CDF land units and formations

The Land Service of the Community Defence Forces of Sober Thought is organised into groupings of different numbers of troops. Like most RL armies, the are organised in classes depending on the number of troops and the objectives they hope to achieve.

Sub-units

This term describes groupings of soldiers who are always raised as a part of another body of soldiers from whom they take their identity and who are never expected to fight unassisted even for a short time. In Community Defence Forces hieroglyphics, these are indicated with one to four solid circles appearing above the rectangle illustrating the type of unit.

Troop

At the most basic level, one solid circle indicates an individual solider, the smallest subunit. Such a symbol is virtually never seen in CDF hieroglyphics, but it is available should one need it. The most common instances one encounters it are for people like commanders (commissioned, warranted or non-commissioned) and important weapons crewmembers (gunner, loader or No. 3 machinegunner).

Team

This is not especially common either, being used mainly to indicate positively or negatively the crew needed to operate a large vehicle or heavy infantry weapon. A symbol with two solid circles might be used to indicate a tank driving crew, an APC passenger crew or a mortar crew. Officially, these are named after Greek letters spelled out (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, etc., but where there is one driving crew and one passenger crew the informal title is more likely to be applied).

Some RL armies, e.g., more traditionally British Commonwealth ones, will call this a group, e.g., Bren Group, Rifle Group, Scout Group.

Squad

Slightly more common, especially for hard-hitting squads like an infantry company's Machinegun Squad. Three solid circles in this context indicates a Leading Solider directing three crews (teams) of three 8 mm MMGs, each crew consisting of a team leader-No. 1 machinegunner, a No. 2 and a No. 3. They bear the names of one set of primary colours, Red, Green and Blue, and such intermediate colours as are required to account for the squads in the platoon.

The RL British Army Special Air Service regiments call this sub-unit a patrol, while most other Commonwealth units would call it a section (which is reserved for the CDF Naval Service)

Platoon

Finally getting into the range of common, it is most frequently used for specialised combat and support platoons like the Reconnaissance, Medical and Sniper Platoons in an infantry battalion. Four solid circles in this context might indicate the battalion medical officer, her command staff and 20 non-commissioned stretcherbearers. Those platoons which do not already bear a name are assigned the names of simple geometric shapes: circle, rhombus, triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, septagon, octagon and nonagon.

In RL Commonwealth armies, it is called a troop in armoured, artillery and special forces. It may also mean a movie starring Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe.

Units

This term describes groupings of soldiers who are always raised a single body and which is divided into subordinate subunits and which may be expected to fight unassisted for a short time. The hieroglyphic symbols for units are one to five vertical stripes or pipes (|) appearing above the rectangle illustrating the type of unit.

In practice, the boundary between subunit and unit is blurry, since companies may be raised on their own and remain on their own as units, they may be raised on their own as units but become subunits after being grouped long-term into a battalion, or they may be raised solely as subunits. Regardless of their origin or ultimate disposition, companies still get one vertical stripe for consistency.

Company

The one line (|) of the company is used most frequently to indicate the location of headquarters companies for higher units formations. It is also used to identify specialised subunits like Reconnaissance and Support Companies in armoured battalions. Those companies raised in a battalion receive a capitalised Roman letter starting with A for the field companies and Z for the other companies. So Z Company, HQ Company and Support Company might be three different ways of referring to the same grouping of troops.

Some companies (such as most engineering and all health) are subunits raised as part of a battalion, but some are small units in their own right raised independently of a battalion but frequently attached to one after the fact. They receive numbers in various separate sequences.

It is known as squadron (for armoured, SAS and SBS) in RL Commonwealth armies, and additionally (for engineering and communications) in RL Canadian army, and battery (for artillery). To confuse things further, in the RL U.S. Army, it is known as a troop in armoured and artillery units -- one tier up from their fellow English-speakers in the Commonwealth.

Battalion

Two lines distinguish this, the most common tactical symbol used to identify the two dozen or so units of a division. Most battalions are homogenous and have been raised as a unit, e.g., transport, supply and infantry. They receive Arabic ordinal numbers in various sequences.

