Field Service, Regulations, Administration - FM 100-10 War Department Field Manual

50. The communications zone contains the administrative establishments required to serve the theater of operations as a whole. It constitutes the base of operations for the air forces and the armies. 51. The forward supply establishments contain balanced stocks maintained at a level determined from time to time as necessary to meet promptly the immediate needs of the troops in the combat zone. In the rear establishments, supplies arriving from the zone of the interior or obtained by local procurement are received, classified, and stored. 52. Functions of the communications zone include procurement, storage, and issue of supplies and materials of all kinds; transportation of supplies and troops; establishment and operation of repair shops, depots for replacements and casuals; rest camps, leave, and quartering areas; establishment of training centers; reception, care, and disposition of salvage; evacuation and hospitalization of casualties; operation and maintenance of railroads and other means of transportation; construction work such as roads, railroads, and buildings; control of traffic; handling mail and censorship; control of civil population in friendly territory; the administration of military government in hostile territory; and defense of the communications zone. 53. Headquarters organization of the communications zone is similar to that of the theater of operations, namely, a commanding general with a general and a special staff. Troops are assigned to the communications zone by the theater commander for operation of its establishments and for its defense. In situations where the theater of operations is not subdivided territorially into a combat zone and a communications zone and the extent of operations requires a separate administrative organization, a service command or a services of supply organization will be substituted for the communications zone organization as prescribed herein. 54. Organization of the communications zone is adapted to the plan of operations and is based on actual conditions in the theater of operations. The communications zone, therefore, will not be organized in the same manner in every theater of operations; each case will present a different problem. The simplest case might occur at the beginning of operations in a theater contiguous to home territory where, supplies received from depots in the zone of the interior are forwarded without transferring loads direct to army or air force supply points. Ordinarily a more elaborate organization will be necessary, particularly where the theater of operations is beyond the continental limits of the United States, in order to provide for adequate distribution of administrative establishments in depth and at the same time provide for the decentralization necessary for efficient administration and defense. 55. The first establishments organized are those of the base section, which may be set up to operate as an advanced section initially. When only the advance section is established; depots of the zone of the interior must function as base depots. In some situations the communications zone may be so extended in depth as to make it desirable to divide the zone into a base section and an advance section in order to secure centralized control and decentralized operation (see fig. 2). It may become desirable to divide the communications zone into three sections, designated in order from rear to front as base, intermediate, and advance. Unusual conditions may require subsections. 56.

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