Combat command

A combat command was a task-organised, combined-arms formation of about brigade or regiment size used by the armored forces of the United States Army from 1942 until 1963. General Adna Chaffee developed the concept in the 1930s, and it was written into the first armored division tables of organization in December 1941. A combat command had no permanently assigned battalions: tank, armored infantry and armored field artillery battalions, plus tank destroyers, engineers and mechanized cavalry, were attached as each mission required. Armored divisions fielded commands designated A, B and later R for reserve, and in late World War II in Europe divisions usually fought with Combat Commands A and B while worn battalions rested in the reserve. The flexible but less cohesive arrangement contrasted with the infantry regimental combat team, and it foreshadowed the three-brigade divisions of the early 1960s, after which the term was dropped.