Some are semi-homogenous, their constituent companies raised from different types within the same sub-branch (engineering) or different sub-branches within the same branch (health). They are designated by the name of the lowest administrative level of the hierarchy that applies, e.g., 1st Combat Engineering Battalion, 2nd Civil Engineering Battalion, 4th Health Battalion, 10th Public Health Battalion.

Some are truly heterogeneous, e.g., the divisional security battalion consisting of reconnaissance, military police and intelligence companies all raised in different branches. These are designated composite battalions, as are very mixed semi-homogenous units, e.g., 9th Composite Security Battalion, 1st Composite Artillery Battalion (Airborne) [companies of pack and air defence artillery], 100th Composite Engineering Battalion [NBC, bridging, ordnance and mechanical engineering companies].

In RL armies, however, the terminology is not so straightforward. Battalion-sized units have been or are still called: brigades (First World War Britain), regiments (Commonwealth armoured and artillery), battalion groups (Canada post-war indicating an augmentation a la brigade group), battlegroups (Canada recent decades for augmentation, Britain recent decades mixture of armoured and armoured infantry companies but no augmentation), squadrons (U.S. armoured) and batteries (U.S. artillery).

Demi-brigade

This is just a large sized unit, symbolised by three lines. The demi-brigade is commonly encountered and describes moderately large (usually two permanent and one intermittent battalions) units appearing in a division. The divisional reserve or combat support demi-brigade usually consists of one armoured, one armoured infantry and perhaps one other substitute or augmenting battalion. The engineering and logistics demi-brigades normally have two fulltime battalions and share a battalion of maintenance engineers parttime. Demi-brigades are named only and take their identity from the larger brigade or division to which they belong.

This unit is rarely encountered by name in RL, and only slightly more commonly by concept. The French invented it in the Revolutionary period to break the regimental system, but few instances of it remain today, and those mostly describe a body of soldiers more accurately described as being part of a battalion or group of companies rather than a true demi-brigade.

Russia uses and the Soviet Union used the concept (but normally augmented to three fulltime battalions) and called it regiment. Second World War Britain used the concept for ad hoc hybrid units like XXX Corps' Irish Guards Group of one infantry battalion and one tank regiment drawn from The Irish Guards regiment. First World War Germany used the concept but with 3 or 4 battalions to serve as an intermediate unit between battalion and brigade in a 12- to 16-battalion division.

Brigade

This is just a supersized unit indicated by four lines. It comprises of 3 or more fulltime battalions and is part of a division or higher formation. The most common ones are armoured infantry, armoured and light infantry. Brigades receive ordinal Arabic numbers in various sequences, the CDF Civil Guard numbering all its brigades regardless of function separately by province.

This is the least confused unit in RL, with only super powers like early-Second World War U.S., Soviet Union and Russia using regiment to describe a similar unit in function.

Branch, subbranch and regiment

All are marked with five lines, all refer solely to administrative notions and all are never used in tactical or even strategic battles. Rather, they represent the theoretical parent of each actual battalion raised, and bear only names because their offspring bear the numbers.

Branches and sub-branches are used only in the CDF Land Service proper and maintain separate ordinal sequences according to the practices of the branch or sub-branch. Thus, the Mountain Infantry Sub-Branch raises its numbered battalions in one ordinal sequence, the General Infantry Sub-Branch (even though the units raised are almost all Light Infantry types) its in another and the Artillery Branch (whose Sub-Branches and types are ignored when numbering but not when naming its units) its in another.

Regiments (one of the slipperiest military terms), whether explicitly or implicitly named, are used only in the CDF Civil Guard and maintain separate ordinal sequences Thus, in the Thuvian Civil Guard for instance, The Georgetown Light Infantry raises its numbered battalions in one ordinal sequence, The Georgetown Mountaineers its in another, The Thuvian Engineers its in another and the Thuvian Transport Regiment its in another. Never mind that in the first wave, the GLI has a unit (the 1st battalion tangibly) with two notches that co-exists with a regiment (the GLI as a whole intangibly) with five notches and no intermediate notched unites between them.

