Axis & Allies ForuMINI

jfkziegler · Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 3:37 am Post subject: Military unit classifications

Not being a military person myself, and having most of my interest on the sea side, I have a question that is going to sound stupid, but I hope you can help me with it. I have always wondered what the breakdown of a military is. In other words, how many men are in a division? Is a division the biggest unit an army is broken into? How many men in a regiment? A platoon? A squadron? Which one is the biggest type of unit, which one is the smallest? What order do they go in? Any help with this question is appreciated.
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lotharlutjens · Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:30 am Post subject:

Ok., all armies vary to some degree or another, but an average squad is around 8 to 12 men. 2 to 4 squads make up a platoon. Around 3 platoons make up a company. 3 compamies make up a battalion, 2-3 battalions make up a regiment or brigade. 2-4 regiments or brigades make up a division. 2-4 divisions make up a corps. 2-4 corps make up an army. 2 or more armies make up an army group. Numbers in any of these formations can vary greatly.
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lotharlutjens · Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 6:11 am Post subject: tank formations

Here's an example of two different tank formations circa June 22 1941 (Operation Barbarossa). A German Tank Platoon had 5 Panzers. The panzer company typically had a light platoon of Pz-II's, 2 platoons of Pz-III, and one platoon of Pz-IV. (Usually 4 panzers in the Pz-IV Platoon due to Pz- IV shortages), and a command element of two Panzers (type of panzer could vary). Total company strength of 21 -22 panzers. 3 of these companies made up the Panzer battalion, Add a command element of around 7 more Panzers and you get a strength of around 70 Panzers to the battalion. The Russians went with a tank platoon of 3 (type of tank could vary wildly) 3 platoons plus a command tank made a Soviet Tank company field 10 tanks. Two of these companies plus a command tank made a battalion strength of 21 tanks. 3 of these battalions plus 2 more command tanks made a brigade of 65 tanks. Operationally a German Pz- battalion had about the same strength as a Soviet brigade.
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jfkziegler · Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:06 pm Post subject:

Thanks!
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Dj Frantic · Joined: 01 Jan 2008 Posts: 29

Thats really helpfull info. Do you happen to have a source where we can find info like this on different factions and maybe for infantry aswell ? Thanks.

lotharlutjens · Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 3:13 pm Post subject:

WWII tactical (operational and strategic as well ) games are my bread and butter as a gamer, unfortunately I really am bothered by the feeble attempt at making a good tactical WWII wargame that WOTC has published. I think the whole system is garbage. ( But that is just my opinion ) You asked for scources and I must tell you that my scources are so varied and many on this subject I will not even begin to list the books, but , I will list a few games that show fairly accurate military formations. In fact I'll start with the old Avalon Hill ( WOTC owns them don't they?) games , Panzerblitz, Panzer Leader, The Arab Israeli wars and Squad Leader and it's plethora of expansions ( I was a die hard squad leader player up until they started throwing rules in there like checking ground pressure of tires to see if a truck bog's down. I think they went a little overboard there) Back in the late 80's I did Historical research on a now pretty obscure game by Gary Grigsby of SSI fame for the Apple II computer system called Panzer Strike, if you can find a copy of it's Historical Manual, I put a good breakdown of tactical orginizations there.

One must remember that operational strengths varied as the war went on, particurally amongst the Axis where less and less was required to do more and more. Sorry I took several weeks to respond to this, I've been busy re-learning World War One.
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Gaming for 36 Years.