Infantry Companies - another natural size of unit
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- Why do armies all around the world organise with companies as a basic unit? Perhaps it is to do with the neocortex of human brains.
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Here I present my ideas of why the company of around 100-150 men works well as a functioning unit in armies. The reasons are to do with human relationships, trust, fellow feeling, and rapport, rather than to do with rifles, or bullets, or radios.
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if I were a low rank conscript, and a division comander gave me an order in the middle of battle. I would conclude that someone somewhere screwed up, and that we are losing.
Most of the time that might be true, but now and then you get the crazies like Patton.
I would be used to it after North Africa.
if i were a low rank conscript a hole the size of an SMLE bullet may find it's way into my foot
@Guacamoli Cheese A court martial might have a funny way of making you wish you hadn't shot yourself. This is, of course, assuming they even notice and don't make you charge anyway.
in the Soviet or German Army they would have given you a matching hole in the back of your head.
"Dad, were you a hero during the Great Meme War of 2015-2016?"
"No son, but I served in a company of heroes."
More like Company of Shitlords.
Company of Deplorables.
Kek Company.
Wargame Red Meme Gon
Special Shitposting Service
I heard something like this on a QI rerun yesterday and now there's a Lindybeige video on it. Brilliant.
yay todays my birthday thanks for the birthday vid Lloyd!
Now i would love to see a whole series going all the way to the top level.
You are awesome, love your way of explaning, PLEASE, make a video about your choices of worst military manuvers... Like invading Russia in the winter or the running against a machine gun.
thank you very much. Very clear explanation
I think it's time for a Lindy-Binge!!
Bloody love this, will you keep working up the chain with video's about units?
I totally can say that what you're saying about loyality and trusting you commanders is true.
When I served in an infantry batalaion at the austrian army, I always was "Who the fuck are you bat.commander? go away pls." I only appaered a few times during manouvers (mostly at forming up or something) and then he vanished and wasn't seen again until the end of training.
Same goes for my former companie commander... The only officers we trusted, being always with us, fighting with us, were our platoon and section commanders.
Now, I'm at a self-reliant company (so, we technically don't have a battalion above us), and I know my company commander very well, so ... yes. it's true. :'D
I'm also a teacher, teaching 4 classes with about 25 students each. And it is already hard to recognize everyone of them... so... yeah. I don't know if I could manage to know one more class :D
(Also, my english is shit, I know :'D)
It's actually pretty good. :)
Claus Celeda Besser als mein deutsch muss ich sage
Pat G I'm glad that I didn't try to describe the structures of the austrian army... that would have been... complicated.
your english ist besser than half the people in the english speaking welt
Good stuff! An excellent look
I'm sure you know this, but...
one doesn't "win" the Victoria Cross. They earn it, or receive it, or are awarded it.
In a sense, though, you do win it.
That's all he meant.
+Admiral Percy we can't be pedantic all the time
Crazy Eyes LINDYBEIGE IS NEVERENDING PEDANTISM especially his episodes about shoes
It's pretty much like how the infantry units of Imperial Guard from Warhammer 40,000 work. Barring special characters or tank units your force will likely be lead by a Company Command Squad, which is lead by the equivalent of a colonel, major or some other kind of senior officer. He's got a command squad with him and can, through them, give orders to a number of Infantry Platoons (2-6 if you're going for an infantry-heavy army), lead by a junior officer like a lieutenant. Each Infantry Platoon in turn has 2-5 Infantry Squads that consist of 10 men including a sergeant and a radio guy, with 0-1 heavy and 0-2 special weapons. A Platoon can in addition have 0-5 Heavy Weapon Squads of a six men with three heavy weapons and 0-3 Special Weapon Squads of, again, six men with three special weapons.
Re: Lt. Col. Herbert Jones; I once heard a friend of mine (who was admittedly an ex-Royal Marine) that he'd heard rumours from Paras and others that Jones may have been shot by his own men. Apparently the rumour was that upon seeing him leading a suicidal charge against the Argentinian MG they shot him themselves to avoid having to follow. Apparently the way he was shot was consistent with this, but I've not looked into that. I don't think I believe this story, but it's interesting that a rumour like that even exists in the first place.
Hello Lloyd! I wanted to ask, could you talk to us about Italy in WW2? I never see anyone speaking about it, the tanks, the resistance movement, and I really would love to know more! I already got to know some tanks like the Semovente and the Carro Veloce (if you even consider it a tank and not an armored moped with a couple of firework-shooting tubes strapped to it) but I really know nothing about the rest and nobody seems to care. Thank you!
I thought a company needed 2 officers, a drag queen, a piano player, a man who shouted a lot and a char-wallah. I saw a documentary about it every week back in the '70s!
A company is also analogous to a Roman century. (and a cohort to a battalion).
Talk about a complete 360 from posthumous court martial to a posthumous Victoria Cross
makes me want to play Flames of War!
Hey Lindy, I noticed a pattern in these medals. Why do they all look the same, as iron cross, victoria cross, I also know for a fact that Russian army also has one of those widening at the ends crosses... there has to be something to this other then randomness, right?
Dose a platoon or compny change its name if it has tanks or jeeps or trucks?
So each british leutanant had his own batman?
No wonder the nazis lost.
What did he actually say though?
Batman or bagman.
Alan Cox A batman or an orderly is a soldier or airman assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant. Before the advent of motorized transport, an officer's batman was also in charge of the officer's "bat-horse" that carried the pack saddle with his officer's kit during a campaign.