RL Canada uses these concepts substantially as I have (except that sub-branches exist de facto rather than de jure, and branches may or may not comprise named-only regiments), while RL Commonwealth armies use a combination of terms to describe similar concepts. For example, in past and current parlance in RL Britain, all of the following act in the same notional manner: the Regiment of Royal Artillery [commonly called Royal Artillery], the Corps of Royal Engineers [commonly called Royal Engineers], the Rifle Brigade [no longer extant, absorbed into The Light Infantry], the Royal Transportation Corps [formerly the Royal Army Service Corps], The Welsh Guards [created 1915], The Highlanders [extant battalions all formerly regiments in their own right], 21st Special Air Service Regiment (The Artists' Rifles) [Territorial Army militia] and The Parachute Regiment.

RL American terminology is not nearly as muddled as their British counterparts, but it does mix it up a little with concurrent: consecutively numbered (disregarding some intentional and historically accidental gaps) regiments of armour, infantry and "cavalry" (i.e., old horsed units converted to tanks or helicopters); more or less consecutively numbered field artillery, transport and maintenance battalions; and named corps and bureaux like the Army Corps of Engineers, National Guard Bureau.

Formations

This term describes groupings of soldiers who are not raised a single body but who are supposed to fight unassisted for an indefinite time or even perpetually. The hieroglyphic symbols for these battlefield formations are one to five Xes appearing above the rectangle illustrating the type of unit.

The boundary between unit and formation is only slightly blurred, because brigade groups retain their names (if appropriate) when they are converted from ordinary brigades, and vice versa. For example, 7 series divisions are designed to have three mountain infantry brigades backed by corresponding combat support and service support. If the division is broken up, the divisional units are divided more or less equally among the three field brigades which in turn are converted to brigade groups bearing the same numbers as before but now with a new title.

In contrast, 0 series divisions are created by cobbling together existing brigade groups at the corps and army level to create a field division. Its old brigade groups are shorn of their titles and organic supporting units, the latter of which are combined to form combat support and service support units for the new division.

Brigade group

One X marks the spot for this formation, a field brigade augmented fulltime by combat support and administrative support units so it may fight independently like a pocket division rather than an unscaled fraction of a division. A regular brigade usually receives a composite artillery battalion (air defence, anti-tank or both companies are normally added to any existing artillery battalion), a composite engineering battalion, a composite logistics battalion and perhaps a handful of extra companies like health, reconnaissance and armour.

The name of the smallest formation is rarely confused in RL, and even then only in North America. The RL United States as used regimental combat team late in the Second World War, separate or independent brigade since the post-war period and has experimented with brigade combat team in recent years. Its northern neighbour, RL Canada, experimented with the vague term group in the 1970s, but quickly conformed to CDF and RL world standards.

Division

Two Xes mark this, the most common formation in RL and in the CDF, which is sometimes called a field division for emphasis or to indicate that the type of division is immaterial. Except for the less common brigade groups, this is the lowest level at which commanding officers are expected to fight a war on their own without support from above. The combat, combat support and service support arms all appear in roughly the same ratio as they do in the armed forces as a whole.

The most common field divisions in order are armoured infantry, armoured, unspecified infantry, light infantry, mountain infantry, marine, coastal artillery and airborne. They are almost always numbered in one common ordinal sequence, but occasionally special divisions raised for one transient purpose receive names only.

RL consensus on the meaning of division is the highest for all sub-units, units, formations and administrative branches. The only exception seems to be Second World War Britain's de facto artillery divisions which bore the unwieldy name army group Royal Artillery or AGRA. However, if one thinks "group of Royal Artillery units dedicated to serve a field army" rather than "enough Royal Artillery units to form four to twenty divisions," it makes sense.

