Patch board appointed

Courtesy Photo | Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch. (Courtesy photo)  

FORT HUACHUCA, AZ, UNITED STATES

08.29.2022

Courtesy Story

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian

On August 30, 1945, the Army chief of staff appointed Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch as chairman of a board directed to recommend an effective War Department organization for the postwar period. The board’s final report led to significant changes within the general staff and, consequently, within the Military Intelligence Division (MID).

Even before World War II ended, the War Department began reviewing its postwar organization. Several studies were conducted, producing contentious recommendations but no final approval by higher authorities. When the war was over, a decision became more urgent. On August 30, 1945, General Thomas T. Handy, the deputy chief of staff under General George C. Marshall, created the Patch Board to “examine into the present organization of the War Department and to propose an organization for peacetime adoption.” In addition to General Patch, an infantry officer who had commanded the Seventh Army, the board included Maj. Gens. Charles T. Harris (Coast Artillery), H.A. Craig (Army Air Forces), Harry C. Ingles (Signal Corps), and Brig. Gen. Gordon E. Textor (Corps of Engineers). The board’s suspense date was “as early as practicable” but no later than October 15.

On October 18, the Patch Board submitted its report for review and, in November, began revising its recommendations based on suggested changes from throughout the War Department. When General Patch suddenly died on November 21, Lt. Gen. William H. Simpson, former commander of the Ninth Army, became chairman. The Patch-Simpson Board submitted its final report in January 1946, and it was quickly approved “for planning purposes” by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had replaced General Marshall as chief of staff in November.

The board’s recommendations impacted significantly on the War Department General Staff. Perhaps most important, the board recommended a reversal of General Marshall’s position that the general staff only be responsible for policy and planning in favor of General Eisenhower’s belief that the general staff should have responsibility for operating functions as well. In addition, it dissolved the Army Service Forces, returning that organization’s wartime activities back to the various general staff divisions.

In anticipation of the report’s approval, Maj. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, assistant chief of staff for intelligence (soon to be renamed the director of intelligence), formed a committee to plan out the MID’s reorganization. In mid-April, he ordered an immediate trial run of the new organization. He abolished the Military Intelligence Service, which had served as the operating arm of MID since 1942. In its place, he created an Intelligence Group with six geographic branches: domestic, Pan-American, British Empire, Western Europe, Eurasian, and Far Eastern. These were supported by a Service Branch with eight subordinate functional branches: military, who’s who, political-economic, scientific, topographic, dissemination, captured documents, and library. Together, the Intelligence Group “produced intelligence to meet the needs of the War Department and the Major Commands.”

Vandenberg reorganized the rest of his Intelligence Division along functional lines. The Security Group supervised security activities and conducted counterintelligence operations. The Combat Intelligence and Training Group handled policies and plans related to training and educating military intelligence personnel and supervised map and photographic activities. The Collection Group oversaw the military attaché program and collected foreign positive intelligence. The fourth and final group was the Army Security Agency (ASA), which traced its origins to World War I and the MID’s Cipher Bureau. Under the direct command of the director of intelligence, ASA continued its responsibility for signals intelligence and communications security.

When the Patch-Simpson Board’s final report was approved on May 13, 1946, and ordered into effect by June 11, the changes General Vandenberg had directed for his Intelligence Division became permanent. However, the latter half of the 1940s continued to bring change to Army intelligence as it struggled to find its most effective organization in the postwar period.

• Date Taken: 08.29.2022
• Date Posted: 08.29.2022 11:43
• Story ID: 428244
• Location: FORT HUACHUCA, AZ, US