden. Den skall med hjälp av några av de grundläggande förmågorna ge svar på hur vi organiserar, utbildar och tränar idag samt analysera om några förändringar bör ske för att skapa ett bättre förband.</p><p>Den teoretiska grunden för uppsatsen har varit de grundläggande förmågorna; ledning, rörlighet och uthållighet. Uppsatsen har tagit sin utgångspunkt i bland annat Arméns utvecklingsplan och studien Verkan Mot Markmål. Litteraturstudier har även genomförts av andra studier och dokument. Även två stycken intervjuer har genomförts för att belysa dagsläget respektive framtiden för ett skyttekompani. Resultaten visar på att det finns en bra grund för ledning av ett skyttekompani men även en avsaknad av tillfredsställande sjukvård. De slutsatser som uppsatsen finner är behovet av utveckling och träning av metoder för att ledning. Förmågan att leda utländska enheter och ledas på exempelvis engelska bör finnas ner på plutonsnivå. Vidare konstateras att en fungerande sjukvårdskedja från enskildsoldat och uppåt måste skapas.</p> / <p>The objective of this essay was to examine how we should organize, educate and train a mechanised infantry company in the future. The essay will use the fundamental capabilities to give an answer how we organize, educate and train today. It will also analyse if there should be any changes made in order to create better units.</p><p>Based on studies<strong> </strong>in literature such as the <em>development plan for the army</em>, the study <em>effect towards ground target</em> and interview. I have tried to show the current situation and how the future looks like for a mechanised infantry company.  I have chosen to study three fundamental capabilities; command and control, mobility, endurance. The results indicate that there is a good base to command and control a mechanised infantry company but also that the medical capacity is not satisfying. Some of the conclusions from the essay are that we need development and training in methods to command and control. The capability to command and control foreign units should be found down to platoon level. Regarding medical treatment we must create a work line of medical treatment, from soldier to field hospitals.</p>