bolo121

This is something Ive always wanted to ask.
When a unit (say an infantry division) receives orders to move from location A to location B, how is it carried out? Who in the staff does what, what are the considerations to take into account and so on.
Replies eagerly awaited

Officer of Engineers

Not enough info. Are you talking about walking across the parade grounds to your posts or half way around the globe?

__________________
Chimo

bolo121

Ok will clarify
I meant when in theater, say they are in position at a certain place and are ordered to move to another location say a couple of hundred miles away.
I didnt mean moving from home base all the way across the globe to some other country, although Id be interested to know about that as well.

Albany Rifles

Bolo

Let me give it a shot

Let us make a couple of assumptions here.

a. The division which is moving is staying within the corps it is assigned to…i.e., 3rd ID is moving within the V Corps zone of control.

b. The move is being conducted as part of an administrative movement as opposed to an overall corps attack.

Planning through execution:

The corps operations (G3) staff decides where 3 ID needs to go and when. They in turn work with the corps logistics staff (G4 transportation office) to determine where, when, how, etc.

The support command which supports the corps has a transportation planning cell which works with the planning cells of the corps G3 & G4 to decide the routing and to deconflict the movement across unit boundaries (units are assigned plots of land which they “own”). The logistics planners arrange for traffic control, refuel points, primary and alternate routes, march tables, etc. They then issue a movement order which tells 3 ID to move at X time along Y route(s) and complete by Z. The corps movement control center (MCC) “owns” all of the roads behind the front lines. They have teams throughout the zone which monitor traffic flow and work with the MPs to keep traffic moving.

If you are moving from one corps to another then the same process applies except now it the planning and execution is conducted by the Army and Theater Support Command staff elements.

An example of this in real life was during Desert Storm when the XVIII Airborne Corps moved along the Tap Line Road from behind the right rear flank of the VIIth Corps out to the left front flank of the VIIth Corp prior to the attack into Kuwait in FEB 1991.

Hope this helps.

__________________
"Always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves." TSGT Oddball, Tank Commander

ofogs

An around the world move would work pretty much the same as above, except instead of using roads, there'd be a joint requirement for aircraft and shipping. The planners would still need to coordinate to get everything to the boats and planes, which would involve rails and trucks to get to and from the ports of embarkation and debarkation. The people will fly, along with select equipment. They then link up with it near their destination. Coordination for this happens several months to half a year out, at least, for a lot of planned deployments. Tom Clancy's Armored Cav gives a pretty good general description of the process in one of the scenarios in the end, though this is for a contingency operation with much less lead time.

Albany Rifles

Of course, the joy of this is folks get to spend about 6 weeks cracking open connexes at the port of debarkation trying to find "their" stuff!

ofogs

mmm frustrated cargo

bolo121

Thanks guys that was very informative.
Always wanted to know about this because in most books movement by any unit is usually described as bing made in "indescribable confusion" but somehouse seems to get done in the end anyway.
Do you know any sites on the net i can look up?
Am also interested in how the Allies used to do it back in WW2 days.

Ucar

What creates the confusion is not moving but "relocating"; changing that units home base/garrison. If you decide to relocate a brigade or a division, than that gives you headaches, because you are physically moving all the requirements and infrastructure of 5000 to 10000 men from point X to point Y while making sure nothing gets left behind and everything arrives in order.

ofogs

It'd say it's a lot of organized chaos. If you look at the whole process, it's really impressive how it happens. For the individual on the ground, it can very well appear to be very confusing. Masses of people moving around and tons and tons of cargo. Friction abounds. Stuff gets misrouted and lost. People just work it out on both ends to get everything fixed. The good news is we're learned a bit from the UPSes and FedExes of the world and have better ways of tracking cargo than before, but it's still far from easy.

Albany Rifles

That is what makes Patton's move during the Battle of the Bulge so remarkable. He pulled III Corps out of the line in the middle of an attack to the east, had it move north perpendicular to his line of attack across the rear of 2 other corps which continued to attack east for abotu 120 miles and then conduct an attack against the German Seventh Army...all in winter and on atrocious roads. It is a testimony to his leadership, his staff's planning abilities, his finally learning and paying attention to logistics.

Rerouting combat units is pretty easy. Rerouting the logistics tail to support it, along with the communications, MP support, transportation networks and mountains of "stuff" is hard.