Abbreviations used for military units and acronyms are listed below. Many of these are printed in full at intervals throughout the text to aid clarity. Others are explained where they occur.
ABT Australian Battlefield Tour
ADS Advanced Dressing Station
AIF Australian Imperial Force
Att/d Attached
Aust Australian
BEF British Expeditionary Force
Bn Battalion
BWI British West Indies
Cam Cameron
CCS Casualty Clearing Station
Cem Cemetery
CGS/H Conseil Général de la Somme/Historial
CIGS Chief of the Imperial General Staff
C-in-C Commander in Chief
CO Commanding Officer
Coy Company
CRP Conseil Régional de Picardie
CWGC Commonwealth War
Graves Commission
DLI Durham Light Infantry
DSO Distinguished Service Order
E of I Empress of India’s
FA Field Artillery
GOC General Officer Commanding
HE High Explosive
HLI Highland Light Infantry
KOSB King’s Own Scottish Borderers
KOYLI King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
KRRC King’s Royal Rifle Corps
L/Lce Lance
LNL Loyal North Lancs Regiment
MC Military Cross
Mem Memorial
MGC Machine Gun Corps
MM Military Medal
Mon Monument
NSR North Staffs Regiment
NSW New South Wales
OP Observation Point
RB Ross Bastiaan Commemorative Plaques
RE Royal Engineers
RF Royal Fusiliers
RFC Royal Flying Corps
RHA Royal Horse Artillery
RI/R d’I (French) Infantry Regiment
RIF Royal Irish Fusiliers
RIR Royal Irish Rifles
RIR (German) Infantry Reserve Regiment
RIT (French) Territorial Infantry Regiment
RN Royal Navy
RND Royal Naval Division
RWF Royal Welsh Fusiliers
SAF South African Forces
SLI Somerset Light Infantry
SOA Site of Action
Sqn Squadron
SWB South Wales Borderers
VAD Voluntary Aid Detachment
V-B Villers Bretonneux
VC Victoria Cross
WFA Western Front Association
MILITARY UNITS & RANKS
Army Formations and Ranks and Their Relative Strengths/Seniority
The relative sizes of military units and ranks can be confusing to those who do not have direct experience of them. The tables below are approximations intended only to provide guidance rather than absolute accuracy, because although the names of military formations (e.g. Company) remain the same, their compositions can vary (e.g. sometimes three and sometimes four Platoons to a Company).
Military ranks however remain constant in their relativity to each other BUT not necessarily in the formations to which they are attached. This is particularly so in wartime as casualties mount and lower ranks assume command of higher formations whose commanders have been killed (e.g. a full Colonel may take the place of a Brigadier General in commanding a Brigade, a Captain may replace a Major in commanding a Company and so on).
The tables show infantry formations/ranks in descending order of size/seniority.
Formations |
|
Commanding Ranks |
Army |
(can be two or more Corps) |
Field Marshal |
Corps |
(can be two or more Divisions) |
Lieutenant General |
Division |
(up to four Brigades) |
Major General |
Brigade |
(generally two to four Battalions) |
Brigadier General* |
Battalion* |
(generally two to four Companies) |
Lieutenant Colonel |
Company |
(generally two to four Platoons) |
Major or Captain |
Platoon |
(three or four Sections) |
Lieutenant/Second Lieutenant |
Section |
(nine or ten men) |
NCO (Non Commissioned Officer) |
*Battalions are formations of around 1,000 men (14–18) and Regiments very often had more than one battalion. Thus ‘Regiment’ is a collective noun for formations that in theory have some common identity e.g. all the men were recruited from a particular county – hence a ‘County’ regiment such as the Royal West Kents which at one time had 18 battalions.
*The ranks here are those associated with the Infantry i.e. the fighting soldiers. But there are others such as ‘Staff’ (what might be called ‘Management’), Engineers, Artillery etc. where the rank of ‘Colonel’ is found and whose number swell the final strengths of formations.