Battalion
A battalion is a
The word "battalion" came into the English language in the 16th century from the French bataillon "battle squadron" (compare Italian battaglione with the same meaning), derived from Vulgar Latin battalia "battle" and ultimately from Classical Latin battuere "to beat or strike." The first use of the word in English was in the 1580s.[2]
Description
A battalion comprises two or more primary mission companies, which are often of a common type (e.g., infantry, tank, or maintenance), although there are exceptions, such as
The battalion must have a source of resupply to enable it to sustain operations for more than a few days. This is because a battalion's complement of ammunition, expendable weapons (e.g.,
The commander's staff coordinates and plans operations. A battalion's subordinate companies and their platoons are dependent upon the battalion headquarters for command, control, communications and intelligence, and the battalion's service and support structure. The battalion is usually part of a regiment, group, or brigade, depending on the branch of service.[citation needed]
NATO
NATO map symbols[4] |
---|
A friendly battalion of unspecified composition |
A friendly mechanised infantry battalion |
A friendly tank battalion |
A hostile motor infantry battalion |
A friendly field ambulance |
NATO defines a battalion as "larger than a company, but smaller than a regiment" while "consisting of two or more company-, battery-, or troop-sized units and a headquarters."[5] The standard NATO symbol for a battalion consists of a pair of vertical lines placed above a framed unit icon.[6] Member nations have stipulated the different names they will use for organisations of this size.
American[7] | Battalion, or squadron |
---|---|
Belgium[8] | Bataillon, or escadrille |
British[9] | Battalion, regiment, field ambulance, wing, battle group, or commando |
Bulgaria[10] | Bataliyon (батальон), or diviziyon (дивизион) |
Canadian[11] | Battalion, regiment, or squadron |
Croatian | Bojna or rarely bataljun |
Czech Republic[12] | Prapor, oddíl, or letka |
Denmark[13] | Bataljon, afdeling, or bataljons kampgruppe |
Finland | Pataljoona, or bataljon |
French[14] | Bataillon, or groupement |
German[15] | Bataillon, Abteilung, Bootsgeschwader, Schiff, or Lehrgruppe |
Greece[16] | Taghma, moira, epilarchia |
Hungary[17] | Zászlóalj, or osztály |
Italian[18] | Battaglione, gruppo, gruppo squadroni, autogruppo, or reparto |
Lithuania[19] | Batalionas, or eskadrilė |
Netherlands[20] | Bataljon, afdeling, groep, colonne, or commando |
Norway[21] | Bataljon, stridsgruppe |
Polish[22] | Batalion, or dywizjon |
Portuguese[23] | Batalhão, or grupo |
Romanian | Batalion |
Spain[24] | Batallón, grupo, or grupo táctico |
Turkey[25] | Tabur |
British Army
The term battalion is used in the
An infantry battalion is numbered ordinarily within its regiment (e.g., 1st Battalion,
Important figures in a battalion headquarters include:
- Commanding officer (CO) (invariably a lieutenant colonel)
- Second-in-command (2i/c) (major)
- Adjutant (captain)
- Quartermaster (QM) (LE captain)
- Quartermaster (technical) (QM(T))
- Medical officer (MO) (Royal Army Medical Corps captain or major)
- Administrative officer (Adjutant General's Corps captain or major)
- Royal Army Chaplains Departmentchaplain 4th or 3rd class)
- Operations officer (Ops) (lieutenant)
- Intelligence officer (IO) (lieutenant or captain)
- Regimental Signals officer (RSO) (Royal Corps of Signals captain)
- Regimental sergeant major (RSM) (warrant officer class 1)
- Regimental quartermaster sergeant (RQMS) (warrant officer class 2)
- Regimental quartermaster sergeant (technical) (RQMS(T)) (warrant officer class 2)
Battalions of other corps are given separate cardinal numbers within their corps (e.g., 101 Battalion REME).
Battle group
A battle group consists of an infantry battalion or armoured regiment with sub-units detached from other military units acting under the command of the battalion commander.
