Does anyone have a handy defination for the number of forces in any given military unit?
Say, How many men in a division vs. a brigade vs. a company vs. a battalion, etc, etc, etc?
Am I using the wrong terminology? Anyway, for some reason it’s hard to find a handy reference.
Thank you. That’s exactly what I was looking for.
Bear in mind that the terms used and numbers involved vary enormously from country to country and between branches of the military.
HPL I hope you don’t mind my riding your coattails here…
What does it mean when they say “82nd” Airborne Division, or “103rd” Infantry Division. The 82nd has been around a long time. Will there be an 83rd?
There already was:
http://www.atomic.pair.com/wwii/
(BTW: These topics have previously been covered in GQ.)
WWII was a huge mobilization so there were a lot of divisions created. With some exceptions, they were just counting when naming divisions. (The 82nd was the 82nd Infantry Division (Airborne).
These days, if the army wants to create a new division, it will look for the most decorated inactive division and re-activate it. (This was probably the last was deactivated.) These old divisions have an existing history around which the new division leaders can create an esprit-de-corps.