Slang Question

[jrrich0000]

Originally posted by Dandelion:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by jrrich0000:

Why don't you start another thread about UK/Canadian unit organization and history and stop hijacking this one?

I am curious about German nicknames for their equipment, but I don't want to have to wade through all the uninteresting (to me) off topic minutia and hair splitting to read about it!

The thread topic was, I belive, derogatory terms for Frenchmen. I think we exhausted that one rather rapidly.

It was in fact Martyr who hijacked the thread by bringing up German nicknames, and then again by bringing up regimental structures. In fact, he has been the engine of one of the most interesting threads in months in my humble opinion.

So you see the thread is a bit of a better box of chocolates, there's a little juicy something for everyone's taste

Cheerup

Dandelion </font>

[Holman]

It was in fact Martyr who hijacked the thread by bringing up German nicknames, and then again by bringing up regimental structures.

It is true. It was I. I regret nothing!

[stands tall, refuses final cigarette]

[...]

[blubbering, weeps for mercy]

[tools4fools]

In Carius book "Tigers in the mud" the Pz I is called "Krupp's Sportscar" or somefink like that.

Both tanks and planes were often simply called "Kiste" (crate, box), even the mighty Tiger.

One Tiger commander who bogged down frequently with his Tiger was called "Hero of the Sovjet Union".

"Mickey Mouse" was the BT fast tank series, as both round hatches opened up towards the front and were side by side.

Marcus

****

[JonS]

Originally posted by John D Salt:

As I think we've discussed before, typical British division organisations late in WW2 were three brigades each of three battalions for an infantry division, and a lorried infantry brigade of three battalions plus an armoured brigade of three armoured regiments and a motor battalion (infantry in half-tracks) in an armoured division. The infantry brigade would have 3 regiments of field arty, and an MG battalion and a recce regiment (from the Reconnaissance Corps). An armoured division would have an armoured recce regiment (driving Cromwells in NWE), one SP and one towed field artillery regiment.

Minor correction from Johns post on the previous page. The bolded brigade above should read division. I fink.

The US and the UK used the terms regiment and brigade respectively for the same functionally sized unit (3 battalions). The French, being ever correct, used both. Where the three battalins were from different provenances they would be in a Brigade, but where all three battalions were related (eg, 3 foreign legion bns, or three bns of Goums) their higher unit would be called a regiment. Thus, in late WWII, French divisions had some mix of brigades and regiments.

Silly Frogs (gratuitous slang to get this thread back on track )

Getting back to the British army, but diving down to a lower level and focussing on the artillery. During the 1930s the Royal Artillery went through a significant reorganisation in which each regiment was reduced from four batteries of guns to two. At this time the amalgamated batteries took as their new number the two numbers of the amalgamented batteries - thus a regiment that had previously consisted of 21, 22, 23, and 24 btys now consisted of 21/22 and 23/24 btys.

Then in about 1942 the regiment was reorganised again, this time into three batteries. This was simply accomplished by uncoupling on of the batteries, so the regiment in the previous example now contained 21, 22, and 23/24 btys.

New Zealand

All the units in 2(NZ)Div were new units formed for WWII. The infantry battalions were numbered from 18 through to 28 (27 being MG, 28 being the Maori Bn) because 1-16 had been used in WWI. However, each of the WWII bns had a more-or-less strong regional affiliation back in NZ. Thus you siometimes see various battalions being referred to by regional names. For example, 22 Bn was raised mostly with men from the Wellington region, and thus were sometimes called the Wellingtonians, or something similar. This tended to tail off over the course of the war as the regional 'purity' (never that high to begin with) was diluted by reinforcements from anywhere in the country replacing the old originals.

The partial exception is 28th (Maori) Battalion. Each of the four companies in that bn was recruited from particular tribal areas, and that tradition was mostly maintained throughout the war

From 23 Battalion

"...‘WHERE Britain goes, we go! Where she stands, we stand!’ said Michael Joseph Savage, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, at the outbreak of the Second World War. He spoke for the whole country. Many factors, including traditional loyalty to the British Crown for nearly one hundred years, sentiment born of ties of kinship and a common heritage, and material interests relating to markets, loans and security, made New Zealand's decision to enter the war the only possible decision at that time. New Zealand declared war against Germany as from 9.30 p.m., New Zealand standard time, on the 3rd day of September, 1939, a time coinciding to the minute with the declaration of war by the United Kingdom.

