Army Service Forces procurement

The Organization of Ground Combat Troops The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops The Army Service Forces... 

The chiefs of the technical services had two distinct fields of responsibility. Each administered an important procurement and supply agency, supervision of which was delegated by the War Department to Headquarters, Army Service Forces. At the same time each branch chief was a technical adviser to the Chief of Staff and/or the Secretary of War in his special field, the Surgeon General in the field of medicine, the Chemical Officer in the field of chemical warfare, and so forth. In this latter capacity, the relationship of the technical branch to the War Department was naturally direct rather than through the commanding general, ASF. It was the practice of the Chief of Staff, when circumstances demanded, to curtail... 

Chart l—Total Army Service Forces Estimated Dollar Value of Procurement Deliveries by Technical Services l January 1942—31 December 1945... 

When General Somervell was appointed commanding general of the Army Service Forces in March 1942 he took most of his G-4 organization with him. From that time until the end of the war the CWS, as a technical service of the Army, usually reported directly to ASF headquarters on procurement and supply activities. ... 

The compilation of up-to-date bills of material was one of the most significant procurement developments of the war, for these bills enabled the service to determine the precise quantity of raw materials needed and where and how it was being used. The CWS could refer to them to iron out discrepancies between its figures and those submitted by contractors. The bills also aided in forecasting production more accurately since gross critical materials requirements could be exactly computed for scheduled delivery they furnished data later required by the War Production Board and the Army Service Forces under the Controlled Matmals Plan. 

These same files, supplemented by other source material, were consulted for the emergency and war periods. The author found valuable information on the Chemical Advisory Committee to the Army-Navy Munitions Board in the files of the Chlorine Institute and the Manufacturing Chemists Association. He also searched the retired files of the Army-Navy Munitions Board, some of which were in the National Archives and others in the Pentagon. He obtained data on various aspects of CWS procurement and distribution from retired files of the Assistant Secretary of War (ASW), the Under Secretary of War (USW), the Army Service Forces (ASF), the Operations Division (OPD) of the War Department General Staff, the War Production Board (WPD), and the War Department Manpower Board (WDMB), all in the National Archives. 

Although the chemical mortar battalions were activated by the Army Ground Forces and remained under AGF jurisdiction, the Chemical Warfare Service, as indicated above, retained a considerable interest in them. The CWS supplied most of their officers and cadres, procured their mortars and ammunition, and was responsible for the technical aspects of their training. The chemical mortar battalions were accepted in the theaters as stemming from the CWS, even though their early growth was nurtured by the AGF. 

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