It’s a bag man not a batman! I know what a bagman is having been a pl sgt 😂 ps check your spelling and it’s a bit off
Alan Cox Its not bagman, his spelling is correct. Bat derives from the French term that meant "pack horse".
On the other hand, I have found no evidence for the military existence of "bagmen".
Also, it is an obsolete term, did you serve in WW2 by chance?
well now you have to do battalion
if he has enough models :P
he can just say that 1 model represent 4 people or so
Dank Meme then he must do the next unit up
〈Chopper Gamer〉
I want him to do the entire WWII British army in 1:1 scale. :)
but where's he going to find that many people?
So a Major gets to know his men, all 150 of them, which is about the maximum number of people a person can know reasonably well. What happens to his 150 friends back home?
It's a rough estimate, Dunbar actually states between 100 and 250, but still... it's the number of people you currently are more knowledgeable about, that of course varies depending on the situation, say you move from your current address to another part of the country or abroad, or say you go to war, you don't entirely forget about the other people, you just don't know or register what they currently are doing or what is your position in their relationships. Also your brain isn't a fixed organ, it changes it's structures a bit according to it's use.
So if you really want to know and relate to more people you have to train and focus a lot in your social skills (you know those people that are social butterflies and seem to know everybody?) although after some point you probably hit some hard cap, I don't know how much can the neo-cortex grow to accommodate such use. After that it's long term memory and other things... But hey there are people out there with almost perfect memory, so... it's both use and some genetic luck ;)
But also 150 would be a pretty huge company. Usually you're talking more like 100 (30 max to a section, 3 sections plus half a dozen in the HQ).
Chuckleluck War changes people.
I think you men platoon mate , it's three sections on average to a platoon ( 12 men per section on average ) And it's 3 platoons to a company . So on average it's about 100 to 108 fighting men to a company plus whatever support staff you have ( medical, liaisons from HQ, radio men, artillery spotters , and etc) So really 150 men is quite a average estimate of a full strength company.
If you've been on campaign for a few years you're probably going to forget who borrowed a couple of quid from your back home…
US Army here. In my artillery unit, we had much of the same setup for individual weapons as infantry does. Two fire teams per squad/section. First team: Team leader(grenadier)/rifleman/machine gunner(also carrying a rifle)/assistant machine gunner(also a rifleman). Second team: Team leader(AT rocket)/rifleman/marksman/light machine gunner. In addition we had a squad leader for a total of 9 men per squad/section. I was the machine gunner with the M240B because everyone thought it would be funny to make the shortest guy carry the heaviest weapon + a rifle.
Jonah Shook not tall enough
“A taller MG gunner catches more shrapnel” -bigbrain testing division
How was that an artillery unit?
I also am of short arse stature and I also was given in the U.K. armed forces the GPMG and a load of spare ammo as well as my personal weapon,mind you I was also 15 stone solid muscle ,all shoulders ,arms and big F off legs as well as being SF ,must be an army thing brother ha ha
"US Army here"
* doggo-bulbasaur profile pic *
Lloyd, Hail the Beige Supreme!
Have you considered doing videos about Battalions, Regiments, Brigades and such. I am an author and have found these videos both informative and very enjoyable to watch. Thank you for the bountiful harvest of videos recently!
anonny mouse I feared that.
I am DEFINITELY not going to paint up a 1:1 figure scale division!
I may do other units, yes, although I think it works better when i have something unusual to say about a unit, rather than merely describing what it was. Some unit types vary far more between nations and service arms, and don't lend themselves so well to a video like this. Battalion to company is much like company is to platoon. Regiments are rather British in nature and don't have equivalents in all armies.
Lindybeige Maybe you could do Regimental histories, oh Lord Beige.
One thing about these higher levels of command is that, despite what Lloyd suggests, you would generally know your higher command officers, at least the commanders. You may not know them well but you'd certainly recognize your Battalion, Regimental/Brigade, and Division commanders even if you don't regularly interact with them. Of course, this does vary a bit from unit to unit depending on how close (physically) you are to your parent unit. In the US often times battalions, even companies are not on the same base, sometimes not even the same state as their higher headquarters.
At any rate, the standard definition of a battalion and higher is 2 or more of the lower level unit. So, a battalion consists of 2 or more companies, but in practice (once again in the US and the Marine Corps in particular) a battalion is made up of 3 line companies (regular infantry, tanks, or whatever), a heavy weapons company, and a headquarters company. A regiment would be organized similarly minus the heavy weapons but they'd probably have some other regiment level only asset instead. So, basically a US battalion, regiment/brigade, & division is 3 line units, a headquarters, and 1 or more specialized assets.
Lloyd, I have a friend who was a sniper in Goose green a few hundred yards away from the incident where H Jones was killed. He still lives in Blackpool and is a friend of the actor David Thewlis (who also played a Falklands veteran incidentally and got a lot of good character info from him.. I also got a lift off a guy driving back to Aldershot in the Lakes who was there (I was hitchhiking). Your description of what the men thought when Col. H Jones was shot was "diplomatic" in comparison to what I heard, In fact, some of what I heard should never really go in a video.
But how did those tiny Brittish soldiers sin the war? I mean - I have met Germans. And they are the size of normal men, while your soldiers are åt the size of a matchbox.
Pluck.
Tiny paratroopers need tiny planes.... harder to spot!
Hahahahahaha lite svensk humor är bäst
What is this??? An army for ants?
@@cab711 No no... It's any army OF ants.
rediculous, a company is clearly 2 people, havent you ever heard 2s company 3s a crowd ?
mcpartridgeboy i strongly disagree this is war after all
You, sir, are a unit.
