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Edited on Sun Mar-14-04 02:57 AM by happyslug
An Army Corp is derived from the French "Corp de Armee" i.e. Body of the Army. Prior to Napoleon all Armies (With the Exception of the Roman Legion and Mongol Horde) were collection of Units formed into a Army to fight. Each new Army was a new collection of Companies.
Companies were first formed into permanent Regiments the 1600s. Regiments consisted of about ten companies (Some time less, sometime more). Regiments were invented to make it easier to supply and pay the troops.
Brigades and Battalions were invented in the 1700s and were more informal formations of companies for tactical use. 2-3 Regiments could be "Brigaded together". A Regiment's Companies might be formed into 2-3 "Battalions" depending on the tactical situation.
The formation of Brigades and Regimens was to deal with the problems of the increasing size of Armies during the 1600 and 1700. The biggest restriction on using large military formations is that it was almost impossible to supply any army larger than 50,000 for more than a few days or weeks at a time. Thus you rarely hear of Armies larger than 100,000 prior to Napoleon (The major exceptions are the Romans and Mongols and even they tended to keep their armies under 50,000).
Just before the French Revolution the French Army solved this problem. They had been studying the old Roman Legions and even formed "Legions" at the time of the American Revolution (Which the Americans used after the Revolution as in the "legion of The West").
The Legion was found NOT to be adaptable to the use of Regiments (which was tied in with the use of Gunpowder in the form of Muskets and Cannon). On the other hand the all arms concept of the Legion was valued. From the merger off the older Regimental system and the Roman Region came the Structure of modern Armies.
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What the French did was "Divide" their army into small mini armies called "Divisions". 3-5 of these Divisions WITH A SUPPLY LINE formed a "Corps". The Corp may have as many men in its support and supply system as are in the divisions. A Corp at the time of Napoleon was designed to be able to defend itself for a day against an "army" so that the rest of the Army could reach it fight.
This Division of the Army into "Corps" and "Division" permitted larger armies, by making any army marching through any one area a small, no more than 30,000 man, army. When a larger army was called for the various corps and Divisions came together and fought. Once the fighting ended the units (that survived the battle) again disbursed. This permitted larger men in the field but instead of one large army that could NOT be supported, a series of very small armies, each small army a light print on the area it is marching through. Since Napoleon ALL LARGE armies have been orgaized in Divisonal and Corps.
By the time of the American Civil War Corp were the key formation. Thus in Civil War histories you here of various Corps an what they did. Each Corp had Three Division (and the Divisional Patch is first seen in Northern Units, each division having a different color of the Corp patch, whatever the Corp patch was, Such Corp based patches were used in Cuba in 1898, but modern Divisional patches appear to be more a French invention of WWI.).
While most Soldiers today identify with their Division and Regiment more than their Corp, the Corp is still important for all supplies and HEAVY artillery and air support are run at Corp level NOT Divisional level. Now the Divisions have Artillery but this tend to be "Light Artillery". In The US Army that was the 75mm French M1897 Gun During WWI. The M1A1 (Later M101A1) Howitzer of WWII, Korea and Vietnam and even today's "Light" Divisions. Armor tend to use Self Propelled 155mm Howitzers (Which is Technically a "Medium" Artillery piece but Armor is heavy in the first place and prefers the greater range and power of the 155mm).
Now at the Corp level occurs the "Medium" and "Heavy" Artillery. "Medium" tend to be 155mm Howitzers, while "Heavy" Tend to be 155m "Guns", 8 inch Howitzers and larger pieces (During WWII the US had a 8 inch Gun, a 240mm Howitzer and a 240mm GUN as its "Heavy" Pieces. Except for the 8 inch Howitzer all of these pieces have been replaced by Missiles generally the "Lance". Missiles can carry heavier payloads and are quicker to emplace than the Artillery their replaced,but at the cost of a reduce number of rounds that can be fired.
Note. When Artillerist talk of "Mortars" "Howitzer" and "Guns" they tend to use these three name for different types of Artillery Pieces. Mortars are high projection only pieces. In the US Army it is rare for the Field Artillery to use Mortars do to their low range compared to Howitzer and Guns. The US Infantry uses the 60mm, 81mm 4.2 inch and 120mm Mortars. Now the Russians and Israelis use larger Mortars, 160mm and 240mm, but these are operated by their Artillery units Not their Infantry Units.
A "Howitzer" is also a high angle weapon but whose range tend to be greater than a Mortar and can be used as a direct fire weapon if needed. Mortars can NOT be fired like a Rifle or Shotgun, you can do "Direct" Fire with a Mortar but the weapon is still fired in a very high trajectory to hit the target. For Mortars "Direct fire" is when you can see the target and use the sights to lob the round to the target, not aimed down the barrel and fire like a rifle. Direct fire for Howitzers and Guns is when you aim down the barrel like a Rifle.
