Smoke generator companies

Meanwhile, the CWS recommended the activation of thirty-four chemical smoke generator companies. On 8 April the first three units (the 7jth, 76th, and 77th Companies) were formed and, before their training was completed, received the mission of concealing aircraft plants in California. By the end of May the War Department had authorized the activation of 11 companies to be stationed as follows 6 with the Western Defense Command 3 in Panama one at the Sault Ste. Marie Locks and one, an experimental unit, at Edgewood Arsenal. By 20 July a total of 14 companies had been activated, 9 located on the west coast of the United States. 

When the United States entered the war the long-standing Panama Canal screening project was immediately revived. At the time, the smoke pot was the only screening munition available and it required too many men to make a Panama smoke installation feasible. The stationary generator proved more satisfactory, and, as a consequence, Lt. Gen. Frank M. Andrews, Caribbean Defense Command, recommended that plans for screening in the Department be implemented as soon as possible. By i January 1943 two smoke generator companies had... 

Because smoke was not required, no American smoke units participated in the initial landings, a fortunate circumstance in view of the limited number of available units. Elements of the 78th Smoke Generator Company did arrive at Casablanca on 13 November, five days after the shooting began. The company set up a smoke installation on 23 November which served principally for demonstration purposes. ... 

Leghorn marked the end of American participation in port screening in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. Rear area missions gradually petered out with the diminished effectiveness of the Luftwaffe. The lyid and 179th Smoke Generator Companies, by now the only U.S. smoke units in Italy, turned to a type of employment that had evolved earlier in the theater—the use of smoke in forward areas. But before the development of that mission smoke units had been used in assault landings. 

To apply this technique the 179th Smoke Generator Company on 18 March moved from the harbor area toward the forward positions. The smoke line, now forming a ly-mile arc around the port, included nineteen generator positions on land and two generators mounted on Navy patrol craft in the harbor. (Map 4) The latter prevented enemy observation from the flanks of the concave contour of the coast line. 

In partial answer to this threat on the supply route, the lyad Smoke Generator Company maintained a smoke line from i6 October 1944 until 14 April 194s- For 181 days, except when the weather made screening unnecessary or when II Corps for one reason or another needed perfect visibility in the area, the smoke haze concealed friendly movements along a 2-mile stretch of the highway. Periods of bright moonlight sometimes forced the 1726 to operate on a 24-hour basis. 

The development of the new generator prompted attempts by CWS staff officers in England to get a smoke generator company for the theater. War Department inquiries about the requirements for such units got little response from the Eighth Air Force, which came to the conclusion that the advantages of airdrome concealment were equaled or outweighed by the interference of smoke with operations. But SOS authorities in the theater showed interest in smoke as a means of concealing supply installations and later included the ports in... 

The 79th and 80th Smoke Generator Companies, with their men and Mi smoke generators aboard thirty of His Majesty s trawlers, on 9 June arrived off Omaha Beach, where they served as the offshore element of the 23d Battalion smoke installation. But they received no requests for smoke. The great storm of 18—21 June wrecked some of... 

The basic smoke unit was the smoke generator company, 15 of which saw action in the European theater. A smoke company consisted of a company headquarters, headquarters platoon, and operations platoon. The operations platoon comprised 4 sections, each section having 6 squads. A company equipped with Mz s had a total of 50 generators,... 

The 84th Chemical Smoke Generator Company began its Arnaville operations under the additional handicap of inefficient direction before its attachment to the 5th Division. Both personal and organizational... 

The 90th Division chemical officer reached the same conclusion about another smoke generator tmit. See Ltr, CmlO 90th Div to CCmlO TO, zo Jan 4, sub Opns of Smoke Generator Company in Support of River Crossing. CWS 514.7. 

The Metz campaign involved assault crossings of tlie Moselle, Seille, and Nied Rivers, all of which were eHectively supported by the S4th and i6ist Smoke Generator Companies. For a discussion of the use of smoke in these operations, see Pritchard, Smoke Generator Opns in the MTO and ETO. 

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