Almost immediately, the Dominion Government resolved to send a Special Force to fight in the European theatre of war. Somewhat later it decided that this force should be an infantry division under the command of Major-General B. C. Freyberg, VC. The Special Force was to be despatched in three echelons, each made up of an infantry brigade with appropriate supporting units of artillery, engineers, machine-gunners and Army Service Corps. Since the Territorial Army, or 1st Division, with its three infantry brigades was nominally required for home defence, the 2nd Division, as the new force later came to be known, was divided into the 4th, 5th and 6th Brigades. To avoid duplicating numbers borne by any earlier or existing units, the numbering of the infantry battalions began at 18, that is, immediately after the 17th (Ruahine) Regiment of the 1st Division. Thus, the units of the First Echelon or 4th Brigade were the 18th (Auckland), the 19th (Wellington) and the 20th (Canterbury-Otago) Battalions. Similarly, the 5th Brigade had units drawn from the Northern, Central and Southern Military Districts of New Zealand in its 21st (Auckland), 22nd (Wellington) and 23rd (Canterbury-Otago) Battalions. Sixth Brigade was organised in the same way. A tenth infantry unit, the 28th (Maori) Battalion, sailed with the 5th Brigade and served for the greater part of the war in that brigade. ...

In the NZ Artillery, each of the Fd Regts was originally raised with two batteries (per the 1930s RA reorg), and were numbered 25 and 26 Btys (4th Fd Regt), 27 and 28 Btys (5th Fd Regt), 29 and 30 Btys (6th Fd Regt), 31, 32, 33, and 34 Btys (7th A-Tk Regt).

As I understand it, 1, 2, and 3 Fd Regts were used in WWI, and/or were reserved for Home Defence (2nd Fd Regt was based around Palmerston North) along with Btys from 1 - ?? (?? = 24 I suppose).

14th LAA Regt was formed a bit later and got 41, 42, and 43 Btys, the intervening numbers being used for the divisional Survey Bty (36 Bty) and units for use in NZ and/or the Pacific.

In 1942 the fd regts were reorganised (again per the RA) into three btys, with 4th Field 'gaining' 46 Bty, 47 Bty going to 5th Field, and 48 Bty in 6th Fd.

Erm, I think that's about it.

Regards

JonS

[ May 25, 2004, 06:19 AM: Message edited by: JonS ]

[Hota]

Originally posted by Martyr:

In the 42nd ID there is the 1Bn/69th Infantry,,thier roots go back to the revolution and they also made up the Irish Bde in the Civil War. They are from NY and are still based in NYC.

There's also 1-111th Infantry (PA National Guard) which traces its lineage to colonial times. In fact we still carry the "Franklin Flag" which he designed and wear "Bennies" on our berets.

The way I understood it was that the brigade system in the US Army replaced the regimental system to be more in line with the combat commands used in WW2. In WW2 in order to form a combined arms team they would form three combat commands from an armored division. After the war they came up with the brigade system so that armor and inf would be under the same command in peace time and able to work together in training instead of having pure inf or pure arm regiments who only got to meet their better half at the front.

[Mad Russian]

Originally posted by Mattias:

Oh, and yes, in Germany "everything" was and is abbreviated...

M. [/QB]

[Mad Russian]

Originally posted by tools4fools:

"Mickey Mouse" was the BT fast tank series, as both round hatches opened up towards the front and were side by side.

Marcus

****

The Germans called any tank that had the two hatches opening up beside each other Mickey Mouse. That was their nickname for the early

T-34's as well.

Panther Commander

[Pfc Driscole James E]

In "Blood Red Snow" by Gunter K Koschorrek, the Memoirs of a German soldier on the Eastern Front, he gives the Eastern Front Medal the nickname of Gefrierfleischorden. A footnote translates this to Order of the Frozen Meat.

At least one class of US Navy warships had very British types of names. The Agile class of mine sweepers. I served on the USS Agile MSO-421 for a while in 70-71 time frame.

[SgtDuke6216]

Originally posted by Hota:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Martyr:

In the 42nd ID there is the 1Bn/69th Infantry,,thier roots go back to the revolution and they also made up the Irish Bde in the Civil War. They are from NY and are still based in NYC.