1 is the loaniest, 2 is a conversation & 3 is a conspiracy!
Joshua Rankin yes, one is the loaniest number that you’ll ever do.
@@MarcosElMalo2 "Suck my unit."
Battallion Commander killed: "Oh well, still got a job to do."
Platoon Commander killed: "Oh fuck! Sunray is down!"
Games Played Badly that being said. the company comander would be scared to death if the battalion comander was killed. have you ever seen "We were soldiers"? Imagine if Mel Gibson had been killed when everything was falling apart. comand would have had no choice but to try and evacuate. and the communists would have overrun them as soon as enough had left.
Major General got shot, a beloved one, well… shit replacements.
"Imagine if Mel Gibson had been killed." Then I guess they would have replaced him with another director.
He was the protagonist in the movie
He was also the director.
size of my neocortex is very small indeed
Here is a description of units in Commonwealth Forces and who would command them:
Patrol/Fireteam - 4x men (Lance Corporal)
Section - 2x Patrols/Fireteams (Corporal)
Platoon/Troop/Flight - 3x Sections (2nd Lieutenant - Captain)
Company/Battery/Squadron - 3x+ Platoons/Troops/Flights (Captain/Major)
Battalion/Commando - 5x Companies (Lieutenant Colonel)
Regiment - 3x Battalions/5x Squadrons/Batteries (Lieutenant Colonel/Colonel)
Brigade - 3x+ Battalions/Regiments/Commandos (Brigadier)
Division - 3x+ Brigades (Major General)
Corps - 2x+ Divisions (Lieutenant General)
Field Army - 2x+ Corps (General)
Army Group - 2x+ Field Armies (Field Marshal)
Army Region/Theatre - 2x+ Army Groups (Field Marshal)
Note administrative regiments and corps use different units in their hierarchy.
Pltn - Coy - Btln = used by Infantry, Intelligence and Technicians
Tp - Coy - Cmdo = used by Marines
Tp - Sqn - Regt = used by Tankers, Special Forces, Cavalry, Engineers, Signallers, Logistics and Medics
Flt - Sqn - Regt = used by Aviators
Tp - Bty - Regt = used by Artillery
Pltn - Coy - Regt = used by Military Police
Basically the same as a Roman century.
The Centurion had 80 men plus additional personel making around a hundred in number.
He would have known all the other Centurions and many of the optio as well as Legion commanders and special services people like the medic and quartermasters. That probably didn't come to more than a 150 people.
Lithuanian Scot Now I know a Legion Centurion is about the same rank of an NCR Major.
@@megarepal patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.
megarepal except the centurion fights
@@megarepal I always thought "centurion" was basically Roman for NCO...
@@benjaminodonnell258 No, he was definitely equivalent of today's officer. NCO never commands a unit of 80+ soldiers.
'The commonest'? Gah, call yourself an Englishman!?
he has been replaced by a French spy!!!
According to the OED, Byron used this word in 1821, and Swift in 1710. Are those good enough precedents for you?
Nope, unless I see a written letter of approval from Ol' Liz herself, I'm gonna claim to be the smarter-est
Lindybeige going to need u to a regiment and then a battalion next please
Going by the order he's doing this in, it would be battalion, then regiment. But I'm just being pedantic.
Hmm... may have to dual wield katanas to cut through an entire company.
don't forget your Spandau and your Pommel.
no memes no.
studded leather, spiked armor! WIth Barbwire-Chainmail *****
Don't forget to store them in a backscabbard
And torches, they should be everywhere.
can you do videos on the next bigger unit size and then the next and so fourth all the way to the division
He can go all the way to the War Office as far as I'm concerned...
+Robert Faber what's the war office
Nathanael Sallhag Eriksson What is now the Ministry of Defence was called the War Office until the 1960s, when they presumably decided that name was a bit too bellicose...
+Robert Faber ah, OK
The next level up would either be a battalion (the logical step since Lindy mostly covers British infantry) or squadron.
The "number of people you can know personally" is called the Dunbar number
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number
aka the Monkeysphere.
that is a very respectable mustache that major has :)
Everything Loyd is saying is completely correct
Personal Story about one of my battalion commanders:
Deployed in afghanistan, the biggest threat for the first 2 months of deployment was direct enemy action. We did a lot of fighting. But then everything quieted down and the biggest threat became IEDs. During this "calm" period or BN commander decided to help out his command staff and try to "get them some field experience". In reality, none of them had seen any real action so they didn't have a combat action ribbon and were hunting medals and awards. So the BN commander, Sgt Major, Intel Officer, Sigan Officer and the freakin Chaplain decided to go on a patrol. Together. At the same time. With only 1 radio operator and 1 sgt as escort. Noone else on the patrol had any experience on the ground or in the streets other than the 2 lower ranked enlisted. The entire battalion lost all respect for the BN command staff because they weren't doing their damn jobs and staying safe so they could properly support the rest of us, support the fighting men. Their jb was to give us as much help as possible so we face minimal risk once bullets start flying. Their incompetent patrols put the entire BN at risk.
Did they survive their random patrol?
No it most definitely was not "completely correct".
Rad Bromance
sadly, yes, though not for a lack of trying. The Chaplain saw "someone" flee down an ally so he immediately pursued. Down an ally. Alone.
That's what happens when you put too much pride in medals and not in men, you get people willing to die for a medal, rather than do paper work
Yeah, that sounds like a really dumb idea.