Corps

Unlike RL, Sober Thought's RP corps have a very straightforward definition: two to six field divisions under single commander and with a common objective. For emphasis or to indicate indifference to type (e.g., armoured, armoured infantry, infantry, unspecified or mountain), the term field corps is used. In all events, the hieroglyphic code remains three Xes. They are numbered with Roman numerals.

RL field corps may have a similar range of divisions as their CDF counterparts, but be used differently. The Soviet Union used it to mean a demi-army, so only two divisions per corps; four divisions would be made into a full army. The United States used and theoretically still uses it the same way as the RP CDF does, but in recent decades in practice it acquired the meaning as its now-defunct adversary understood. See also the pertinent discussion under Branch, subbranch and regiment.

Army

Two to six corps make up an RP army, indicated by four Xes on the hieroglyph. They may bear names only or ordinal numbers spelled out, e.g., Home Defence Army, Second Army, Fourth Armoured Army.

In Sober Thought, army most often means a large formation of manoeuvre (meaning its constituent corps were organised to achieve a specific objective). Less commonly, it means a formation of account (meaning its fixed constituent corps represent the total number of soldiers available for each wave of one hundred million national population) which may or may not coincide with a formation of manoeuver. Fortunately, all soldiers collectively are known as the CDF Land Service and not the Sober Thought Army.

Because of the elastic nature of both corps and armies, it is theoretically possible to have a corps with more divisions than an army. However, because formations are designed to fight on a battlefield, a large corps might be part of an even larger army which is fighting on open plains while a small army comprised two or three virtually independent and equally small corps may be fighting in rugged mountains. What matters is the importance of the battle, not the absolute numbers of soldiers engaged in it.

What appears as a slight nuance in RP can become an indistinguishable mess in RL. Consider the United States where "army" can mean manoeuvring formation (as in 3rd Army), a theatre command (as in United States Army Europe), the totality of all soldiers enrolled to defend the nation (as in United States Army), or even informally but commonly as the totality of all members of the armed forces (including besides the U.S. Army but without distinction the Army National Guard, the fifty state National Guards, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy and, if they thought about it, the U.S. Coast Guard too).

This holds true for the unified Canadian Armed Forces which since 1968 has successfully eliminated army as a proper noun. However, those within and without the Forces have applied the term army indifferently, whether as an adjective or common noun, to refer to: the three Regular Force infantry regiments, the Infantry Branch as a whole, the Infantry and Armoured Branches jointly, the Regular Force and Militia infantry and armoured regiments collectively, specific brigade groups jocularly (as in "Army of the West" for 1 Canadian Brigade Group), Force Mobile Command, Mobile Command, the Land Staff and the Forces as a whole.

Superformations

Some what analogous to subunits, superformations resemble formations in formal organisation but are so large that they are changed in character as well as size. Although one person does theoretically command them, there is no pretence that this person would actually be able to direct them in combat in any meaningful way. Rather, they are collectives of largely independent armies and such which just need strategic direction. They bear names only.

The boundary is slightly blurry, since armies are often such formidable creatures that they become superformation-like. Similarly, army groups sound like their smaller siblings and under the right field conditions can operate very much like the latter.

Army groups

For clarity, an army group consists of two to four armies and not one army with additional support units as one might surmise if using the model of brigade and brigade groups. It is indicated above the main portion of CDF hieroglyphs by one solid square, or five Xes. They are so large that they bear only names rather than numbers, since there are so few of them, their organisation is so task-specific and numbers imply more longevity than they are likely to need.

In RL, these units are so large that they are rarely encountered, being used in only in the Second World War by the United States, Britain, the two jointly and Germany. Before, during and after the war, the Soviet Union kept the concept if not the name alive. It called de facto demi-army groups by the term "groups of armies" (e.g., the entire strategic reserve of the USSR was a group of tank armies) and full-blown army groups "fronts" -- named and or numbered formations, not a vague location as in the phrases "All quiet on the Western Font" or "died on the Russian front."

Theatres and services

Theatres of operation are not even contemplated in Sober Thought during peacetime, being created solely after being invaded or otherwise called to defend our beliefs and homes. There are, however, three environmental services of which the CDF Land Service is one. They are indicated by two solid squares or, archaically, by six Xes, and are commanded by the respective Chief of Staff.

