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Ranger BTN OOB and some other questions


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hey there. I just have a couple of questions I would like to ask veterans here:

I found this website that shows the OOB of the 2nd Ranger batallion during D-Day.

http://www.americandday.org/D-Day/2nd_Rangers_Battalion-Order_of_battle.html

Would I be right to assume that the order of battle stayed the same during the taking of Bergstein and Hill 400?

Also a couple of question on the HQ company and the rest of the companys.

It says the HQ company had 4 platoon leaders. does this mean HQ company had 4 infantry platoons?

Also the rest of the companies seem to have 2 platoon leaders aswell as a first seargent. does this mean they had 2 Platoons per company?

if so what is the reason the HQ company has 4 platoons and the rest of the companies have 2 platoons each?

Also after looking it up is it right to assume First seargents are sort of a 2IC of the company?

its basically research for a possible project depicting the bergstein battle and hill 400 I might work on, seeing as my incredible losses on the famous "school of hard knocks" had kinda put the campaigns on a stall for the moment, trying to get me back into the game and motivate myself with scenario making :)

ive been trying to find somesort of account of the battle in the internet but all that comes up is wikipedia, which has some but not all the information, a board game someone made and refferences to the "Call of Duty 2" mission of Bergstein and Hill 400, which I have to say inspired the project.

cheers! and thank you for reading and hopefully your awnsers!

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In some of the other Battalion TOs presented in CMBN, the "HQ company" has elements such as Recon Platoon, Assault Gun Platoon, Mortar Platoon, Machine Gun Platoon. I'd hazzard a guess that these support elements, or their equivalents in a Ranger Platoon (which prolly doesn't have an Assault Gun platoon, for example) are what the HQ coy platoon leaders are in charge of.

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In some of the other Battalion TOs presented in CMBN, the "HQ company" has elements such as Recon Platoon, Assault Gun Platoon, Mortar Platoon, Machine Gun Platoon. I'd hazzard a guess that these support elements, or their equivalents in a Ranger Platoon (which prolly doesn't have an Assault Gun platoon, for example) are what the HQ coy platoon leaders are in charge of.

Ah right, that would make sense, its something I missed that the batallion didnt seem to have a support or heavy company.

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AFAIK the Ranger force in this time frame had its battalions composed of six Ranger companies, all identical; each company had two 21-man platoons; each platoon had an assault section and a support section. Platoon weapons included 1 60mm mortar, 1 LMG and at least 1 bazooka.

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AFAIK the Ranger force in this time frame had its battalions composed of six Ranger companies, all identical; each company had two 21-man platoons; each platoon had an assault section and a support section. Platoon weapons included 1 60mm mortar, 1 LMG and at least 1 bazooka.

Right, thank you. I can suppose that LMG would be a 30.cal.?

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Right, thank you. I can suppose that LMG would be a 30.cal.?

Yep, probably the A6 in game terms. The Ranger platoon's assault section would have 10 men including the LMG, divided into a 5 man assault team and a 5 man LMG team; the platoon support section would have the 60mm mortar and bazooka with 10 men to lug and operate all that. The 21st man was the Platoon leader. Rangers went pretty light and had no organic heavy weapons at the time, though they could always be attached if required. I could not find any TO&E mention of SMG's or BAR's but I'll bet they were present as well if the Rangers had good scrounges over at the QM section. :D

Recall that the Ranger force lost two full battalions at Anzio, KIA or POW in one action where they tried to infiltrate the German lines and all got caught in a swamp drainage ditch like fish in a barrel. Pretty ugly. The Army started to wise up to proper Ranger use after that and saved them for the big pushes like D-Day and not squander them on prolonged campaigns.

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Ok thank you very much.

Also dont know if you know, but what would be the organization of a ranger platoon. you already said there were 21 men (including the support section I presume), where there still the traditional (in what I suppose is the assailt section) 3 squads but less men in each or just 2 squads?

in game offcourse I tried adding a 50% headcount reduced LMG, mortar and bazooka team, all adding 12 men, I suppose without the rangers in game yet I will just have to live with the extra men, atleast in the support section.