Canadian Army
In the Canadian Army, the battalion is the standard unit organisation for infantry and combat service support and each battalion is divided into one or more sub-units referred to as companies. In the
Those regiments consisting of more than one battalion are:
- The Royal Canadian Regiment (three regular and one reserve battalions)
- Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (three regular battalions)
- Royal 22e Régiment(three regular and two reserve battalions)
- The Royal Newfoundland Regiment(two reserve battalions)
Tactically, the Canadian battalion forms the core of the infantry battle group, which also includes various supporting elements such as armour, artillery, combat engineers and combat service support. An infantry battle group will typically be commanded by the commander of the core infantry battalion around which it is formed and can range in size from 300 to 1,500 or more soldiers, depending on the nature of the mission assigned.
Indian Army
A battalion in the
Royal Netherlands Army
In the Royal Netherlands Army, a mechanised infantry battalion usually consists of one command- and medical company, three mechanised infantry companies and one support company, which has three platoons with heavy mortars and three platoons with anti-tank missiles (TOW). With the Dutch artillery units, the equivalent of a battalion is called an afdeling (which translates to "section").
Combat companies consist of (usually mechanised) infantry,
The Netherlands have four battalions that are permanently reserved for the United Nations, for the purpose of peacekeeping duties.
An infantry battalion, logistical battalion, combat battalion and the Netherlands Marine Corps all have a battalion structure. Each battalion usually consists of the following:
- Battalion command
- Commander
- Second in command
- General service
- Personnel section
- Intelligence section
- Operations section
- Materiel section
- Communication section
- Command company
- Command group
- Administration group
- Medical group
- Communication group
- Supply platoon
- Three infantry companies
- Support company
- Command group
- Recon platoon
- Mortar platoon
- Anti-tank platoon
Soviet Armed Forces
Motorised rifle battalion
In the
Tank battalion
Prior to the late 1980s, Soviet tank battalions consisted of three tank companies of 13
Artillery battalion
A Soviet artillery battalion in the late 1980s consisted of a battalion headquarters, a headquarters platoon, a maintenance and supply platoon and three firing batteries, each with six artillery pieces, whether the self-propelled 2S1 Gvozdikas or the towed D-30 howitzers, and numbering 260 personnel or 240 personnel respectively. Rocket launcher artillery battalions consisted of a headquarters and headquarters platoon, a service battery and three firing batteries equipped with BM-21 Grads for a total of 255 personnel.[31][32]
Swiss Army
With the major reform of its armed forces in 2004, the
United States Armed Forces
This section needs additional citations for verification. (February 2020) |
United States Army
In the United States Army, a battalion is a unit composed of a headquarters and two to six batteries, companies, or troops. They are normally identified by ordinal numbers (1st Battalion, 2nd Squadron, etc.) and normally have subordinate units that are identified by single letters (Battery A, Company A, Troop A, etc.). Battalions are tactical and administrative organisations with a limited capability to plan and conduct independent operations and are normally organic components of brigades, groups, or regiments.
A U.S. Army battalion includes the battalion commander (lieutenant colonel), executive officer (major), command sergeant major (CSM), headquarters staff and usually three to five companies, with a total of 300 to 1,000[33] (but typically 500 to 600) soldiers.[34] A regiment consists of between two and six organic battalions, while a brigade consists of between three and seven separate battalions.
During the American Civil War, an infantry or cavalry battalion was an ad hoc grouping of companies from the parent regiment (which had ten companies, A through K, minus J as described below), except for certain regular infantry regiments, which were formally organised into three battalions of six companies each (numbered 1–6 per battalion vice sequential letter designations). After 1882, cavalry battalions were renamed squadrons and cavalry companies were renamed troops. Artillery battalions typically comprised four or more batteries, although this number fluctuated considerably.
During World War II, most infantry regiments consisted of three battalions (1st, 2nd and 3rd) with each battalion consisting of three rifle companies and a heavy weapons company.
The U.S. Army also created
From the 1960s through the early 1980s, a typical maneuver (infantry or tank) battalion had five companies:
In this older structure, U.S. Army mechanised infantry battalions and tank battalions, for tactical purposes, task-organised companies to each other, forming a battalion-sized task force (TF).
