As far as I know, no one has ever assembled a list of all World War II-era operational research groups. Some of this information is available in published resources; other bits are from archival research. Bullet points under particular groups represent changes of name. Dates can be a little fuzzy, since they can refer to when a group was formally approved, or when it started work; or when one or two people arrived at a location, only later to grow and be formally recognized. I have tried to date things to when work actually began, but have probably not always been consistent in this. Some form of this list will likely appear in my book, but as a general service in the meantime, here it is:
Source on British groups
A general resource is Maurice Kirby, Operational Research in War and Peace (2003)
ROYAL AIR FORCE
Source: Air Ministry, Origins and Development of Operational Research in the Royal Air Forces (1963); see also the specific accounts C. H. Waddington, OR in World War 2: Operational Research against the U-Boat (1973) on ORS Coastal Command, and Randall T. Wakelam’s The Science of Bombing (2009) on ORS Bomber Command.
ORS = Operational Research Section
SAT = Scientific Adviser on Telecommunications (Robert Watson Watt)
C-in-C = Commander-in-Chief
September 1939: ORS Fighter Command
- September 1939: Stanmore Research Section
- January 1941: Chief named Operational Research Officer for SAT
- June 1941: ORS Fighter Command
- 1943-1944: ORS Air Defence of Great Britain; name later reverts
March 1941: ORS Coastal Command
- January 1941: Operational Research Officer for SAT
- March 1941: Scientific Adviser to C-in-C Coastal Command
- May 1941: ORS Coastal Command
September 1941: ORS Bomber Command
- January 1941: Operational Research Officer for SAT
- September 1941: ORS Bomber Command
October 1941: Operational Research Centre
- January 1944: Deputy Directorate of Science
February 1942: ORS Middle East
July 1942: ORS Army Co-operation Command
- June 1943: ORS Tactical Air Force
- February 1944: Absorbed into ORS AEAF as ORS 2nd TAF
- October 1944: ORS 2nd TAF becomes independent
October 1942: ORS Air Headquarters India
- November 1943: ORS Air Command South-East Asia
April 1943: ORS Northwest African Air Forces
- December 1943: ORS Mediterranean Allied Air Forces
November 1943: Scientific Adviser to the Air Ministry
December 1943: ORS Allied Expeditionary Air Force (disbanded October 1944)
March 1944: ORS Flying Training Command
May 1944: ORS Transport Command
September 1944: Bombing Analysis Unit
October 1944: ORS No. 38 Group
- previously part of ORS Allied Expeditionary Air Force
MINISTRY OF SUPPLY
Source: Typescript Histories, UK National Archives, WO 291/1286-1301, especially “Operational Research in the British Army, 1939-1945” (October 1947) WO 291/1301
See also: Brian Austin, Schonland: Scientist and Soldier (2001)
ORG = Operational Research Group
A. A. = Anti-Aircraft
ADRDE = Air Defence Research and Development Establishment
September 1940: Anti-Aircraft Command Research Group
- November 1940: A. A. Wireless School branches off
- April 1941: Transferred to A. A. Wireless School
- July 1941: Petersham Research Group
- August 1941: Transferred to ADRDE in Ministry of Supply
- September 1941: ADRDE (ORG)
- February 1943: Army Operational Research Group (AORG)
AORG oversees work of individual Army OR Sections
Original Groups (1940-1941)
- AORS 1 (A.A. Radar and Operations)
- AORS 2 (Coastal Artillery and Radar, Misc. Radar)
New Groups (Spring and Summer 1942)
- AORS 3 (Signals)
- AORS 4 (Tanks, Anti-tank and Field Artillery)
- AORS 5 (Airborne Forces)
New Groups (January and February 1943)
- AORS 6 (Infantry)
- AORS 7 (Lethality of Weapons)
- AORS 8 (Mines, Obstacles, Optics, and Misc.)