There's also 1-111th Infantry (PA National Guard) which traces its lineage to colonial times. In fact we still carry the "Franklin Flag" which he designed and wear "Bennies" on our berets.

The way I understood it was that the brigade system in the US Army replaced the regimental system to be more in line with the combat commands used in WW2. In WW2 in order to form a combined arms team they would form three combat commands from an armored division. After the war they came up with the brigade system so that armor and inf would be under the same command in peace time and able to work together in training instead of having pure inf or pure arm regiments who only got to meet their better half at the front. </font>

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Pfc Driscole James E:

In "Blood Red Snow" by Gunter K Koschorrek, the Memoirs of a German soldier on the Eastern Front, he gives the Eastern Front Medal the nickname of Gefrierfleischorden. A footnote translates this to Order of the Frozen Meat.

And collectively, medals were referred to as "blech".

[SgtDuke6216]

Originally posted by Siege:

Oh, and the majority of the Fighting 69th is from out on Long Island and not Manhattan. My wifes family lives about 2 blocks from one of the company armories, and another is in Queens. I believe only the headquarters, one company, and some support elements are in Manhattan... but the entire division is all jumbled up right now between reorganization from Mech Infantry into a Homeland Defense quick reaction unit and a lot of it being deployment overseas in pieces, so depending on the actual date I might be mistaken.

-Hans [/QB]

Yup!, The rest of the Division is spred out in Upstate NY. The 1-127AR is in and around Buffalo, Olean, Dunkirk, Cortland, and Jamestown. The 1-101Cav is in Staten Island, Newburgh, Troy and someplace else I can't remember. If I remember correctly Camp Smith in Peekskill has an HHC for one of the Bdes of the 42nd. The FSB and Arty in all over NYS and NYC and is the Avaiation. I grew up near Mcgarther

Airport in CI. And remember the Hueys, They now have Blackhawks.

[Andreas]

Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

And collectively, medals were referred to as "blech".

Meaning sheet metal in English, I think. Now who says that the Germans have longer words for everything.

Marcus, there was a T34/85 with two ear-shaped hatches as well. The one at Bovington is an example of that series. Not sure about the early T34, I always thought they had just one very big hatch.

[Dandelion]

Originally posted by JonS:

The French, being ever correct, used both. Where the three battalins were from different provenances they would be in a Brigade, but where all three battalions were related (eg, 3 foreign legion bns, or three bns of Goums) their higher unit would be called a regiment.

Well Jon, feels a bit sad to take away some of the credit the French have received here but not even les Francais were that organised.

As far as I know the French infantry arm did not use the Brigade as organisation before the collapse in 1940 except for the alpine units, it was used by the cavalry (cuirassiers, dragoons (including RDP), hussars, RAM, Chasseur's d'Afrique, Spahis etc) and consisted of two regiments. These regiments were battalion sized and thus practiced the same painful abuse of terminology as the British. The brigades contained regiments of the same type (i.e. two Spahi regiments in a Spahi brigade) except in the case of infantry-ised cavalry, were RAM and RDP formed a brigade.

The infantry arm used Demibrigade instead, denoting a two-battallion force of identical size as the cavalry Brigade, with the battallions actually even named so. Two Demibrigades could be merged into a Groupement, see below.

The French deviate heavily from this after their close affiliation with the British, with the FFL infantry brigades and so on, but return to their roots after switching sponsors to the US. The US using original French organisation at the time. Replacing the brigade of the former FFL was the US-type RCTs (in French of course initially Groupe de Combat then Groupement Mobile or specific like Groupement Blindé/Aéroporté etc).

And the Goums that you mention served in Tabors, roughly battallion sized units that were brigaded into Groupes (e.g. 1ere Groupe de Tabors Marocains), rather than regiments.

The Groupe of course meaning anything from a battallion (e.g. in the artillery and recce) to a brigade and the Groupement really meaning nothing but "grouping of" and could thus be any size, any type.

That's not even venturing ionto the specific French calamities of de Marche, Mixte, nor mentioning that France had four separate armies all with their own branches of service etc.

Basically, I feel the French are not at their advantage with organisational or logistic issues, but they have many other virtues to make up for this.