I mean, ensuring your command staff has at least some actual experience and knowledge of what the people on the ground go through seems like a good idea in theory, and something that should probably be a mandatory (or highly reccommended) part of someone's training and preparation for, say, everything above junior officers.
After all, while a battalion command staff won't interact that much with direct combat (or the people who fight in it), the people below them (company command staff etc) apparently do. So having some experience would help them understand the situation of the people they have to command. (assuming you actually have a conflict to send people to)
Of course, you should do that as part of someone's training before they get to that level, or you have existing command staff rotate through a few lower-risk operations in small groups while their back-ups take over their jobs for a while.
Going on a random joyride with most of your staff, with barely any escort or experienced people, WHILE YOU'RE IN COMMAND? That's just begging for someone to wipe out half the command structure you served them on a silver platter. Or for a court-martial for abandoning your posts and knowingly taking massive unnecessary risks.
3:19 But im gonna go with 3, which is the communist number. :D
It's a good, solid working-class number. High enough to display the magnificience of the masses, but not too high to consider itsself part of the fancy-pants numbers.
Unless it's stripes on your tracksuit because this is not circus.
Wot? I thought we were an anarcho-syndicalist commune army
what is З? A cyrillic letter? © valve
In fact, it´s a number which you could, without any fear, introduce to your parents.
One thing we theorized during my American Civil War reenacting days was that 100 men is about the limit that can hear your voice commands in linear warfare. If you position yourself in the middle of a line of infantry your voice can't really be clearly heard or understood past 150 feet or so, which is about 50 men to your left and 50 men to your right.
And that's without battle noises and other movements making noise. I suspect the range would be the same in the days of sword and spear. Just an observation.
El Grande Dave thanks for sharing.
El Grande Dave but I would imagine you guys would have drummer boys that would relay the order down the line, similar to the real deal
In times of sword and spear the soldiers couldn't hear orders except for the front line, the others just copied what the ones in front did.
@@shuttheheckupkarl6153 drum and bugle calls were great for smaller fights but imagine multi companies/battalions all using their musicians to relay orders....our unit the 21st OVI did use our drummers at Gettysburg 135 but we were only one in the ad hoc battalion to do so.
I only recently discovered your channel, but i instantly fell in love with it. The way you talk, tell stories or argue about whatever topic is just amazingly appealing. I think it's because your one of the few people who doesnt leave open holes/questions when arguing.
The fact that you can present your thoughts so structured and fluent, rarely loosing track makes me watch every single second of your videos ^^
tl;dr: Great work!
Lindybeige is one of the most interesting channels on the internet. Hes a great resource for history lovers.
Can you do a video about ancient naval warfare? I'm talking about things like the first punic war?
No immediate plans, but yes, that's a great topic.
Lindybeige
Yay. =)
You should do a video on Salamis, Thermopylae would have been meaningless without naval superiority.
+Lindybeige, have you served in the military? In my time I knew most of my squad well, and maybe 2-3 people from the company. I of course recognized their faces but I can't say I knew most of their names. Dunbar's number didn't quite manifest itself in this normal peace time situation since you already know people outside the service.
Later in NCO training and specialization you meet a lot of new people and know mostly the people you share your room with.
Ultimately you know your immediate squad, the officers, and the company's oddballs who drank filtered ethanol fuel with pineapple juice.
As a private or corporal, possibly even a sergeant, I imagine that would be the case, yes. If you were the company major however and your report with 90% of your company is so atrocious that you don't even know their names, I imagine that would have some implications on your ability to command your company...
Yeah he did, he's mentioned it few times, his military service that is. But then again every single Brit over the age of 38 has spent some time in the army, it used to be mandatory.
no my brother is 41 and he never did, i think compulsary military service went out in (i had to google this) dec 31 1960 ! thats anyone older than 73 years because you had to be 17 !
hmm I thought after spend some time in boarding school, he went to university. and after that became archaeologist?, in which video he mentioned his service in military?
World's Future Leader The only one off the top of my head was I think the one were he talked about how he modifies the collars of his shirts. He made an anecdote about a female coworker being surprised that he could sew since he was an ex soldier.
No country should be composed of more than one hundred and fifty people.
That's a pretty small country ;)
Tribalism. What you've just described is tribalism.
The first sine qua non of anarchist communism.
What is that? 30 families? Max? You'll be inbred within two generations.
A Quite Obese Pig They just have to breed with people from other countries ;)
We're still waiting for your Crossfire Wargaming game video!
Oh god Band of Brothers and he shows footage of the first episode, so tragic to see there faces again :(
their*
now i need to binge watch it again
Raz0rking yeah feel kinda the same
Fodonzo R THEIR****
A company being made up of companions, those with, 'com-', whom you break bread, 'panis', hence the company mess hall.
If you break a lot of bread, you are indeed going to end up with a mess...
Crumbs!
Please don't break my panis.
Nevets t. Smith Do you want somebody to butter it?
+Nevets t. Smith I can make you panis com.
Would that mean that human tribes would have had a natural size of 150?
I understand that 300 is the optimum size for a cohesive community of people.
I think that was mentioned on a programme about early colonial settlements in north America.
not sure how accurate that is mind!
Perhaps a maximum size of 150. It's a logical conclusion.
Yes
why not 150.69? or do periods just ruin 69?
well u will have to split a person onto 2 pieces and throw away one of them to get 150.69 people
I should really start packing my bags for this weekends trip
"Lindybeige has uploaded...."
Well, guess not.
Are you going to talk about tank companies next
I love this series of military organization
You know that you gonna get requests to do a video of an entire army in the end right? :P
I've already had several. Then for each period...
