152 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



of the Director of OSRD as Chairman of the Joint Committee on New 

 Weapons and Equipment of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (see Chapter III). 

 Supplementing these, the formal points of contact between OSRD and the 

 Services were the War Department Liaison Officer for the NDRC in the 

 case of the Army and the Co-ordinator of Research and Development in the 

 case of the Navy. These two officers were the official spokesmen for the War 

 and Navy Departments and through them cleared the formal expression of 

 views of the Departments in their transactions with OSRD. 



From June 27, 1940, when NDRC was formed until July 12, 1941, when 

 the Office of the Co-ordinator of Research and Development was created by 

 General Orders No. 150 of the Navy Department, liaison with NDRC was 

 through the Director of the Naval Research Laboratory. Establishment of 

 the Co-ordinator 's Office in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy provided 

 a better mechanism for liaison. Rear Admiral Julius A. Purer, as Co-ordinator 

 from December 13, 1941, until his retirement after V-E Day, made that 

 mechanism function admirably, at times under extraordinary difficulties. He 

 served also most effectively as a member of the Advisory Council. Captain 

 Lybrand P. Smith joined the Co-ordinator 's Office August i, 1941, as 

 assistant to the Co-ordinator and at that time became the Navy member 

 of NDRC, continuing as such until Admiral Purer took his place February 

 28, 1945, on Captain Smith's retirement. OSRD-Navy relations benefited 

 greatly from the continuity of service of these two naval officers and also 

 from their special qualifications for their respective positions. 



The numerous changes which occurred in Army representation necessarily 

 acted as a handicap. The complexity of the Army organization also was a 

 source of trouble. The Army was large. In the number of officers it expanded 

 in about two years by a factor of fifty. It was subdivided into the Ground 

 Forces, the Air Forces and the Service Forces, of which the first had the 

 function of combat; the second, combat and procurement; and the third, 

 mainly procurement. Above these was the War Department General Staff 

 and the Special Staff of which the New Developments Division when 

 formed in October 1943 was a part. 



The Army Ground Forces contained a wealth of information as to combat 

 needs of forces in the field, which was often difficult to obtain, largely be- 

 cause of the complexity of the Army organization, and the frequent inter- 

 position of the technical branches of the Army Service Forces between the 

 Ground Forces and OSRD. A bright spot in the Ground Forces organization 

 was provided by the boards maintained by each of the arms within the 

 Ground Forces for testing proposed equipment to determine its suitability 

 for field service. Thus there were the Armored Force Board, the Engineer 

 Board, the Coast and Field Artillery Boards, the Antiaircraft and the Tank 

 Destroyer Boards. The members of these Boards were usually competent and 

 alert to the needs of the troops, with whom they were in close touch. In 



