By dividing the Army into three large commands, the Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall, drastically reduced the number of officers and agencies reporting directly to him.

Army installations in the continental United States that were placed directly under the service commands included recruiting stations, induction and reception centers, repair shops, enemy alien and prisoner of war camps, medical and dental laboratories, Reserve Officers' Training Corps units, dispensaries, finance offices, disciplinary barracks and named general hospitals except for the Walter Reed General Hospital.

[2] The agencies reporting directly to the Chief of Staff could be divided into five groups: The G-4 Division of the WDGS, which was responsible for logistics, was headed from 25 November 1941 by Brigadier General Brehon B. Somervell.

The officer in charge of the reorganization, Major General Joseph T. McNarney, told Somervell to draw up an organization for a supply agency.

[15] Somervell organized his staff along functional lines, with divisions for requirements, resources, procurement, distribution, defense aid, operations, personnel, training and finance.

[18] Later that year, the Distribution (renamed Stock Control), Storage and the Maintenance Divisions were grouped together under a Director of Supply, Major General Frank A.

In November 1943, the position of Director of Administration was abolished, and henceforth they reported directly to Somervell, and functioned as staff agencies of ASF.

[42] The idea of a unified command of many arms and services was a familiar one to Army officers—the division was an expression of the concept—but it had not been applied to the continental United States before.

With the creation of GHQ in 1940, the command of an Army post had become separated from that of the combat units stationed there, who became tenants of a Class II installation.

The ASF staff determined that the major constraints were the availability of shipping in the United States, and the capacity of British ports to handle the volume of cargo.

The War Shipping Administration agreed to provide 70 to 100 sailings in June, July and August 1942 to take advantage of the long Summer daylight hours in the UK.

[62] In May 1942, the SOS was directed to train Army landing craft crews, and the Engineer Amphibian Command was established for this purpose on 10 June.

[65] Marshall and Somervell wanted it led by someone familiar with the SOS organization, and selected Major General John C. H. Lee, who had previously commanded the Pacific Ports of Embarkation in the United States.

This represented about 26 percent of the proposed theater strength, which Somervell felt was insufficient to unload, transport and store the flow of Bolero supplies.

[70] The Torch landings went reasonably well, and the initial objectives were attained, but poor planning and execution, and stiff German and Italian resistance caused a drawn-out campaign, and the difficulty of shipping supplies mounted.

In January 1943, the Supreme Allied Commander, Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, asked Somervell if he could provide additional transportation resources.

He secured an assurance from the Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet, Admiral Ernest King, that the Navy would provide escorts for an extra convoy, and ordered Styer to ship 5,400 trucks, 2,000 trailers and 100 locomotives.

This was the responsibility of a civilian agency, the Office of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations, but competition for shipping, port and transportation resources soon arose between military and civil requirements.

It was agreed that civil affairs would be a military responsibility for the first 90 days of a major operation, and a civilian section was added to ASF headquarters in July 1943.

[78] Somervell pressed the British for permission for American troops to take over the running of the Bengal and Assam Railway and the barge traffic on the Brahmaputra River.

Somervell appointed Colonel Paul F. Yount, who had operated the Iranian railway to Tehran, to head it and arranged for additional construction equipment, engineer supplies and service troops to be sent to CBI.

[79] Somervell did not directly involve himself in the affairs of the ETO nearly as much, for fear that Eisenhower and Lee would resent it,[80] but in October 1944, a major shipping crisis developed that threatened to derail the global war effort.

[81] By 20 October over 240 vessels were awaiting discharge in Northwest Europe, and Somervell informed Lee that he could expect no more ships carrying rations, vehicles or ammunition until he made headway with reducing the backlogs.

[86] As ships failed to return on time, supplies began piling up at the ports, depots and railway sidings in the United States.

[87] Somervell suggested cuts be made to the shipping allocated to the British import program, Lend-Lease shipments to the UK and Soviet Union, and to civilian relief.

The WSA and the Maritime Commission opposed this, seeing no reason why civilians should have to tighten their belts due to the inability of American theater commanders to make efficient use of the shipping supplied to them.

The obvious candidate was Styer, but Somervell did not want to lose his chief of staff, so Colonel Leslie R. Groves Jr. (who was promoted to brigadier general) was appointed.

[91] Groves reported to the Military Policy Committee, which consisted of Styer, Rear Admiral William R. Purnell and Vannevar Bush, the head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD).

[98] On 13 May 1946, President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9722, which amended Executive Order 9082, and gave the Secretary of War thirty days "to reassign to such agencies and officers of the War Department as he may deem appropriate the functions, duties, and powers heretofore assigned to the service of supply command and to the Commanding General, Services of Supply.

[100] The Army Service Forces was successful in terms of the mission given to it by Marshall when it was created in March 1942: it relieved him of the burden of having large numbers of people reporting to him, and gave him a single person who could handle logistics.