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The Ranger platoon had 1 platoon leader, one "special weapons" support section (10 men with 60mm mortar and bazooka) and one assault section (10 men, rifles with one LMG.) Sorry if that was not clear from my previous post.

The Ranger companies had just the two platoons and an HQ element of only 1 officer and 3 EM - a very sparse, results-oriented organization.

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The Ranger platoon had 1 platoon leader, one "special weapons" support section (10 men with 60mm mortar and bazooka) and one assault section (10 men, rifles with one LMG.) Sorry if that was not clear from my previous post.

The Ranger companies had just the two platoons and an HQ element of only 1 officer and 3 EM - a very sparse, results-oriented organization.

oh it was clear I just wanted to know how many men went into each section,

Thank you very much Gunnergoz!

Edit, yeah I see you edted the previous post, and I didnt realise! sorry

and thanks for the extra information. always good to learn.!

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Also keep in mind that unlike vanilla infantry formations, the Rangers had official license to adjust their equipment and weapons loadout based on the mission.

So really, you'd see Ranger weapons teams carrying what was best for the mission at hand.

But IIRC, the above is a good representation of the "stock" Ranger loadout.

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Thanks Yankeedog, but well we are limited by the engine so :)

Anyway, I managed to form something resembling a Ranger platoon in accordance to the information here:

Only thing is lowest I can get un 27 men, mostly due to the extra 4 man ammo bearers and 4 men in the mortar team, but well.

the formation I used was an Infantry Batallion. The squads are set to 50% headcount. HQ is set to 60%, when I put it to 50% I only got the assistant for some reason. MG and Mortars are set to 50% althought didnt change the mortar team.

rangerplatoon.jpg

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Type of Document: Thesis

Author: Quistorff, Alissa Marie

URN: etd-07112005-223056

Title: The U.S. Army's 2nd Ranger Battalion: Beyond D-Day

Degree: Master of Science

Department: History, Department of

Advisor: Nathan Stoltzfus Committee Member

Keywords:

D-Day

Army

Rangers

Pointe du Hoc

World War II

Date of Defense: 2005-04-20

Availability: unrestricted

Abstract: This thesis is a micro-history of how the 2nd Ranger Battalion, during World War II evolved their military doctrine. This work focuses on their training for operation Pointe du Hoc and the ensuing battle. After the fight for Pointe du Hoc the Rangers were deployed in a variety of ways. Be examining the Brest campaign, the battles in the Hurtgen Forest, and the crossing of the Rhine River, the Ranger doctrine slowly begins to emerge.

http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-07112005-223056/

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  • 5 months later...
Anyway, I managed to form something resembling a Ranger platoon [snip]

If you felt your Ranger battalion was good enough you could upload it as a 'TOE Scen' to the repository, then other folk would be able to import it to their own scens using the campaign import-TOE function.

Just lay out your battalion on a plain field, add some relevant text, and - I'd suggest - prefix the 'scen name' with TOE. Something like TOE US Ranger Bn. That'd save people a bunch of work, and mean that your own work might see more use than whatever single scen you had in mind.

Incidentally, the same approach could be used to create and employ a whole range of obscure, specific, and bespoke real and/or historic TOEs that are below the threshhold that BFC sets for inclusion. It could also be used to create personal "Armies", sort of like the Flames of War armies that table top players of that game build up. The QB purchase screen could be used for the points values.

Set yourself a limit, say, 2000 points, or 500 points, then buy your army within that limit, save it as a TOE file, and re-use it in any or all pseudo QBs (pseudo in that someone would have to import the two army files onto the selected map, making it technically more of a scenario than a QB).

That approach might also make for an interesting tournament. Set a points limit (and perhaps some other criteria, like a max percentage on artillery, or no air, or only one nationality, or only one branch. or ...), have players build their own Army, then set them against each other in a round robin on a set of maps, always using their same Army.

Actually, there are lots of different way the campaign import-TOE feature could be used ...

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