- AORS 9 (Time and Motion Study)
- AORS 10 (Bombardment)
WAR OFFICE
Source: UK National Archives, WO 291/1288-1301, especially “Operational Research in the British Army, 1939-1945” (October 1947) WO 291/1301
September 1940: Anti-Aircraft Command Research Group
April 1942: SD(6) (disbanded July 1943)
May 1942: Scientific Adviser to the Army Council
May 1943: No. 1 ORS (Italy)
July 1943: No. 10 ORS (11 Army Group)
- July 1943: No. 1 ORS
- February 1944: renamed No. 10 ORS
August 1943: No. 2 ORS (21 Army Group)
February 1944: ORS (Australia)
October 1944: No. 11 ORS
(Other groups: Artillery ORS, Biological Research Team)
ADMIRALTY
December 1941: Chief Adviser on Operational Research
- May 1944: Naval Operational Research Department
Sources on American Groups
Charles R. Shrader, History of Operations Research in the United States Army, Vol. I: 1942-1962 (2006) is a good resource for quick institutional history. Erik P. Rau, “Combat Scientists: The Emergence of Operations Research in the United States during World War II” PhD dissertation, 1999, has the most detailed cross-service, behind-the-scenes information on how groups were conceived and set up.
UNITED STATES NAVY
Source: Keith Tidman, The Operations Evaluation Group: A History of Naval Operations Analysis (1984)
See also: “Summary Report to the Office of Field Service, OSRD” (December 1945), US National Archives, Record Group 227, Entry 177, Box 284
ORG = Operations Research Group
January 1942: Mine Warfare Operational Research Group (in BuOrd)
- March 1942: Group formalized
- eventually incorporated into ORG
April 1942: Anti-Submarine Warfare Operations Research Group (ASWORG)
- also known as Group M until incorporation in Office of Field Services
October 1943: AirORG (in Air Intelligence Group)
November 1943: Submarine ORG (SORG)
September 1944: Anti-Aircraft ORG (AAORG)
- July 1945: Special Defenses ORG (SpecORG)
October 1944: Operations Research Group (from ASWORG, SORG, AAORG)
- October 1944: AirORG joins
- October 1944: Operations Research Center
- October 1944: Amphibious ORG (PhibORG)
UNITED STATES ARMY SIGNAL CORPS
March 1942: Directorate of Planning, Operational Research Group
UNITED STATES ARMY AIR FORCES
Sources: United States Army Air Forces, Operations Analysis in World War II (available in full here), data reproduced in Shrader.
March 1942: Directorate of Air Defense, Operational Research Group
Operations Analysis Sections:
- September 1942: AAF School of Applied Tactics
- October 1942: Eighth Air Force
- December 1942: AAF Headquarters
- May 1943: Eleventh Air Force
- May 1943: IX Bomber Command (disbanded October 1943)
- June 1943: VIII Fighter Command (closed October 1944)
- July 1943: Mediterranean Allied Air Forces
- September 1943: Second Air Force
- October 1943: Fifth Air Force (merged into FEAF in July 1944)
- October 1943: Thirteenth Air Force (merged into FEAF in July 1944)
- November 1943: Fifteenth Air Force
- December 1943: Ninth Air Force
- December 1943: XX Bomber Command
- January 1944: AAF, India-Burma Theater
- March 1944: Fourth Air Force
- May 1944: Twentieth Air Force
- July 1944: Third Air Force
- July 1944: Fourteenth Air Force
- July 1944: Far East Air Forces (FEAF)
- August 1944: AAF, Pacific Ocean Area
- October 1944: XXI Bomber Command
- January 1945: AAF Weather Wing
- May 1945: Continental Air Forces
- July 1945: 301st Fighter Wing, Very Long Range
OSRD OFFICE OF FIELD SERVICES
*These sections were more field units of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (akin to the British Branch of the MIT Radiation Laboratory) than OR sections; however, the American army designated the Central Pacific Group (housed in Hawaii) an “operational research section”; therefore it, and a companion section based in Australia, are listed here for the sake of completeness.
Source: John Burchard and Lincoln Thiesmeyer, Combat Scientists (1947); Irvin Stewart, Organizing Scientific Research for War (1948); Shrader.
March 1944: Research Section, Southwest Pacific Area
June 1944: Operational Research Section, Central Pacific Area
CANADIAN MILITARY SERVICES
Source: Air Ministry, Origins and Development; and N. W. Morton, “A Brief History of the Development of Canadian Military Operations Research,” Operations Research 4 (1956): 187-192.
August 1942: Royal Canadian Air Force, Operational Research Section
1943: Royal Canadian Navy, Operational Research Directorate
January (?) 1944: Canadian Army Operational Research Group
AUSTRALIAN MILITARY SERVICES
Source: Air Ministry, Origins and Development; and D. P. Mellor, Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Series Four, Civil, Vol. V, The Role of Science and Industry (1958), chapter 28, “Operational Research”.
February 1944: Royal Australian Air Force, Operational Research Section