Cheerio

Dandelion

[tools4fools]

Originally posted by Panther Commander:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by tools4fools:

"Mickey Mouse" was the BT fast tank series, as both round hatches opened up towards the front and were side by side.

Marcus

****

The Germans called any tank that had the two hatches opening up beside each other Mickey Mouse. That was their nickname for the early

T-34's as well.

Panther Commander </font>

[JonS]

Originally posted by Dandelion:

And the Goums that you mention served in Tabors, roughly battallion sized units that were brigaded into Groupes (e.g. 1ere Groupe de Tabors Marocains), rather than regiments.

Eh. I kinda knew that about the Goums, but I couldn't think of the names of any French Regts off the top of my head, and didn't think to look some up.

The bit about Bdes and Regts having distinct meanings in the late-war French Divs I got from Bidwell Tug of war IIRC. I'll look it up again soon-ish and post what he has to say.

Regards

JonS

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Andreas:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

And collectively, medals were referred to as "blech".

Meaning sheet metal in English, I think. Now who says that the Germans have longer words for everything. </font>

[JonS]

The Italian influence coming through is my guess.

[Michael Emrys]

Originally posted by Andreas:

Not sure about the early T34, I always thought they had just one very big hatch.

That is true. Must have weighed a ton. Very good to be behind when the lead starts flying though, I hear.

Michael

[Andreas]

Not so good if it crashes down on your head though.

You are right Michael, tin is the word. I am not getting enough sleep these days.

Regarding nicknames, I think Peiper's command HT during the Ardennes offensive was called 'Emil'.

[JonS]

Huzzah! I wasn't losing the plot. The following extract describes General Juin's Corps Expéditionnaire Français (CEF) in May 1944, just before the final battle on the Cassino Line. It is taken from pages 304-305 of Bidwell & Graham (1986), Tug of war, St Martin's Press.

Juin's plan as finally developed was as follows. The whole rested on the fact that through his foresight the CEF was an instrument well adapted for operations either on the plain or in the mountains. Its divisions were, with certain significant variations, organised and equipped on the US model. Each had nine battalions of infantry in three regiments, with a battery (or "cannon company") of light artillery included in each. The divisional troops consisted of an armoured reconnaissance unit equipped with light tanks, an artillery regiment of three groups (battalions) of 105 mrn and one of 155 mrn howitzers, engineers, signals and supporting services.

The order of battle was:

1ère Division de Marche d'Infanterie, (1ère DMI) Commander, Général de Division (equivalent US or British Major General) Brosset. Formed as the 1st Free French Division in February 1943 and retitled as a normal French "marching" division in April 1944. Its infantry consisted of various independent battalions, including a "demi brigade" of two battalions of the Foreign Legion, a North African battalion and battalions of marines grouped in three "brigades". (Not "regiments". The French are exact in their use of military terms. A regiment is a unit, of three battalions, with a single identity.) The armoured regiment had been formed by converting the 1st Regiment of "Fusilier Marins", commanded by a naval capitaine de frégate. (Equivalent to a commander RN or USN.) Effective strength was 15,500 all ranks, of which 9,000 were Europeans or ethnic Frenchman.

2e Division d'Infanterie Marocaine (2e DIM) Commander, Général de Division Dody. Raised May 1943. Basically Moroccan; its infantry three regiments of Tirailleurs Marocains, the reconnaissance unit a regiment of Moroccan Spahis; the guns manned by the African Artillery Regiment. Effective strength, 14,000 all ranks.*

3e Division d'Infanterie Algérienne (3e DIA) Commander, Général de Division Monsabert. Raised May 1943. Infantry, Tirailleurs Algériens and Tunisiens, 3e Régiment Spahis Algériens de Reconnaissance, artillery as above. Effective strength, 13,000 all ranks.

4e Division Marocaine de Montagne (4e DMM) Commander, Général de Brigade Sevez (equivalent US Brigadier General, British Brigadier). Raised June 1943. Effective strength, 19,000. Unusually for a mountain division, it also had an armoured regiment, 4e Spahis Marocains. The artillery consisted of three battalions US type M116 75 mm light mountain howitzers with a useful range of 8,000 metres carried in mule pack; and its first and second echelons of transport were also pack mules. Effective strength, 19,000 all ranks.