Starting in 2005–2006, the U.S. Army's mechanised and tank battalions were reorganised into combined arms battalions (CABs). Tank battalions and mechanised infantry battalions no longer exist. These new combined arms battalions are modular units, each consisting of a headquarters company, two mechanised infantry companies, two tank companies and a forward support company attached from the battalion's parent brigade support battalion. This new structure eliminated the need to task-organise companies between battalions; each combined arms battalion was organically composed of the requisite companies. At a higher level, each armoured brigade (formerly designated 'heavy brigade') is now composed of three CABs (versus the two CABs of a former heavy brigade), one reconnaissance squadron, one artillery battalion, one brigade engineer battalion (BEB) and one brigade support battalion (BSB).
United States Marine Corps
A
In the U.S. Marine Corps, an infantry or "rifle" battalion typically consists of a headquarters and service company, three rifle, or "line", companies (designated alphabetically A through M depending upon which battalion of the parent regiment to which they are attached) and a weapons company. Weapons companies do not receive a letter designation. Marine infantry regiments use battalion and company designations as described above under World War II, with company letters D, H and M not normally used but rather held in reserve for use in augmenting a fourth rifle company into each battalion as needed.
United States Marine Corps infantry battalions are task organised into Battalion Landing Teams (BLTs) as the ground combat element (GCE) of a
The
See also
References
- ^ "Military Units: Army".
- ^ Murray, James A. H.; Bradley, Henry; Craigie, W. A.; Onions, C. T., eds. (1933). The Oxford English Dictionary. Vol. 1 (1st ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- ISBN 978-1-4129-6933-8.
- ^ APP-6C Joint Military Symbology (PDF). NATO. May 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 September 2015.
- ^ APP-6D NATO Joint Military Symbology. NATO Standardization Office. October 2017. pp. 3–67.
- ^ APP-6D NATO Joint Military Symbology. NATO Standardization Office. October 2017. pp. 3–67.
- ^ APP-6D B-31
- ^ APP-6D B-4
- ^ APP-6D B-14
- ^ APP-6D B-5
- ^ APP-6D B-6
- ^ APP-6D B-7
- ^ APP-6D, B-10
- ^ APP-6D, B-13
- ^ APP-6D, B-8
- ^ APP-6D, B-15
- ^ APP-6D, B-17
- ^ APP-6D, B-19
- ^ APP-6D, B-20
- ^ APP-6D, B-23
- ^ APP-6D, B-24
- ^ APP-6D, B-25
- ^ APP-6D, B-26
- ^ APP-6D, B-11
- ^ APP-6D, B-30
- ^ "Structure of Army". indianarmy.nic.in. Archived from the original on 10 November 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ FM 100-2-3. United States Army. June 1991. p. 4-4 (35). Archived from the original on 5 December 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
- ^ US Army, FM 100-2-3 The Soviet Army: Troops, Organization and Equipment, 4–3
- ^ US Army, FM 100-2-3 The Soviet Army: Troops, Organization and Equipment, Paragraph 4-15
- ^ US Army, FM 100-2-3 The Soviet Army: Troops, Organization and Equipment, Paragraph 4-108
- ^ US Army, FM 100-2-3 The Soviet Army: Troops, Organization and Equipment, Paragraph 4-3
- ^ US Army, FM 100-2-3 The Soviet Army: Troops, Organization and Equipment, 4–50
- ^ Katie Lange. "Military Units: How Each Service Is Organized". DoD News, Defense Media Activity. Archived from the original on 15 February 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
Battalion: Consists of 4–6 companies and can include up to about 1,000 soldiers.
- Encyclopedia Britannica. Archivedfrom the original on 11 July 2018. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
In the early 21st century the typical U.S. Army battalion was a unit of between 500 and 600 officers and enlisted personnel divided into a headquarters company and three rifle companies.
- Encyclopedia Britannica. Archivedfrom the original on 11 July 2018. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
After World War I the "square" infantry battalion of four companies was superseded by the "triangular" battalion of World War II and the Korean War, usually composed of three rifle companies, a heavy-weapons company and a headquarters company.
External links
- French Infantry of the Napoleonic Wars
- The Battalion Commander's Handbook, 1996, by Major General Richard A. Chilcoat, US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania
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