Lindybeige You should do a Napoleonic one
Then Army Groups 8-)
The 150 dislikes are all the people who loaned stuff to Lloyd that he wouldn’t return
For Americans we have
Company Commander normally a Captain
Company XO (next in command) 1stLT.
Company 1st Sgt
4 platoons per company each lead by a
Platoon leader (2nd LT)
Platoon Sgt (Sgt First Class/Master Sgt)
Platoons are made up of 4 squads with each having a
Squad leader (Staff Sgt)
Fireteam Leader (Cpl)
A Squad can be broken in half into two fire teams. The squad leader takes the first fire team and the Fireteam leader will take the 2nd fire team.
That way if need be one squad can perform things like suppress and flank maneuvers, bounding, or falling back if need be.
This. It's uncommon to see a Major in command of a company. They are more often found as Battalion XO or in staff positions at the Brigade level, coordinating logistics, intelligence, and other administrative duties.
Platoon composition is as well different, although there are similarities, they as well don't use left-tenant but rather lieutenant.
It kind of throws me off how "chunky" things are for the British. Same number of men but they're in fewer units.
Gungriffen Might be worth pointing out that the modern British platoon is a a little different now days, it's very similar though. The Section is made up of eight men, somtimes a fee more if things like specialists engineers and so on hey attached. It is lead usually by a Corporal or somtimes Sargent, and has the second in command as a Lance Corporal. Four of the men are in Charlie fireteam, consisting of the Ic, a grenadier and two rifle men, the 2ic is in Delta fireteam, with the marksman, the support gunner and two other men (something the supporting roles such as medics or radios operators however usually just two riflemen). Charlies job is to assault and flank the enemy whilst Delta covers, thus why Charlie have the grenadier and why delta have the support gunner. There are three sections to a platoon, (an British section = Us squad I belive), a Hq group, including a second or first lieutenant, two assistants (one with a long range radio) and the platoon Sargent, and platoon weapons usually consisting of GPMG gunners, or perhapse snipers. In total there are about 30 men. Company commanders are also now more commonly captains and have a colour Sargent or Sargent major with them as the second in command.
This is why I prefer the Canadian way of doing things. Why waste a Sergeant's time commanding 12 men. That's a Master Corporal's job, the Sarge has better things to do, like commanding the platoon or being the Company Sergeant Major.
Lloyd, I have a friend who was a sniper in Goose green a few hundred yards away from the incident where H Jones was killed. He still lives in Blackpool and is a friend of the actor David Thewlis (who also played a Falklands veteran incidentally and got a lot of good character info from him).. I also got a lift off a guy driving back to Aldershot in the Lakes who was there (I was hitchhiking). Your description of what the men thought when Col. H Jones was shot was "diplomatic" in comparison to what I heard, In fact, some of what I heard should never really go in a video.
NoFaithNoPain How did they really react?
James Atherton One guy who was not actually there said "Its a good job both sides were using 7.62".. What the guys who were there said I won't divulge.. but lets say he was not a popular man.
***** Really?
James Atherton Don't take my word, ask anyone at the time.
we don't know anyone there at the time, so couldn't you just tell us?
Does Lindy have a woman? I should hope he has kids so that we can have Beige content for generations to come
Baron Lipton I'm pretty sure he has a human female.
He has a lizard on his wall---
If he got a woman, I am thinking he would make less interesting videos for us shitlords to watch.
Heart : If he got a woman = a lizard on his wall . Same thing.
Lioyd : It's my understanding Hillary is looking for something to do
Please do a video about Gladiators!
what?
Lord Pigster jet was my favourite.
Gladiator companies!
Would be far less exciting than you think.
Kentish Zombie would you not be entertained?!?!?!
Very good job.
I would add that the Company level is the the first level with support troops and administrative capabilities. The Company Commander is the lowest level Commander who carries the responsibility of administering military justice, takes administrative (personnel) action, assumes financial responsibility of the military equipment and facilities and the feeding, housing, equipping and general welfare of its soldiers.
Nailed it. I am in the US Marine Corps. And the psychology is pretty spot on. I wouldn't follow orders from just any officer. And the whole schpeel about its about the company, absolutely it is!
Lloyd, these figures look a bit chunky. Did you make them yourself? Are they made of wood, plastic or some gel? And why did you say you didn't want to make more of them than necessary? It's not like you did you do them just for the purpose of this video, did you?
I'll add figure credits to the description.
Come on, Lindy, I expect the outro-screen captions to be witty and funny, not bloody depressing :c
Dammit Lloyd, stop putting out videos while I'm in class!
I deliberately scheduled this one for Friday afternoon, thinking that on Friday afternoons people are looking for distractions at work.
Lindybeige Ah, now that makes sense.
would you consider the radioman to be the original cellphone
Were did you get the figures? Plz
Really liking these military unit videos! Keep it up
Google "Dunbar number", that's the name for the concept that he's describing.
I read Dunbar's book before it was published, and met him at an evolution conference.
Would you consider doing one on how armored cars/light vehicles worked in a platoon?
You nailed it Lloyd. As usual. I'm a U.S. Army Iraq vet and the camaraderie and getting to know each other is a huge deal. I knew my commander very well and my 1SG as well.
In the U.S. Army, at least in my experience Majors usually do paperwork at BN headquarters though. :) The company is run by the First Sergent and Captain. The platoons are run by the platoon sergeants and Second or First Lieutenants. Sometimes a Warrant officer instead of LT if it's a technical type platoon.
Interesting to me that the ranks are one higher basically in the British military.
