![]() Herbert B. Crosby Major General, United States Army |
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Major General Herbert Ball Crosby, U.S. Army
Second Lieutenant 1893
Served with 8th Cavalry Regiment 1893-01
Appointed Commissioner of District of Washington 1930-33 Married Catharine Adelaide Dakin February 11,
1902. Children: George Dakin, Richard Lansing, Jane & Gordon Willard.
Of course, the cavalry's isolation from the currents of technological change did not last. The first in a series of changes that would ultimately lead cavalrymen to rethink the issue mechanization came in 1927. That year the Chief of Cavalry, Maj. Gen. Herbert B. Crosby, recommended, and Secretary of War Dwight Davis approved, the addition of a small number of tanks and antitank weapons to the existing cavalry division. Otherwise, cavalrymen saw few modern vehicles. Each of the fifteen Regular Army horse cavalry regiments possessed only a handful of passenger cars for administrative transportation. More significantly, Davis' November visit to the British Experimental Mechanized Force engerized American mechanization policy. He watched the unit defeat a mixed infantry and cavalry force three times its size in less than forty-eight hours of operations. Impressed by what he had seen, Davis returned and ordered the U.S. Army to conduct its own tests. In the late 1920s, Maj. Gen. Herbert B. Crosby, the Chief of Cavalry dutifully supported the General Staff's plan for a permanent mechanized force. Only Maj. Gen. Stephen O. Fuqua, the Chief of Infantry, raised objections; he feared the plan would rob his own branch of its control over tanks and tank development. Davis approved the plan over Fuqua's objections. In the meantime, the deadline for fiscal year 1930 budget submissions had already passed, so Davis delayed the plan's implementation for a year. The report called for $1 million in new equipment procurement for the mechanized force each fiscal year from 1931 through 1933. As he ended his tour as the Chief of Cavalry,
Crosby expressed his feelings about mechanization to students and faculty
of the Cavalry School. He attacked the opponents of mechanization within
the arm. Crosby argued that mechanization was "the greatest friend of cavalry
just as the air service is. Mechanization will create a greater demand
for Cavalry than ever before." His comment on the value of the airplane
to cavalry reflected the widely-held belief that aircraft freed the arm
of the difficult task of long range reconnaissance, allowing them to focus
on close reconnaissance and tasks in the main battle area. No doubt some
cynic in the audience said to himself the last thing cavalry needed was
more friends like the Air Corps! Other senior officers help spread the
word. The Chief of the Operations Section of the General Staff drew direct
parallels between tanks and the traditional forms of cavalry in his talks
on mechanization. He told his audiences that the Mechanized Force was specifically
tested how well tanks could fill the light cavalry role. Maj. Gen. Edward
L. King's remarks were so direct, they demanded traditional cavalrymen
sit up and take notice of the new force.
CROSBY, HERBERT B MAJOR GEN USARMY RETIRED DATE OF DEATH: 01/11/1936 BURIED AT: SECTION 6 SITE 5013 ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY Posted: 4 May 2004 Updated: 25 May 2004 Updated: 31 December 2005 Updated: 9 December 2006 |
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