Operation Gyroscope and the 3d Armored Division

                         By Bryan Smeathers

                                  1 Jan 2025

On 23 July 1955 the 1st Infantry Division “The Big Red One” steamed into New York harbor aboard the USNS Upshur. It was accorded the most impressive reception given to any military organization since WWII. The event was given full radio, television and newspaper coverage, for this was not only the divisions’ first homecoming since 1942, but the first large movement of personnel from Europe to the United States under OPERATION GYROSCOPE, a new and revolutionary system of troop rotation and replacement.

Rather than using the older system of individual troop rotation and replacement, Operation GYROSCOPE would periodically interchange entire divisions, separate regiments and battalions between overseas assignments and their permanent stations in the United States. The families of married personnel would accompany them concurrently. Additionally, after the completion of basic training and advanced individual training (AIT), an individual soldier normally would remain with one and the same unit for all, or at least a majority of his Army career. The families as well as increasing combat readiness of the Army while simultaneously lowering the costs of maintaining the military establishment.

According to then Army Chief of Staff General Matthew B. Ridgway, “the most

important consideration favoring Operation GYROSCOPE was the likelihood that troop morale

would improve through greater permanency of enlisted men’s assignments.”

Other factors favoring the operation GYROSCOPE were the stability of family life for

the soldiers, Esprit de Corps; deep seated loyalty to a unit could scarcely result from rotations of

the old system. GYROSCOPE on the other hand would provide the permanency of assignment

necessary for establishing pride in a unit. This would be especially true for career personnel.

The military considerations of operation GYROSCOPE were the favorable factors

expected to grow out of unit rotation plan were retention of experienced personnel, better

teamwork, improved utilization of manpower, a strengthened ready reserve and valuable

experience in directing mass movements. It was also believed that the application of operation

GYROSCOPE would result in financial savings accounting to millions of dollars annually,

largely through increased reenlistment rates, mass movement processing, and improved

maintenance of equipment.

Army Regulation 220-20 published 20 October 1954 and revised six months later

governed the initial movements of Operation GYROSCOPE and set forth its operating

principles.The length of tours were 33 months overseas and U.S. tours of 31 months, plus 2 months

travel time, were estimated to be the most efficient.

The merits of unit rotation were never seriously in question, but its introduction was

delayed by the heavy requirements of the Korean conflict. With the end of that conflict the Army

plans for Operation GYROSCOPE began to take shape and, in the summer of 1954, they were

submitted to the major overseas commands for comment. To USAEUR the plan was submitted

formally by a Department of the Army briefing team at USAEUR headquarters in Heidelberg

(West) Germany on 9 August 1954. On the following day representatives of Seventh Army, VII

Corps and USAEUR general and technical staff attended another briefing, followed by a

conference to coordinate their positions.

The GYROSCOPE scope plan was approved and appeared in a distributed press release

in September 1954 announcing the approval and for the program to begin 1 July 1955. In

GYROSCOPE I the 10th Infantry Division at Ft. Riley, Kansas would exchange stations with the

1st Infantry Division in USAEUR, and the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, Ft. George G. Meade,

Maryland would replace the 2d Armored Calvary Regiment in USAEUR. Two days later the

Army Chief of Staff released the necessary message of confirmation.

The Army announced in March 1955 that the 3d Armored Division (Spearhead) at Fort

Knox, Kentucky would be converted from a training unit to a full-strength tactical division and

moreover, the 3d Armored Division’s new cadre and filler personnel were to be GYROSCOPE-

qualified. This presented the 3d Armored Division with the double problem of internal

reorganization and full attainment of GYROSCOPE posture, all within one year’s time.

Originally, the 3d Armored Division was to be operationally ready with 72 hours after

arrival in West Germany, but later instructions stipulated that it would be ready immediately

upon arrival in West Germany.

Other problems grew out of difficulty of exchanging equipment between armored and an

infantry division. The Department of the Army stated that the only items to be brought to Europe

by the 3d Armored Division would be those that could not be obtained either from the departing

4th Infantry Division or from USAEUR stocks. Under the modernization program, USAEUR

would be provided with some medium tanks directly, and would be able to furnish them to the 3d

Armored Division, whereas M-48 tanks and special artillery were to be furnished in the US and

shipped overseas with the division. When it was recommended that all future M-48 tanks issued

to the 4th Infantry Division to equipped with armored-type radios to eliminate the issuance of 16

new sets The new sets issued were boxed and installed before the 3d Armored Division arrived.

In February 1956 additional signal equipment for the armored division began to arrive from the

US and thereafter the plans for transferring equipment worked on schedule until the rotation was

completed. All 4th Infantry Division equipment that would not be needed by the 3d Armored

Division was inventoried and returned to supply depots in West Germany.

Coordinating the delivery of the 3d Armored Division’s equipment with the arrival of its

personnel, presented difficulties. The equipment was originally scheduled to arrive at the

Kasernes approximately 30 days before the personnel arrived. The Seventh Army disagreed withthis plan, because the approximately 700 vehicles involved could not be evacuated in an

emergency. The alternative adopted by the Seventh Army’s suggestion to receive, de-process,

and store the equipment in depots west of the Rhine River pending delivery to the stations on the

arrival dates of the 3d Armored Division’s increments. The Rhine Ordinance Depot as

considered the only suitable storage location, and the USAEUR Transportation Division could

make the necessary rail movements within a 72-hour period.

In the early spring of 1956, it appeared the exchange would create a shortage of such

equipment as gas masks, QM spare parts and post, camp and station-type property in Europe.

Shelter halves, blankets, field range components, and mess gear were in short supply to allow for

the replacement of the 4th Infantry’s unserviceable equipment before its rotation date. In April it

was discovered that adequate supplies for organizational clothing and equipment would not be

available for the incoming 3d Armored Division unless prompt action was taken. Moreover,

about 3,000 members of the 4th Infantry Division, which was not returning to the United States

as a unit but was to be scattered and its personnel reassigned, temporarily assigned to the

incoming 3d Armored Division, creating additional supply problems for the 3d Armored

Division. This problem was corrected by the rapid build-up of theatre stocks, supplies, clothing

and individual equipment and spare parts were acquired on a rush basis.

The original plans for the movement of the 3d Armored Division’s return to Germany for the first

time since the end of WWII, under Operation GYROSCOPE over a 30 day period beginning on

1 May 1956 as outlined in AR 220-20 was determined impractical, primarily because of the

division’s mission and unbalanced deployment of its combat commands after arrival in West

Germany. The actual move took more than 6 weeks. The first group of 3d Armored Division’s

1,600 troops and dependents arrived in Europe on 12 May 1956, and change of command

ceremonies were held 10 June 1956, but the complete movement of the 3d Armored Division

was not completed until 30 June 1956.

The technical details of GYROSCOPE-type movements continued to be well executed in

this exchange. Major General Robert W. Porter, Jr., commander of the advance party of the 3d

Armored Division, made this comment on the arrival of the first increment of the Spearhead

Division:

“The entire operation was conducted in an outstandingly efficient manner; appearance,

morale, and conduct of the troops was superior and the subject of much favorable comment from

impartial observers; despite the arrival of three ships on 12 May and berthing schedule being

disrupted by morning fog, the port staff maintained excellent control and the planned debarkation

and entraining schedules were met; troop train on which I rode was not overcrowded, had

comfortable berths, and served hot meals promptly; the dependent trains were on schedule; full

operational readiness I time in the least possible time; full supply and equipment were available

on station for the units; housing was assigned and hosts with keys were present.

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