My comment about Majors is kind of an ongoing joke in the service. Because Captains run companies and Lt. Colonels and Colonels run BN's So Majors are usually in some other job at BN Headquarters. Like Admin or something. For a year or so. We like to say they have "command envy". Too high rank for a company and too low for a battalion.
Anyway love your stuff as usual Lloyd. Thanks!
EDIT: Oh! One more thing. I have seen VERY few Corporals in my career. The U.S. military automatically promotes up to Specialist (E-4) which is the same pay grade as a Corporal but they are NOT an NCO. They are sort of like skilled Privates. When I was deployed a bunch of the Specialists were temporarily promoted to Corporal so they could be team leaders (groups of 4-5) because there was a rule that you had to be an NCO to be a team leader. Once they got home they were "demoted" back to specialists although like I said it's the same pay grade.
hmm, here we have another example of diffferent nations doing stuff differently, in Denmark Corporals are not NCO's but about the same thing as you descripe the E-4's, though corporals retain command resposibility.
As far as I know, this structure was pretty common during WWII
it's no coincidence that O-1 through O-3 are "company grade" officers.
Amadon Faul Thank you for your service, and I wish you a happy (somewhat late) Veteran's Day.
I was a specialist team leader while in active duty.
Good stuff. I am using this with my MA students. Nice explanations. And just whacky enough to be interesting. Thanks.
PS spot on discussion of H Jones.
Love the Band of Brothers reference! It's similar to the scene with Private Blithe; where Lieutenant Winters saw that he wasn't firing his rifle. Winters ran up to him, remembered his name, and gave him orders to start firing on the Germans!
Hey Lloyd, I'm loving these videos. Please continue to make videos about these military fundamentals!
Who the hell downvotes this stuff?
Bots. And the French.
Communists and other malcontents.
sock mea blur, Linddy has made another video! we we i will downvote it! @Viava La France!
I'm a french speaking anarco-communist from Québec/Canada and I upvote this stuff. :P
People who expect Lindy to not be British
YES
NO
Merliginary YENAYBE
PROBABLY
Drat. I was sure for a moment, and now I don't know what to think.
As I type this, "YES" is the top comment. I can't help but hope that it gets replaced, but I suppose I should be careful what I wish for.
Lindybeige ayyy
I'd be interested to know how army organization evolved from the feudal period to modern day. I know vassal lords would be expected to provide so many horse and foot based on the size of their holdings, and that only 1 or 2 men from each village would be called up as levee's but that seems like comparatively few men under the direct command of any one "officer"
I'm assuming you're talking about "levies" (singular "levy"). I doubt one or two men from each village would be called up to stop floods by lying in the way of the water...
one or two men and a couple masculine lesbians... perhaps Lloyd can do a video on the origin of bad puns and how simple words can come to mean two vastly different things.
I think Lloyd may have actually mentioned at least the lance at some point in his other videos. A lance was the basic medieval/feudal military unit, raised from a single manor. Classically it consisted of one knight or man at arms in heavy armor etc, his squire, equipped as light cavalry, and a few yeomen, split between archers and maybe some spearmen, pikemen or whatever. Similar in size to a modern section or squad.
In general, I think the company size, in particular, has stuck in the 80-150 range through the vast majority of history. Think of Roman centuries, 100-man units, for example. As Lloyd noted, somewhere around 150 (I've heard 100-200 before) is a natural size of group for humans to socialize and bond with: military companies, farming villages etc. are around that size. Hunter-gatherer groups tend to be more platoon-size, probably due to 1 decent-sized game animal feeding about that number of people, but they might associate a bit more with a few other groups to form different levels of clan, tribe, etc.
Feudal Period companies had more to do with having a Commander. There were many mercenary companies of various sizes and specialties. But a Company has a Commander who negotiates the contract and maintains administrative and tactical command. But there was not a set structure or number of subordinates.
+Snaake42 This is more just a matter of semantics but a Roman century actually only had 80 fighting men, divided in to 10 groups of 8. Each group would be assisted by 2 noncombatants who would carry extra gear, maintain the camp, etc.
"Leftenant" is quite an unusual word to my lieutenant's ear :D
This channel is new to me and I watched around 30 videos in the last three days. The one about platoons was just seen yesterday. Very informative channel with logical sounding explanations.
Amish communities always split in two by the time they reach 300 people--keeping community populations between 150 & 300.
(because 300 is about the max. number you can have a certain, important level of familiarity with [unsure if that's just name/face recognition or what though].)
Nearly all pre-mercantilism, etc. society are apparently all just like that....
Easy Company ♤
I love all the army unit videos please make more.
I'd love to see you do these sorts of videos all the way up to corps/army level. (Yes, I know it's harder to be generic the higher you go, but still). I've looked into this stuff before, but these videos explain these organizational-type things to laymen excellently.
Hell, it's harder to be generic at the combat level. Once you go high enough, it's all just old men and clerks.
I'm irritated that I attempt to approach military history from the combat level (company to squad and team tactics) because they fascinate me almost as much as weapons design, only to be stifled by the intellectual "establishment" around the subject(s): endless chattering about massive divisions and the rear-area-dwelling politicians (flag officers) who are most focused on by historians/scholars.
Lloyd makes looking like a dork look cool!!
After watching his videos, I decided that if he can wear his nerdy outfits for all the world to see on TH-cam, I can wear my nerdy helmets to the range
Lefttenant? What about the right one, do you receive noise complaints from him as well?
I just realized something. In the US, at least where i live, classrooms have a size of about 30 kids. There are 6 periods in the day, and the teachers get one off. So the teachers would on average be dealing with very close to 150 kids in their classes.