The RL Second World War equivalents of theatres were few, mainly a few U.S. theatres of operation (European TO, Pacific TO, China-Burma-India [CBI] TO), certain British commands (e.g., Middle East, Mediterranean, although these behaved more like army groups than true theatres). More recently, the Cold War Soviet Union had three Strategic Directions (Western, Southwest and Far Eastern, bolstered by the Leningrad Independent Front facing Scandinavia and a similar one in the Caucasuses).

RL equivalents of services are common, if frequently confounded with #armies. Despite popular belief, countries may choose to have more or less than three environment-based services (army, navy and air force), although these are very common. The Soviet Union had five (add Air Defence Forces and Strategic Rocket Forces); the United States technically has three and half (the U.S. Marine Corps being officially part of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard becoming officially part of the U.S. Navy during wartime); the Israel, Jamaica and Canada have humanly unified all-environment forces; Austria and Switzerland have largely accepted geographically unified two-environment forces.

National totality

As the name implies, it represents the entire armed might of Sober Thought when arrayed for battle. The hieroglyph (singular, because tautologically there can be only one) has three solid squares or seven Xes. The Community Defence Forces' titular military head the Chief of the Combined Staff and titular civil head is the Community Conscience. In RL, these frequently exist as umbrellas, twins or replacements for individual services.

Alliance totality

Never actually used in RP, a purely theoretical superformation consisting of all the armed forces of a defensive alliance used in a total war of life-and-death importance. Notionally represented by four solid squares only, since it never even theoretically existed when Xes were still being used for formations and superformations indiscriminately.

In RL, there was a nominal head of the United Forces of the Soviet-dominated association of Eastern European Communist puppet states who signed the Warsaw Treaty or Warsaw Pact. In practice, this was just window dressing for a single Soviet armed forces which included foreign auxiliaries.

The RL range game

So having fairly logical RP subunits, units, formations and superformations laid out and compared with their RL counterparts, are you ready to play the range game?

The armed forces are notorious for their flexible application of the names of sub-units, units and formations. To give a simple example, a battery may be applied to a single gun of unremarkable calibre, a company-sized sub-unit or a battalion-sized of artillery. And to give a cross-service example, a squadron can mean a platoon-sized unit in the British SAS, a company-sized unit in the Canadian engineers, a battalion-sized unit of American tanks, a British or American naval formation of thousands afloat and ashore, or an English-speaking forces' company-battalion hybrid of aircraft.

Rules

With your knowledge of defence studies or military history, can you add the name of a subunit, unit, formation or superformation class which displays an astonishing (at least 1:50) range?

Please use the following rules:

1. The term must apply to army grouping.
2. The term may apply to army aviation but if so it must be compared with another army aviation term and parenthetically labelled as such.
3. The term describing the class must actually appear in the official title of the sub-units, units and formations in question.
4. The sub-units, units and formations must have actually existed on an Order of Battle and represented real fighting forces.
5. The sub-units, units and formations must be or have been permanent, not ad hoc or ersatz transients.

Hall of Confusion

Listed from highest ratio to lowest, here are some interestingly applied military grouping terms:

• Troop: a solitary soldier or two hundred soldiers in an Armored Cavalry Regiment's Troop (present day United States).
• Regiment: one hundred twenty soldiers in a Militia regiment (present day Canada) or one hundred thousand in the Regiment of Royal Artillery (Second World War Britain)
• Corps (strictly land): one hundred soldiers in the Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps' lone light armoured squadron (present day N.Z.) or one hundred thousand in the Corps of Royal Engineers (Second World War Britain).
• Group: two soldiers in a Bren Group (Second World War Commonwealth) or a hundred thousand soldiers in a Group of Tank Armies (Cold War Soviet Union)
• Corps (army aviation): two soldiers in the Aviation Corps (1910 Canada) or five hundred thousand in the United States Army Air Corps (1943 U.S.).