What was the purpose of a division staff in a US Navy Task Force/Fleet in WWII?
Upvote:1
It is important to remember that much of the routine work in every military unit is deliberate, and quite sensible, make-work. This is necessary to provide both the training and the command and control redundancy required to cover casualties once combat starts in earnest.
Military forces that neglect this, such as the Austro-Hungarian Infantry in 1866, rapidly deteriorate under even the mildest of combat stresses:
Prussian conscript service was one of continuous training and drilling, in contrast to the Austrian army, where some commanders routinely dismissed infantry conscripts to their homes on permanent leave, soon after their induction into the army, retaining only a cadre of long-term soldiers for formal parades and routine duties. Austrian conscripts had to be trained almost from scratch, when they were recalled to their units on the outbreak of war.
Update:
Of course, one of the primary responsibilities of every commanding officer is to somehow make the make-work feel both real and important so that the expected benefits are actually achieved. Basing promotions, increased responsibility, and medals on the results and accomplishments of that work are part of that process.
Upvote:1
A typical early war CV Task Force would have a carrier, a Division of cruisers (nominally a Division was usually 4, although they often had less than full strength) and a Squadron of Destroyers, made up of 2 Divisions of Destroyers, and a Squadron Leader. The DESRON (Destroyer Squadron) 'Commodore' was a Captain (Bird O-6) with a half dozen staff. The DESDIV (Destroyer Division) was no additional staff, usually just one of the ships captains (Silver Leaf O-5) of the group of ships. The CRUDIV (Cruiser Division) Rear Admiral was in charge of the Screen, and commanded any surface and anti submarine warfare. He also had a small staff, no sure of exact make up, but smaller than the Task Force Commander Staff. On the Carrier, their was a Carrier Air Group Commander who lead the Air Warfare aspects, a carrier Ships Captain, and a Task Force Commander (Rear Admiral O-8 typically.
Later in the war, when Task Forces 38 or 58 was full strength, a considerably larger command was in place with the TF Commander in charge of 4-5 Task Groups made up of 2-4 carriers each, several BATDIV (Battleship DIvisions), and multiple CRUDIV and DESRONs making up the force.
Upvote:2
Cruisers, and other ships, were organized into groups, or divisions, that fought as a unit. Here was a U.S. naval Order of Battle.
This had little to do with sending such ships on "detached duty." These ships fought as units, or divisions with a given fleet (as they would in an "army,") and had division staffs administering them.
Upvote:7
There was always the possibility of a division or squadron acting independently. For example, the Americans learned, the hard way, that their destroyer squadrons were best allowed to attack independently in night surface actions. The squadron staff would prepare plans for this.
The staff were not large below the task force level. An added four or five officers out of a force that already had a hundred officers was not terribly great overhead.
The staff also had a lot of routine administrative duties, such as tracking fuel, ammunition, and stores consumption.
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