"Corps" troops included medium and heavy artillery and the logistic services were adapted to work in mountainous country off the roads using pack animals as well as motor transport. US tank battalions were attached and anti tank defence by a regiment of the famous Chasseurs d'Afrique equipped with M 10s. A large number of devoted Frenchwomen served in the hospital and ambulance units. When General Lucas met General Dody in January he expressed his anxiety about their employment in the forward areas, to which Dody retorted that they were as ready to die for their country as the men. Lucas wrote in his diary: "Surely France still lives!"

When the French were establishing their colonial empire in North Africa their most intractable opponents were found among the mountaineers of northern Morocco, and on the principle of converting poachers to gamekeepers the French Army formed irregular levies recruited from the hill villages to act as local internal security troops. Accustomed from early youth to fight not only the French but each other in their private vendettas, they required little drill or training. The basic unit was a "goum", based on a village or group of villages and families, led by specially selected French officers able to speak Arabic and well versed in every nuance of clan and custom. A "goumier" was allowed to wear his own costume of diellaba, a striped woollen cloak, and trousers confined by tighiwines or woollen gaiters; the only concession to modernity being a steel helmet in action instead of the rezza, a small turban. The colour of undyed homespun plus the dirt collected in campaigning provided better camouflage than khaki battledress blouse and trousers. They were encouraged to fight in their own way as practised in their native mountains, as they were masters of the art of patrolling and reconnaissance, infiltration, ambuscade and minor tactics of every kind.

* "Tirailleurs", literally "skirmishers", in fact normal infantry. "Spahis", similarly were originally light cavalry, converted to armoured reconnaissance units.

The bolding is by me. Incidentally, that would also explain why the US used the term Regiment rather than Brigade, and perhaps why they've gone to Brigade recently.

Also, from the above, I would take Demi-Brigade to mean a Brigade that has less than it's full complement of battalions.

Regards

JonS

[ May 26, 2004, 05:23 AM: Message edited by: JonS ]

[Michael Emrys]

Originally posted by Andreas:

Not so good if it crashes down on your head though.

Which makes me wonder: Did any WW II tanks or other AFVs have springs or counterweights to make control of the movement of hatches easier and safer?

Michael

[Kanonier Reichmann]

Speaking of the English penchant for weird/quaint naming of various instruments of war, the name given to that "fine" early war armoured car has to get a guernsey. Marmon-Herrington just reeks of upper class snobbery yet is used as the name for an armoured car.

I'm sure the reason was the vehicle was probably designed by just such an individual with that surname but surely the army could have thought of something better than this. "Rabbit" perhaps, befitting its fast but avoid danger at all costs design comes to mind as an appropriate name for it. Next you'll know they would have had a "Barrington-Smythe" on the battlefield. :eek:

Regards

Jim R.

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Michael Emrys:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Andreas:

Not so good if it crashes down on your head though.

Which makes me wonder: Did any WW II tanks or other AFVs have springs or counterweights to make control of the movement of hatches easier and safer?

Michael </font>

[Dandelion]

Originally posted by JonS:

[QB] Huzzah! I wasn't losing the plot. The following extract describes General Juin's Corps Expéditionnaire Français (CEF) in May 1944, just before the final battle on the Cassino Line. It is taken from pages 304-305 of Bidwell & Graham (1986), Tug of war, St Martin's Press. The bolding is by me. Incidentally, that would also explain why the US used the term Regiment rather than Brigade, and perhaps why they've gone to Brigade recently.

Yes I can understand you conclusion there Jon. But I'm sorry, this text is filled with errors.

Some exmaples;

- On the description of the DFL, later DMI, he states there were battallions of Marines. There were none. The only Free French marine unit served with the British Commandos. In the DFL/DIM were only a battallion of Haitians, named 1e Bataillon d'Infanterie de Marine et du Pacifique but being no marines in a US meaning. The role of Marines was traditionally shouldered by the Colonial army.

- Also on the DFL, the RBFM was not converted to an armoured regiment, it was converted to an armoured reconnaissance battallion, then later into a tank destroyer battallion, although from 43 on called "regiment", as it had four, later six squadrons. These were sailors from the Merchant marine, and had initially served as antiaircraft gunners.

- Also on the DFL, it lies in the nature of the very name that there were no "normal" de Marche units, the term is synonymous to "Ad Hoc", sometimes translated in English to "Composite". So what a "normal" March infantry division isremains elusive to me, especially so as the organisation of the DFL remained quite unique, an anomailty in the French armed forces.

