United States Army Armor School Commandant MG FREDERIC J. BROWN Assistant Commandant BG GORDON R. SULLIVAN Deputy Assistant Commandant COL MICHAEL H. CRUMLEY Chief of Staff COL FRED W. GREENE, 111 Command Sergeant Major CSM JOHN M. STEPHENS NSTRUCTIONALDEPARTMENTS Maintenance COL DONALD S. ZUTTER Command and Staff COL JAMES M. LYLE Weapons COL DAVID V. HARBACH Committee Group COL BOBBY J. CARTER NCO Academy/ Drill Sergeant School SGM DONALD H. DEVINE DIRECTORATES Evaluation and Standardization COL JOHN THOMPSON Training and Doctrine COL DUDLEY M. ANDRES Combat Developments COL ROBERT W. DeMONT UNITS Center/School Brigade COL WILLIAM M. BOICE 1 st Armor Training Brigade COL ROBERT L. PHILLIPS “To disseminate knowledge of the military arts and sciences, with special attention to mobility in ground warfare, to promote 4th Training Brigade professional improvement of the Armor Community, and to COL WILLIAM M. MATZ, JR. preserve and foster the spirit, the traditions, and the solidarity of 194th Armored Brigade Armor in the Army of the United States.” COL PAUL E. FUNK MMORTheMagazine of Mobile Warfare Editor-in-C hief LTC CHARLES R. STEINER, JR. FEATURES Managing Editor 12 Resupplying Armor the FASTARM Way JON T. CLEMENS by Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) David C. Holliday Assistant Editor 16 Camouflage Air Superiority Indicator? ROBERT E. ROGGE - by Paul J. Hoven and Joseph R. Burniece Administrative Assistant VIVIAN THOMPSON 21 1984 Armor Conference Report Contributing Artists 21 Commander’s Report MARK KAYROUZ by Major General Frederic J. Brown GREG HARPER 22 A Look at Our World Contributing Photographer SFC DALE BUTLER by Secretary of the Army John 0. Marsh ARMORmagazine (ISSN 0004-2420) is 26 The Manpower Situation published bimonthly by the U.S. Army by General Maxwell R. Thurman Armor Center, 4401 Vine Grove Road, Fort Knox. Kentucky 401 21. Unless Vice Chief of Staff of the Army otherwise stated, material does not represent policy, thinking, or endorse- 28 Reducing Training Costs ment by any agency of the US. Army. Use of appropriated funds for printing of An Armor Conference White Paper this publication was approved by the Department of the Army 6 January 1984. 31 Combat Service Support - At War ARMORis not a copyrighted publication An Armor Conference White Paper but may contain some articles which have been copyrighted by individual authors. Material which is not under co- 35 General Officers in Attendance pyright may be reprinted if credit is given to ARMORand the author. 36 CRUSADER: Slow Step to Victory Permission to reprint copyrighted mater- ial must be obtained from the author. by Master Sergeant (Ret.) Robert E. Rogge SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Individual subscriptions to ARMORare available through the US. Armor Association, Post Office Box 607, Fort Knox. Kentucky 401 21. Telephone (502) 942- DEPARTMENTS 8624. Domestic: $15.00 one year, $26.00 two years, $37.00 three years. Foreign: 2 Letters 44 Professional Thoughts $22.00 one year, $35.00 two years. Sin- gle copies, $2.00. 5 Commander’s Hatch 49 Recognition Quiz Answers 7 Driver’s Seat 50 Regimental Review CORRESPONDENCE: Address all cor- respondence to US. Army Armor Center, 9 Master Gunner’s Corner 52 Books ATTN: ATSB-DOTD-MAG, Fort Knox, 11 Recognition Quiz 53 Steel on Target Kentucky, 401 21. (Telephone: AUTOVON 464-2249/2610 or commer- cial (502) 624-22491261 0.) SECOND class postage paid at Fort Knox. Kentucky and additional mailing office. ARMORmay be forwarded to military personnel whose change of address is COVER caused by official orders (except at APO A It hough battle-dress uniforms and camouf lage-pai nted addresses) without payment of addition- vehicles are still relatively new to the U.S. Army, camouflage paint al Dostaae. The subscriber must notify the postmaster. schemes go back to the 1920s. In the article that begins on page USPS 467-970 16, authors Paul J. Hoven and Joseph R. Burniece argue that camouflage has long been a silent indicator of an air-defense July-August 1984 VOl XCV situation. Maps Needed for Scouts in the summer of 1939, was only partially formed and equipped. From the partial Thoughts on “Thinking” Dear Sir, cadres of this unit and the troops of the I would like to commend SFC Skiles for Armored Force Training Center (CWPB). Dear Sir, his outstanding article, “The Scout Pla- the Warsaw defense command formed I enjoyed Lieutenant Davis’s article toon Revisited”, that appeared in Pro two 7TP companies, one under Captain “Toward An Old Way of Thinking” in the Thoughts in the January-February 1984 Stanislaw Grabczewski with 18 7TP March-April issue of ARMOR Magazine. issue of ARMOR Magazine. He was right tanks, the second under Captain Feliks His grasp of the problem in balancing the on target. Michalowski. with 11 7Tf tanks. Both demands of firepower and maneuver in