Infantry Companies - another natural size of unit 

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.

well now you have to do battalion

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?

So each british leutanant had his own batman? No wonder the nazis lost.

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.

"Dad, were you a hero during the Great Meme War of 2015-2016?" "No son, but I served in a company of heroes."

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

Battallion Commander killed: "Oh well, still got a job to do." Platoon Commander killed: "Oh fuck! Sunray is down!"

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.

Lindybeige is one of the most interesting channels on the internet. Hes a great resource for history lovers.

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!

size of my neocortex is very small indeed

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.

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.

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.

rediculous, a company is clearly 2 people, havent you ever heard 2s company 3s a crowd ?

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!

The "number of people you can know personally" is called the Dunbar number en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number

that is a very respectable mustache that major has :)

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!

Oh god Band of Brothers and he shows footage of the first episode, so tragic to see there faces again :(

Hmm... may have to dual wield katanas to cut through an entire company.

can you do videos on the next bigger unit size and then the next and so fourth all the way to the division

+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.

I should really start packing my bags for this weekends trip "Lindybeige has uploaded...." Well, guess not.

Good stuff. I am using this with my MA students. Nice explanations. And just whacky enough to be interesting. Thanks.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Can you do a video about ancient naval warfare? I'm talking about things like the first punic war?

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.

First off, I enjoy your channel quite a bit so thank you for putting it together. A very excellent explanation of the rationale behind tactical formations. I'm a retired U.S. Army officer and former Platoon/Company/ Battalion commander or staff officer. Today in my second career work authorization documents for military units (more of a sideline but it's part of the job). What I continue to discover, is when we move off proven models we create formations that simply do not work. Everyone wants to economize on manpower, but forgets the problems we solved previously when we originally settle on a particular unit size. We are always shocked when that original issue suddenly pops up, but keep re-learning this lesson over and over. Thankfully we do still have some sanity. Example, the Army has firmly refused to reduce the size of a tank crew to 3 personnel rather than the current 4. We could use an auto-loader and eliminate a crewman (which is repeatedly proposed), but we have learned time and again that you actually need 4 personnel to maintain, supply, and fight the tank (well that, and trained humans can load faster than any mechanism on these particular guns). Technology is not an answer here. I would add one thing to your discussion on Companies....these, and Platoons, are very easily shifted as a package when creating a Task Force for combat. We routinely attach and detach units to change the nature of our order of battle. Doing this with these size formations is simplified. If you shift a Platoon or Company commander to another command, the flow is very natural. Both the U.S. and British Armies are very adept at this...even while on the move and engaged. This ability makes our Armies particularly lethal.

'The commonest'? Gah, call yourself an Englishman!?

Really liking these military unit videos! Keep it up

We're still waiting for your Crossfire Wargaming game video!

I love all the army unit videos please make more.

Are you going to talk about tank companies next I love this series of military organization

Thank you for this great video. It is really interesting, you said that a Major is usually responsible for a company. Major Winters from BoB was in charge of E company as a Captain throughout most of the war. Then in Bastogne they put him in charge of the whole battalion. He didn't like that and wore his first aid kit over his helmet bars. The other battalion commanders wouldn't take him seriously.

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.

I heard something like this on a QI rerun yesterday and now there's a Lindybeige video on it. Brilliant.

Hey Lloyd, I'm loving these videos. Please continue to make videos about these military fundamentals!

Every time you upload a video about military organization structures I get unreasonably excited

Lloyd makes looking like a dork look cool!!

Wow, what an informative video! I love the use of figurine soldiers for visual aid, really cool and extremely easy to understand even for someone who has no clue about army structure before opening this video.

Please do a video about Gladiators!

These videos on military structure are so very clear and concise. I always enjoy your presentations...even when you ramble a bit. ;)

YES

6:58 you don't "WIN" a medal, you EARN it

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.

I came here for the Pronunciation poem and stayed for the awesome content. you deserve a lot more views

The 150 dislikes are all the people who loaned stuff to Lloyd that he wouldn’t return

I looooove this series. As a huge war fanatic, listening to your orgasmic voice AND learning is just the best thing.

No country should be composed of more than one hundred and fifty people.

Another fine video, I agree wholeheartedly with your comment that a Company Commander was known to his men. I served three company commanders of superb stuff, gentlemen, warriors and quite unhinged in their devotion to their men and to getting a horrific job done well. Of my three battalion commanders I would have to go through the records to find two of their names, the other was called Swanson, I remember because I knew his son well, he served in my Company. Beyond the orbat details, communication, firepower projection etc. there is a strong tug of attachment to the Company. It just sounds right, feels right. In a company of men, even civies can hear the bond in that statement. Tell them you served in a multiple or battalion and their eyes glaze over. Only Regiment comes close. The only memento of my service to adorn my walls is a print of my Company colours, the Regimental cap badges, stable belts and medals are all stuffed in some drawer somewhere. To finish off this series you may think about a video on wastage. It would come quite neatly into a description of the battalion. The reason a standard issue section, troop, platoon, company and battalion are the size they are is to accommodate the natural wastage of action. One can expect 1/3rd casualties to enemy action and accidents in every rotation through the front lines (again Im limiting myself to the WWI and WWII experience). To be effective these units only require 1/2 to 2/3rds of their strength. The rest are there to maintain as much of their front as possible. This paradox - that Company Commanders are devoted to their men, live close with them and will know them personally and yet will be fully expectant of loosing a 1/3rd each time they go forward - is I think the most heartbreaking and fascinating in the field of soldiering. I got close enough to witness it but not to practise it, and if Im honest I genuinely regret that. I only knew one or two company commanders who didn't cut the mustard, and they lasted weeks in the job before they were found out. It wasn't professionalism or experience it was that paradoxical balance between connecting with your men and accepting their deaths. Being forward enough to take the same risks is instrumental, character is key. We were the loyal hounds to my Majors hunting party. The two Im thinking of were quite possibly unemployable in any other industry, a streak of madness, horrific glee and itch for the scent of battle ran through both that set them apart from ordinary blokes. They were close enough to be heard and known yes, but also they were close enough to the enemy to set the example. Theres a lot going on in a company.