Once had 180 kids. but all goodness, so that also works. Would also work with a teacher and an aide even with inattentive ones. Amazing how quiet even the bad ones are when a second adult is in the room. An aide need not be credentialed to be highly effective. In the old one-room school house, which so many who have attended swear by, younger kids respond well to tutoring by older ones. Story from the ‘20s. A big farm kid who had struggled with three Rs. and was still in 8th grade at 15, responded so well to being tutored by a sharp 13 year old girl, that he aced the leaving exams. The girl went on to become a teacher at age 18, and the boy. now working the family farm, ended up marrying her. Heard this story from the widow herself. The grown-up boy himself went to ag school at her insistence and became an important landowner in the county.
Everyting about Winter War!!! 1939
Please the Winter War can be summed up in a single paragraph. The Russians asked somewhat nicely for some territory, Finland of course refuses. Russia invades, Finland puts up a surprisingly good fight but loses the war. Russia takes by force three times the territory they originally asked for. Lesson of the day, a few feet of dirt isn't worth a few thousand lives.
clothar23 there's still interesting stuff about tactics, strategies and others from both sides. specially the doctrine what both armies followed. winter war wasn't lost either won
The strategies can be boiled down to "we know this territory like the back of our hand, it's our homeland" and "who the fuck put this forest in front my tank convoy". The Finns survived the Winter War on account of terrain and logistics.
And i believed asking doesn't hurt anyone. it could be more interesting than we first think of it and what information he tells us of it is more interesting than this our little chat
Then again, the Baltic countries gave in to the Soviet demands, and look what happened to them. The Soviets demanded the peninsula of Hanko to be rented as a military base, and giving in to their initial demands would have moved the border far north enough that it would've bypassed the southern flank of the main defensive line. The land demanded was also a part of the best agricultural land in Finland, and the border would've been close to Finland's second largest city, as close as it was to Leningrad originally. It's not so clear cut as you paint it out to be.
Quick US rundown..4 to 5 men in a Team (Usually Alhpa team and a Bravo team). 2 Teams in a Squad. 3 to 4 Squads in a PLT with the last squad being a heavy weapons squad that gets split off into the teams. 4 to 5 PLT's in a Company
Definitley true with knowing the soldiers..Company is about it but with a few others outside in order to get supplies, ammo, etc.. But PLT size is where the closes bonds are. All the way down to Teams where we fight right beside each other
Thanks for this. I'm assuming this refers to current-ish structure and not WWII or the like? I had, evidently erroneously, thought that fireteams were, or at least could be smaller (2-3?) and that 4 was probably the max amount of platoons comprising a company. What NCOs/officers might you identify with each component?
Fireteams, in the Marine Corps at least, consists of 4 men and headed up (usually) by a corporal, then there are 3 - 4 fireteams per squad with the squad leader being a sergeant and isn't a part of any fireteam, from there are 3 - 4 squads to a platoon commanded by a 2nd or 1st Lt. with a Staff Sergeant (sometimes a Gunny) acting as his Platoon Sergeant. The Platoon Sergeant is effectively the platoon's XO (Executive Officer) or second in command and also, most importantly, serves as the teacher for the Platoon Leader. Even though the Platoon Leader technically outranks his Platoon Sergeant he is expected to listen to any suggestions or advice the Platoon Sergeant gives because he, the Platoon Sergeant) has been in much longer than the Platoon Leader and actually knows what he's doing.
Riceball01 Yes thats very similar to the Army with slight differences here and there..Except we dont have a whole PLT or company made up of your SAW's and 240B's. The SAW's are one to each team with one squad getting a 240B gunner..They are apart of that PLT the whole time
Chris H Yes your correct and they absolutely could be smaller. That was just a general rundown of a modern infantry company. There are variations and mixes of headquarters, medics, mortar teams, etc.. Depending on how the Captain wants to run it and mission dependant..There were many times in combat that we would run missions in smaller teams if we wanted to keep a lower profile to try and kill or capture a high value target for example
The company i served in (german Bundeswehr, Signaller/Comms-Regiment) was close to 300 men (260-270men). Is that something special to germany only? Also, the typical Company-commander is the rank of captain with Lieutenant-ranks as platoonleaders.
Do you ever plan on making a video about Gurkhas? I'm American and I haven't heard much about them outside the mythical stories of them taking out entire enemy platoons and such.
Torneko In the Falklands, they prepared to take a particular hill. When the Argies heard whom they were going up against, they immediately surrendered. This saddened the Gurkhas, as they were ready for a good fight.
I whole-heartedly support this suggestion!
I think it was the Gurkhas who bayonet-charged the Taliban and got them to retreat.
My experience with Gurkhas is accidentally driving into the Royal Gurkha Rifle barracks in the 11th Inf Brigade - I can't speak for their skill or courage, but they were very helpful and drew a very nice map
Have I mentioned how much i like your insights? You've nailed it. May I offer insight? The reason he was disparaged for his actions, I think, have more to do with other aspects of leadership and how we, as soldiers, are judged and evaluated. Nowadays we call it "Resource Management" and you summed it up nicely in your video about using the minimum weapon to get a job done. He wasted a Bn Commander for an MG.
at least they are no the imperial guard or they would remain the company of strangers fairy often. :P
Unless it's mecha-vets with carapace on, those gits last a helluva long time.
Assuming you refer to 40k what the feth is a mecha-vet
TheTalk J.E.T.
Veteran Guardsmen in Chimeras. Generally with Plasma Guns.