However, let me add just one item to companies saw extensive fighting in the order to effectively deal with an oppo- the sergeant’s list of needed scout pla- defense of Warsaw. The other battalion nent is most evident. If possible, I would toon equipment-and this item is so ba- mentioned in Mr. Ogorkiewicz’s letter, like to add to his argument. sic that one wonders why it isn’t consi- the 21st Light Tank Battalion, was not While agreeing that maneuver and fire- dered. I am referring to maps. Yes, maps! combat ready at the outbreak of the war power are not separate entities but two Believe it or not, many of our scout pla- as their French R-35 tanks had only facets of one effort - combat - I feel toons do not have maps because of real arrived in Poland in July 1939. They were compelled to emphasize the lieutenant’s or imagined shortages. If necessary, do mobilized in the first week of the war, but charge that firepower is the handmaiden without maps elsewhere, but give them to the battalion never saw combat and was of maneuver. I feel certain he would the scouts! They must have maps! finally withdrawn into Romania at the end agree that simply adding weapons to do- Also, on the subject of issuing reports, of the war rather than surrender the uble or triple the measured firepower of a the armored cavalry Beale Wheel (GTA tanks to the Germans. Interestingly company, battalion or division is quite 17-3-7 of 30 April 1973) should be enough, these Renaults later served with meaningless unless there is a practical updated to reflect the excellent FM 17- the Romanian Army against the Soviet method for employing that increased 98 and worn like ID tags by every scout. Army on the Eastern Front, and in 1945 firepower. The Soviets today appear, This plastic reports card, when used in against the Germans when the Roman- through their ongoing debates on tactics, conjunction with the map and FM 17-98, ians switched sides. to recognize this problem more accurate- is all that is needed for success in being In regard to Captain Betson’s excellent ly than we after having recently the eyes of the battalion - with, of article on U.S. armor in the Oran landing, increased, with numbers of new wea- course, good leadership! perhaps I can shed some light on the pons, the relative firepower index of their mystery of the French tanks that were units through the last decade. Once hav- BO BARBOUR encountered during the operations in ing the weapons - any weapon - it is Captain, Infantry North Africa. Recent French accounts of then a matter of how to most effectively 4th Battalion, 16th Infantry the fighting, notably Colonel E. Ramspa- employ that weapon. cher’s book, “Chars et Blindes francais,” It is at this point that the lieutenant and published in 1979, indicate that French I part ways. In following the Ressetta Riv- armor and cavalry units in the Oran area er engagement, it seemed to this writer Polish Cavalry Charges On at the time consisted of a number of sec- that the Soviet intention - through hit tions of antiquated, WW I-vintage Re- and run tactics - was to wear down the Dear Sir, nault FT-17 light tanks that came from a opponent. An attrition engagement was Many thanks for running my letter on number of disbanded tank battalions. dictated by the limited effectiveness of the Polish cavalry matters in the March- These were mostly parcelled out to vari- some of the on-hand equipment (tanks) April 1984 issue of ARMOR Magazine. A ous infantry units, or assigned to guard and the training of the troops (the Soviets couple of old cavalry vets helped me out duty at the airfields in the area. Besides are rather timid about the prowess of on the article and were a bit upset about these, there were a number of compan- their tankers in that period when dis- the taczanka and rittmeister matters. ies of 1920-vintage Renault D1 medium cussing actions with the German tank Printing the letter got me off the hook! tanks attached to Colonel Touzet de Vigi- troops). They successfully accom- I don’t entirely agree with Richard er’s “brigade mechanique” south of plished their attrition since the line at Ogorkiewicz’s letter concerning the arti- Oran. numbering about 45 tanks. Several that point in Russia did not effectively cle. I did not mean to suggest that my years ago, I tried to sort out this mystery move further to the east for the rest of the article was the sole English language myself by consulting the after-action re- war. The Germans certainly might have account of the Polish cavalry in 1939. ports of the 1st Armored Regiment, but wished to move the line further back, but Besides Ogorkiewicz’s articles, readers these accounts were equally ambiguous as the flank guard to the operation to- might also be interested in the section of about the types of French tanks encoun- ward the Caucasus, their goal was sim- Janusz Piekalkiewicz’s book “The Caval- tered.