Series S-1191 - Country Programs Division - Programming Branch - General Files

No. of Boxes: 8

The first organization plan of the Bureau of Supply (Bureau of Supply Order No. 2, c. January 1944) contained provision for a Requirements and Allocations Division. After 15 April 1944, it operated as two branches, a Requirements Co-ordination Branch, and an Allocations Co-ordination Branch, (Bureau of Supply Order No. 8). The two were again joined (Bureau of Supply Order No. 8, Supp. 7) on 12 October 1944. On 13 July 1945 (Bureau of Supply Bulletin No. 34) the Branch was abolished, and its functions were taken over by the new Country Programs Division. The new Division took over some of the functions and staff of the 'area desks' of the former Bureau of Areas.
The functions of the office were, briefly, to act in a staff and liaison capacity in connection with the computation of supply requirements and the preparation of requests for allocations, and in the development of coordinated requirements programs. It was divided into four major units: an Executive Office; a Programming Branch, responsible for drawing up and coordinating a broad program of supply operations by balancing the needs and requests of receiving countries against available resources of funds and supplies; an Operations Branch, principally occupied with preparing and maintaining current records and reports of the progress of the program; and a Country Desk Branch, consisting mainly of liaison officers responsible for coordinating the work of the various Supply Bureau divisions with respect to individual countries and for assisting the Mission heads and the Washington representatives of those countries.
When liquidation began, the Country Programs Division was abolished on 1 August 1947, and its remaining functions were assumed by the new Residual Operations and Records Division (General Bulletin No. 277). This was in turn succeeded on 1 April 1948 by the Division of Residual Supply Activities (AO 103, Supp. 21).