McNair Paper Number 50, Chapter 2, August 1996

Despite the fact that World War I had been raging for 32 months when the United States declared war, despite the large numbers of war orders received by U.S. industry to arm the French and the British, and despite the National Defense Act of 1916, (Note 1) which, among many other things, established a mechanism for mobilizing industry, United States ground and air forces that fought in World War I were largely supplied with French and British munitions. (Note 2) Industrial mobilization had been so inept that Congress passed legislation soon after World War I ended to build an apparatus to ensure that if the United States went to war again it would be better mobilized industrially.

The National Defense Act, June 4, 1920 (41 Statute 764), explicitly outlined responsibilities in the Office of the Secretary of War that streamlined procurement for that day's military and also planning for future wars:

The Assistant Secretary of War, under the supervision of the Secretary of War, shall be charged with the supervision of the procurement of all military supplies and other business of the War Department pertaining thereto and the assurance of adequate provision for mobilization of materiel and industrial organizations essential to wartime needs. . . . There shall be detailed to the office of the Assistant Secretary of War from the branches engaged in procurement such numbers of officers and civilian employees as may be authorized by regulations approved by the Secretary of War. . . . Chiefs of branches of the Army charged with the procurement of supplies for the Army shall report direct to the Assistant Secretary of War regarding all matters of procurement. (Note 3)

The Assistant Secretary of War now had under his control something that had been lacking in the Army for 150 years-a more unified procurement apparatus and a directive to plan for future industrial mobilization. In October 1921 in his first memorandum orders the Assistant Secretary established a Procurement Division to supervise "the procurement of all military supplies and other business of the War Department . . . and the assurance of adequate provision for the mobilization of material and industrial organizations essential to war time needs." This Division was further subdivided into a Planning Branch and a Current Supply Branch. From the start, the Planning Branch was under the direction of a full colonel, signifying its importance in those days of spare rank. He was accountable for planning for wartime procurement and industrial mobilization and was also the agent who dealt with the Navy Department and all other government departments on "all matters pertaining to the allotment of industrial facilities and materials required for war." The Planning Branch was further subdivided into 10 sections, including Industrial Policy, Purchase, Production Allocation, Labor, Finance, Foreign Relations, Transportation, and Storage. It survived into World War II, and for more than a decade was the only agency engaged in industrial mobilization planning. (Note 4)

People who worked in the Assistant Secretary's office, however, received no respect from members of the General Staff, and throughout the 1920s and 1930s there was friction between the logisticians and the operators. At times the relationship became sulfurous, for example when General Charles P. Summerall, Army Chief of Staff from 1926 to 1930, "forbade his subordinates to cooperate with" the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War, "which he recommended be abolished." He called the Assistant Secretary's Executive Officer, Brigadier General George Van Horn Mosely, a logistician, a "traitor" and a "scoundrel." (Note 5)

In addition to the Planning Branch in the Assistant Secretary's office, there was another logistics entity: the Army and Navy Munitions Board, created in 1922 to coordinate "the planning for acquiring munitions and supplies required for the Army and Navy Departments for war purposes and to meet the needs of any joint plans." This Board was also charged with developing "a suitable legislative program" to be put into effect at the appropriate time to "enable the procurement program to be" established. Unlike the procurement and planning duties assigned to the Assistant Secretary, the Army and Navy Munitions Board had no specific legislative sanction and no appropriation until 1 July 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed that this organization and several other joint boards come under the direct supervision of the president. Prior, the Board included the Assistant Secretaries of the Army and Navy and whomever they designated to serve with them and whatever staff they hired. The Army segment of the Board's staff came from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War. (Note 6)

It was clearly understood that the Army and Navy Munitions Board was not subordinate to the Army and Navy Joint Board, mainly an operational planning organization, but parallel to it. Through the early 1930s there was little life and no power in the Board because of interservice problems. The Army G-3 did its planning for troop mobilization without reference to the Navy, and the Planning Branch did its industrial mobilization planning similarly oblivious to the Navy's potential needs. In 1932, however, the Board was reorganized to include the Director of the Planning Branch and similar personnel from the Navy logistics community. A secretary was authorized and eight divisions formed dealing with such items as price controls, contracting, commodities, power, etc. In that year the Board was charged with coordinating and controlling the national industrial effort in an emergency, and coordinating plans for wartime procurement. The next year the Board took over sponsorship of the industrial mobilization plans and began to compile lists of strategic and critical materials. (Note 7)