- Also on the DFL, this is the sole example of brigades being used by infantry troops, and this is the very division that had a long affilitation with the British, and what I meant with "strong deviation" in my previous post. The reason for sticking with this was the schism between pre 42 Gaullists and the Armée d'Afrique entering the allied camp post-Torch. Units would not combine.

I still fail to find any other use and cannot grasp why he makes that strange statement on French preciseness. Even a superficial examination of the 1940 OOB will reveal not only that the cavalry brigades (i.e. the only brigades to be found) consist of both homogenous and heterogenous types of units, that the only French infantrybrigades found in all of WWII except the Brigade Haute Montagne are those that served with the British.

- The Demi-Brigade mentioned in the text is the 13th DBLE. The history of this unit reads "Le 27 février ces deux bataillons sont réunis en une Demi-Brigade." No other units were intended to join. Thus there never was a 13th Brigade, it was designed to be a halfbrigade, as a third battallion was not planned (which would have made it a regiment). It remains one today. Compare the French OOB of 1940. Demi-Brigade were not incomplete brigades. It was a fairly common standard organisation in the French army.

...and so on.

On a final note;

- The description of the origin of the Goumiers is erronous.

Northern Morocco was Spanish, not French, and North Africa was not part of the French colonial empire. Algeria was a departement of France proper and both Morocco and Tunisia were protectorates. The region had it's own army (Armée d'Afrique) which was a separate entity from the French metropolitan army. The Foreign Legion belonged to the former (as well as the Spahis, the Chasseurs d'Afrique etc) and for obvious reasons this army became the dominantly represented one in the CEF. The infantry of that regular army was the tirailleurs. The need for raising local native levies stemmed from the fact that the colonial army could not operate in the region. As it was no colony. It was otherwise the responsibility of the special directorate of colonial administration to raise local native security forces.

"Goum" simply means clan - or tribe or family or village or whatever one wish to call the basic form of organisation in Maghreb society. The Goum in military shape was a company, give or take a few men. The original "Goums" serving France were five Algerian such (Goums Algeriéns), some of them mounted, with the Moroccan ones appearing only in 1908. And the Berber ("Nothern Morocco" must mean the Atlas and "Mountaineers" must refer to the Berber of the Atlas) entered service in Goums in 1912. While it is true France fought serious wars with the Berber, so did they against the Twareeq.

None of my statements above will take more than a Google search to verify from numerous sources. Most of it is actually available from official government sites in easy-to-access format, and I had not considered them very unorthodox had you not questioned them

Of course, mostsources are in French, or Frenchspeaking Maghreb, and the language factor I think might explain some of the confusion here.

I'm not doing this just to argue with you Jon, I wouldn't. Well not with you anyway. But I must insist on my previous statements in my last post. The conclusion that the French were precise in the manner described is an err. Not an unreasonable one, but still it cannot meet with real OOBs and survive.

But as always I am open to logical reasoning, and if you find French infantry brigades outside the DFL and BHM I guess I'll have to re-evaluate my position

Cheers

Dandelion

[SgtDuke6216]

Originally posted by JonS:

Incidentally, that would also explain why the US used the term Regiment rather than Brigade, and perhaps why they've gone to Brigade recently.

Also, from the above, I would take Demi-Brigade to mean a Brigade that has less than it's full complement of battalions.

Regards

JonS [/QB]

We still use regiments in the USMC, but as stated by my esteemed coleauge from the 42d Infantry Division..Brigades are used today for a quicker, and lighter force. Although some Divisions do retain a standard regimental system, ie, 82AB, 101AB and a few ARNG Divisions. Its what the Army jams into a brigade that make it not from the standard understanding of Military Structures. In the USMC there are generally 3 Battalions in a Regiment(and thats since 1940). There are exceptions, Artillery Rgt being one and reinforced regiments being the other. In the US Army there are generally 3 Battalions in a Brigade. I think they call it a Brigade is because its a combined arms force and there is no "true traditional" unit identity. Our Infantry Divisions have significant Heavy Armored Assets. And the Armored Division has a significant amount of Infantry. In WW2 this wasn't the case. There were seperate infantry, armored, and cavalry divisions with traditional TO&E structures. This started to change after WW2.