Organisation - Fighting In Teams
Most modern armies are organized along similar lines, although there are local variations among nations and among the formal arrangements in peacetime and ad hoc groupings used for specific types of combat.
The basic infantry fighting unit is the platoon, which consists of around 30 to 40 men, commanded by a first or second lieutenant or senior NCO. Within each platoon there are three or four sections, or squads, that may be further divided into fire teams. Each section or squad is normally carried in a single armored personnel carrier (APC), infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) or helicopter. In tank units a platoon may consist of between three and five vehicles. In the artillery it may be called a section, and consist of two guns with their supporting vehicles.
Three or four platoons, plus an HQ and administrative element, make a company, commanded by a captain or perhaps a major. In tank units it is called a squadron, and in the artillery a battery. Three or four companies; again with a HQ and admin element make a battalion, commanded by a major or a lieutenant colonel. But, just to confuse matters, some battalion strength units in the British army are called regiments.
Two or three battalions usually make a regiment, with an HQ element under a lieutenant colonel or full colonel, while two or more regiments make a brigade commanded by a brigadier or one-star general. However, in some armies a brigade may be composed just of three or more individual battalions, without an intervening regimental level of Several brigades make a division, under a major general or two-star general. Several divisions make a corps, under a lieutenant general or three-star general (the Soviet army, however, calls a unit this size an army).
Several corps make an army group (or ‘front’. in Soviet parlance), under a four-star general, while two or more army groups make a theatre under a field marshal or five-star general. A theatre is a TVD for the Soviets; NATO designates each one individually — for example Allied Forces Center for the Central Front, which means most of western Germany.
At divisional level and above there are usually large specialist formations held directly by the commander, outside the normal pyramid of battalions, brigades, and so on. Thus a Soviet combined arms army (a corps in Western parlance) might have several independent tank, helicopter, engineer, signals and artillery battalions on top of four motor rifle and two tank divisions.
In actual combat many armies use mixed groups of all arms right down to company level — where a combat team tailored for a specific task might consist of two platoons of infantry, one of tanks, and one of engineers. At one level higher, a battle group might have two tank squadrons, one infantry company and an engineer squadron, supported by an artillery battery.
At the start of a war these groups can be created as an act of deliberate choice, but later on they will often result from the scraping together of whatever remains after complete units have been shattered in hard fighting.
The conventional signs used to represent units on tactical maps try to reflect the rank of the commander — e.g. a brigade, commanded by a one-star general, is signified by one cross at the top. A platoon gets three dots, to represent a sergeant’s three stripes, and so on.
The icons designating the unit’s type are less self-explanatory, although armor is indicated by a rhomboidal shape vaguely reminiscent of early tanks; engineers get a little bridge, and machine guns and anti-tank guns are roughly sketched in plan view.
The level of battle above tactics is called ‘operations’ (in Soviet terminology, ‘operational art’). This includes the actions of corps and army groups, maneuvering to set up a series of individual tactical battles to achieve a broader overall goal. This process will often mean that some battles will deliberately be conceded to the enemy — and one’s own troops sacrificed — in the interests of achieving a higher advantage in other battles elsewhere.
Above operations comes ‘theatre strategy’ — the combination of all the operations within a given theatre. This in turn will reflect the general political strategy — the war aims — of the nation or alliance that is fighting the war. At this level strictly military considerations will often he secondary to political ones.