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

I've heard that an individual, regardless of skill or experience, can effectively manage 3-4 other people. I don't have a citable source, but military unit sizes (intentionally or not) follow the trend: -The Company's CO, with the aid of the XO, have 3 Platoon Commanders under them. -Each of these Platoon Commanders have 3 Squad Leaders under them. -Depending on branch, unit and era, the Squad Leader then has 3 Fire Team Leaders under him. This trend is consistent going up the chain of command as well.

Well done, as an ex serving Infantry man of 20 years, I like your explanation of the unit structures and the WHY. Yes, to us it was the section first, the platoon was organically the wider family, the company was something slightly out of our sight, as young soldiers. Obviously as you progress through the ranks you get to see the wider picture, the battalion starts to open up your view even wider. You get to know who to speak too, for favours, to get equipment, stores, FOOD lol. As I progressed even further dealing with the regiment and then across the brigade and all their support arms gives you an organisational feel to the battle group but ... you never lose that feeling of belonging within the section. Those guys are still my mates, 40 years later, thank you Lindybeige

Having been a platoon commander myself, I can only say that - EXCELLENT POINT you made! (about practicality on the battlefield)

Would you consider doing one on how armored cars/light vehicles worked in a platoon?

Good video. My company at 29 Palms, California, during radio school, was 2,300 marines. That was just an odd training situation, and that never happened again anywhere else I went in the corps. However, we were the largest "company" in the armed forces of the US.

Dammit Lloyd, stop putting out videos while I'm in class!

i think the band of brothers reference really did explain it, well done

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"

lindy great vid in the nz army the major and sar-major work as a team one inside the wire the comdr outside the wire.

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.

OMG! Another Lindybeige video! There's no such thing as too much Lindybeige.

These are some of by favorites of yours, hope there's more military videos ahead! You have a fantastic grip of the WWII era, and human nature in general.

During the video I always compared everything you said with Band of Brothers... Then you quoted it which made me veeery happy:o

Would that mean that human tribes would have had a natural size of 150?

As a former US Army Airborne Company Commander, Brilliant! Very well done. By the way, I only had 2 platoons! Another great job.

You know that you gonna get requests to do a video of an entire army in the end right? :P

When I watch one of Lindybeig's videos I don't bother to watch before I press like anymore. there are few creators on youtube who always puts up quality content. Keep up the good work!

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.

I'm going to be completely honest. This, video. Is the most informative war video I've ever seen. I always wanted to know the teams in a company but I didn't know where to look. But now I know. Thank you. Really. Also make a battalion video. ;)

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.

As for radios, yes, I as a platoon level comms specialist have three issued radio sets to juggle and one privately purchased before the latest radio refit of my home guard unit. One of the radios is for listening in on the section leader's and platoon leaders and his 2nds traffic so that I can use the big frequency hopping set on my back to independently report important events the company staff section or the encrypted reserve set that's also able to reach any other military, police or fire/rescue departement/unit I want provided i know the network adress for who I try to reach and there are enough grid nodes online to make the connection.

Were did you get the figures? Plz

This is a really great series. It would be interesting to see a compare and contrast between a eight gun British battery and a American/German four gun battery

Google "Dunbar number", that's the name for the concept that he's describing.

Less than 1 minute in and he goes to reference the human nature and spot on nails why a company is the size it is. That's a thumb up alright.

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?

Excellent mini-series dear boy! Please continue going up the command chain! :)

A company being made up of companions, those with, 'com-', whom you break bread, 'panis', hence the company mess hall.

these military videos are fascinating! thank you:)

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?

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.

It is interesting that these numbers are almost exactly the same as a Roman century

5:20 .....the most polite way of saying '' he decided who lives and who dies'' i've heard. lindybeige....you're an english gentleman.

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

I like the way you explain this stuff. Now, do the next size up from company :)

Come on, Lindy, I expect the outro-screen captions to be witty and funny, not bloody depressing :c

This and your platoon video is helping me defeat the heroic missions on Men of War: Assault Squad 2 which is a top down simulation. You can control each single soldier or you can put them in groups. Depending on the speed you run the game at you can control in detail each man in a platoon. But if you don't pay close attention to the position of each soldier, you can manage up to a company, including vehicles. if anybody is interested in some real time war-gaming I highly reccomend MOWAS2 and the more recent Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront

Can you do vids on Battalions, Regiments, Brigades, Divisions also?

Thanks Lloyd for a great video! Very much appreciated.

Easy Company ♤

ive never heard of you before, and dont consider myself purveyor of "military history" by any stretch of the word, but this was amazing. thanks for covering such a unique topic so clearly, this was really interesting.

Mr. Beige. How's the suit of armour coming along?

Lindybeige, I just would like to say that I very much enjoy your WWII videos, as you explain yourself about these things so well!