Howitzers can be aimed and fired like a Rifle AND fire lobbing rounds on top of the enemy. It tend to be heavier than a Mortar of the same Caliber but lighter than a Gun of the same Caliber. The Extra Weight gives it the ability to fire directly at the enemy if needed. Howitzer is the most common form of Artillery today, do to its range, and ability to fire Direct and indirect fire.
"Guns" are direct fire weapons. Most have the ability to fire indirect fire, but not to the high trajectory of the Howitzer and Mortars. These tend to be heavier than the Howitzers of the same caliber, but with much greater range.
Prior to WWI the preferred "Light" Artillery of most armies was a 75mm GUN. It was light enough to be hauled by two horses and quick to move into and out of combat. During WWI the weakness of the 75mm Gun was seen by almost every participate, but the War was on and to close to call to waste time developing a better piece of Artillery.
After the War the US Studied all the artillery used in the War and decided the best piece was the 105 GERMAN Howitzer. Its only weakness was it had HALF the range of the 75mm French M1897 (but its shell carried twice the explosives AND could fire at high angles like a Mortar.
By WWII the US had modified the weapon to an extent that it had ALMOST had the range of the French 75 but at a weight 1/3 more than the French 75. While the US called the M1A1 a "Howitzer" it was really a "Gun-Howitzer" a weapon design to do the Direct fire of a Gun and the Indirect fire of Howitzer. As late as 1940 the US was planning to use the M1 as a horse drawn piece of Artillery. Only in 1940 did the US decide that it would TRUCK draw the 105mm.
Making the changes to the 105mm from Horse Draw to Track drawn is why it is called the M1A1, or M101A1, the M1 was the HORSE drawn Version, the M1A1 was the Truck Drawn Version. Please Note I am using the WWII Designation of these guns, in 1964 the US Department of Defense merged the designation system of the Navy, Marines, Air Force and Army into one united system. As part of that system the Army Artillery were redesignated with new names, the M1A1 became the M101A1, the M114 Howitzer became the M114 extra. I am using the WWII designation in this paper for ease of writing.
The US 105mm M1A1 Howitzer was the heaviest "Light" Artillery Piece used during WWII. The British use a 85mm Gun-Howitzer it called 25 pounder, the German used its WWI era 105mm Howitzer and 75mm Gun. The Japaneses use a 75mm Gun. These are the "Light" Divisional level Artillery used by these forces.
The Medium and Heavy Artillery pieces were (and are) kept at Corp Level for example the M114A1 was the main 155 Howitzer used during WWII and was used in US Light Formations till it was replaced by e M198 in the 1980s. Mediums could be assigned to a Division if deemed needed for while longer to emplace than a Light piece, it could still be em placed within a reasonable amount of time.
Heavy Artillery were kept at Corp or even Army level. The 155mm "Long Tom" Guns of WWII was kept at Corp Level (Even as their were rushed into Bastogne to help the 82nd Airborne hold that city). These Guns were twice as heavy as the 155 Howitzer and used the same "Cradle" as the 8 inch Howitzer. The 240 Howitzer used the same Cradle as the 8 inch (203mm) Howitzer. Notice that these Heavy "Howitzers" used the same "Cradle" as next SMALLER gun. The reason for that was the Larger Howitzer and the Smaller gun produced the same recoil and this had to use the same Cradle. All of these were to heavy to move quickly and thus kept at Corp or Army Level NOT with the Division.
What has the above has to understand How to designate Corp and Divisions? The reason I go into the above is to show you that vast parts of the Army are NOT part of any Division but Still part of the Corp and Army that Division is part of. The rule of Thumb is that while a Division is about 15,000 men, to support those 15,000 you need to have another 15,000 men at Corp and Army level. Thus while a Division only has 15,000 men assigned to it, it has another 15,000 men supporting it (Or a total of 30,000 me). Thus when you hear of a Corp consisting of 3 Divisions, while the DIVISIONS only have 45,000 men (15,000 per division), the CORP of Three Division has roughly 90,000 men in it (the 45,000 men in the Divisions AND another 45,000 supporting those three divisions, with supplies, artillery support, air protection, engineering support, even air support).
Thus when you read that the Japanese only had 2 Divisions in Manchuria but 67,000 men, that is about right. 30,000 men in the two Division and another 30,000 men supporting those division with Supplies, Air Support, Heavy Artillery, Engineering etc.
Thus when you read "One division was sent to X, you should read this to be "30,000 men was moved to X. For 30,000 is the amount of Soldiers BOTH INSIDE THE DIVISION and AT CORP LEVEL SUPPORTING THAT DIVISION.
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