+Jane Jackson They cost way over 300 points, what kind of game are you playing where they get to live to be cost effective?
Who spends 300 points on an infantry squad? Guardsman infantry are for throwing expendably into the tyrannid hordes, to soften the ground up for the Leman Russ tracks.
H JONES....Lucky both sides use 7.62mm lest everyone know what really happened...
I'm not in a British infantry unit, but I am in an American Signal unit. I'm not sure where all the differences are, but in my experience the Company commander has always been a Captain (O-3) and his NCO has always been the First Sergeant (E-8).
In the US Army (and National Guards for each state) we have The Platoon and instead of sections we say squads, and within a squad we have fireteams. The squad leader is generally a Sergeant (E-5). The Platoon is lead by a Lieutenant (O2 or O1) and the Platoon sergeant (E-7). Then after the Company you have the Battalion which is commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel (O-5) and Command Sergeant Major (E-9). After that you have the Brigade lead by the Colonel (O-6) and CSM (E-9). After that you start getting Generals.
I've rarely seen any Majors.
I know that I have had very limited interaction with anyone outside of my company. There have been some Battalion events but even then we tend to stick to the company. It's true that you get to know your company pretty well, and you get to know your platoon very well.
Generally how well you get along with your unit can make or break your military experience.
I know a lot of people already asked for it, but I'm going to add to the volume of fire: could you, please, make a video about the next level (battalion) and continue all the way up?
Also, could you talk about nowdays granade launchers (those that go under the rifle) and mortars? have the granade launcher made the mortar obsolete? or does it still have it's place in the fields, despite the advent of other forms of throwing explosive devices?
Marcelo Silveira grenade launchers are still direct fire launchers as you at least need line of sight on your target. mortars can engage well out to 3500 meters.
Levi Hillman
can't grenade launchers be aimed "upward" allowing for indirect fire?
It is a form of indirect fire but its not as long range as a mortar. Nor as large as a weapons company mortar(usually 60 to 80mm)
Levi Hillman
Thank you :)
Your welcome, i have a lot of friends in U.S. Army weapons squads and USMC weapons squads
Major: Lieutenant, clean the toilet
Lieutenant: yes sir!
Lieutenant: sergeant, clean the toilet
Sergeant: yes sir!
Sergeant: Corporal, clean the toilet
Corporal: yes sergeant!
Corporal: Private, clean the toilet
Private: for fuck sake
'"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death." *Sun Tzu said that! and I think he knows a little more about fighting than you do pal!*' - John Doe aka soldier.
It is interesting that these numbers are almost exactly the same as a Roman century
Yes, nothing changes, and the basic unit within the century was eight men (ten on paper). A decurion was essentially a corporal.
Ieuan Hunt
That's more evidence that it is a natural unit size.
David Messer You are right. That is what I was trying to point out
this is what Wiki said ; (under 'company' search )
From ancient times, some armies have commonly used a base administrative and tactical unit of around 100 men. (Perhaps the most well-known is the Roman century, originally intended as a 100-man unit, but later ranging from about 60-80 men, depending on the time period.);[...........]..... Therefore, to the Romans, for example, a unit of 100 men seemed sufficiently large enough to efficiently facilitate organizing a large body of men numbering into the several thousands, yet small enough that one man could reasonably expect to command it as a cohesive unit by using his voice and physical presence, supplemented by musical notes
You ever watched Generation Kill? You might like it
I hate how we pronounce Lieutenant.
How the fuck does Lieut turn into Left?
first at all,Lieutenant is pronounced Loot-tenant.
It means "holding place"
And yes,we called it "Left" as well
Take solace in the face that English "left" and French "lieu" actually have the same meaning.
Also, if you think this is bad, check out navy ranks.
bubaloow123 v and u used to be practically the same letter.
bubaloow123 They're being left the tenancy. Personally I like the English language and would hate it if it all became americanised.
Lef-tennant is the standard pronunciation in the commonwealth too. Owing to the near complete absence of military programmes made in the UK, or other English speaking commonwealth nations, you seldom hear the word unless you know people in the military.
On top of that the rank of lieutenant is also used by American police so again thanks to hollywood the American version is more commonly heard even in British English speaking countries.
The Lieutenant Colonel who charged the machine gun nest, had he perhaps only recently been promoted? Because I can see a Major commanding a company doing that if something had gone wrong, he was the only officer nearby, and the gun had to be taken asap or people would die. Thus I can imagine a recently promoted Lt.Colonel, who had until recently been a company commander, behaving like a Major just out pure spinal reflex habit.
Now that you mentioned Band Of Brothers, I think it does a well done job to it's story allowed to portray what each 1;st officer in each level of unit does. Especially if you follow Winters who move up the ranks within the series.
Yes, there is a point when he is ordered NOT to go forward to help his men, because, being more senior, that is no longer his role.
Lindybeige The Foy episode when Lt. Dyke has a breakdown.
In the attack on Foy after the relief of Bastogne ..... not that I am a fan or anything .... the best parts of the Band of Brothers series were the testaments of the real soldiers including Winters himself, at the start and end of each episode. Makes me choke every time. War is ghastly and I am extremely grateful to all the allied armies for their role in WWII.
Dyke was an example of a staff officer being given field experience. Another, actually famous, example of this was von Paulus at Stalingrad. Valuable for the officers but deadly for the troops.
No i do think blythe WAS shot, but it is true that he was successful in korea.
When I was in the American Army, I was in 2nd Platoon & I used to kid around with members of the other two platoons, by calling them "Worst Platoon" & "Turd Platoon."