U S Army regular regiments

How many RA infantry regiments were there before the war, 1940 or thereabout? Lots of sources give numbers of personnel or divisions, but I have not been able to find regiments. Thanks for any help.

 

I assume that you are inquiring as to how many total regiments in the Regular Army in 1940, to include infantry, cavalry, armored, engineer, field artillery, coastal artillery as well? I'm at work, and my copy of Stanton's (yes he's been disgraced, but his book is a great source) is at home. I can get to it later on in case nobody supplies the information in the meantime.

 

That would be great, thanks.

 

In terms of Infantry there were 67 regiments authorized, of which 40 were active and 27 inactive as of 30 June 1939. Of the active regiments, 14 had at least one battalion or more inactive and only one, the 29th Infantry - the"Infantry School Troops" - was fully organized with all subordinate elements at war strength. Two of the active regiments, the 66th and 67th, were Infantry (Tank), there were no other tank units in the Army (technically).

There were 18 Cavalry regiments authorized, including the 26th Cavalry (Philippine Scouts). Of those on 30 June 1939, 15 were active, but like the Infantry many had inactive components. The 1st and 13th were Mechanized and equipped with "Combat Cars", which were tanks in every one except name.

There were 87 Field Artillery regiments, of which 12 were active and 15 were partially active with at least one battalion active as of 30 June 1939. During the interwar period three regiments remained wholly inactive.

There were 46 Coast Artillery regiments: 24 Harbor Defense, 2 Railway, 16 AA, and 4 Tractor Drawn. Until the declaration of emergency in September 1939, the regiments had only one to three batteries active, except in the three overseas departments (Hawaii, Philippines, and Panama).

There were 37 Engineer regiments, 14 Combat and 23 General Service. Of those, 7 Combat and 22 General Service regiments were inactive as of 30 June 1939.

Note that many of the "inactive" RA units were classed as "Regular Army Inactive", which meant that they maintained a caretaker staff of RA officers and enlisted that were periodically augmented by RA and OR personnel as part of the Reserve training cycle. Many of these were based in colleges and universities and staffed the ROTC. In this way between 1921-1939, many OR subordinate units - battalions, companies, and batteries - were withdrawn from the Reserve and allocated to the Regular Army for a period, before returning to the Reserve.