Smoke generator units Companies

FUSA Chemical Section, devoted maximum attention to supply and to the needs of the chemical mortar battalions. It also meant the provision of supply support and tactical advice for the smoke generator units which were heavily employed by TUSA, especially in its river crossings. As a result of experience in these tasks, the TUSA Chemical Section found that the one chemical depot company attached could not handle all supply requirements. It recommended that two such companies be assigned, and more important still, that CWS should have far more transportation for the depot company, the smoke generator, and the mortar units. The CWS could not operate its own supply system, which it did with very little help from other supply services, and at the same time shift men and equipment in a fast-moving war without greatly Increased transportation. The chemical section suggested addition of a truck company to the Army for CWS... 

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. 

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 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,... 

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