This monograph is based primarily on data maintained in the main files of the Office of the Quartermaster General by the Mail and Records Branch. Demobilization activities cut across all functions of the Quartermaster Corps, and these files were supplemented by data obtained in particular branches, such as the Requirements Branch of the Military Planning Division, the Contract Termination Branch of the Procurement Division, and the Stock Control Branch of the Storage and Distribution Division. To correlate activities at the Office of the Quartermaster General and at the depots use was made of several monographs on depot activities prepared by historians at these installations. The depot record was further supplemented by interviews with key personnel, both military and civilian, at the major procuring depots.

An analysis of the complex tasks associated with Army procurement and economic mobilization featuring the War Department2s business relationships from prewar planning and the determination of military requirements to the settlement and liquidation of the wartime procurement effort.