The Last War: Chapter 374.

[Louie]

Simon,

I am working on the updated British Army ORBAT now. Suffice it to say TLW Army concentrated on things the IRL Army had as aspirations/priorities. Other than 5 RTR and some other additions to the RA/RE/RLC, the RAC and Inf sought to fully man the units they had. Additionally the AI & MW sought to man a fourth rifle Coy and Assault Pioneer Pls. More coming soon!

[Simon Darkshade]

Louie,

I can absolutely see that. The IRL Army did have a different path from 1991-2005 to the TLW one, which essentially follows the same ~1989 orbat with some updating of equipment and a few minor changes, such as the shift from 45 Warriors to 36 for armoured infantry battalions. Fully manning those units follows that same path of 'What was sufficient in 1989 is fairly set in stone'. Perhaps since then, the world and the security picture may have possibly changed a tad.

In any event, there are some errors in the existing British orbat:

- 1st Welsh Guards are in London and in Canada, suggesting that one of them could possibly be 2nd Welsh Guards
- 2nd The Light Infantry is in Bosnia and UKMF, suggesting that one of them should 4th The Light Infantry
- 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Wales listed in both UKMF and 160th Infantry Bde, suggesting one of them should be 5th Battalion
- The King's Own Scottish Borderers and the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire should still have a regular battalion

- 4th King's Own Border Regiment is listed both in 23rd (Lancashire) Armoured Bde and 42 (NW) Bde
- 3rd Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers listed in both 27th Armoured Bde and 160th Infantry Bde
- 9th The Light Infantry listed in both 43 (Wessex) Bde and 143 (West Midlands) Infantry Bdes
- 4th Devons and Dorsets listed in both 43 (Wessex) Bde and 2 (SW) Infantry Bde
- Queen's Regiment has, in the TA, a 6/7 Battalion, a 6th Battalion and a 7th Battalion
- 6th and 8th Royal Anglian Regiments are listed twice, in 16 Air Portable Bde and in 54 and 161 Bdes

TA and HSF battalions in brackets after 56 Regular Army battalions (including errors for continuity)

Spoiler!

1, 2 Grenadier Guards
1, 2 Coldstream Guards
1, 2 Scots Guards
1, 1 Welsh Guards
1 Irish Guards

1, 2, 3 Para (4, 10, 15)

1, 2, 2, 3 Light Infantry (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9)

1, 2, 3 Queen’s Regiment (5, 6/7, 6, 7)
1, 1, 3 Royal Anglian Regiment (5, 6, 7, 8, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Norfolk, Suffolk, 6, 8)
1, 2, 3 Royal Green Jackets (4, 5)

1, 2 Royal Fusiliers (5, 6, 7)
1, 2 Royal Hampshire Regiment (4/5)
1, 2 Worcestershire & Sherwood Foresters (3, 4)

1 Royal Irish Regiment (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
1 Royal Regiment of Wales (3, 4, 4, 6, 7)
1 Black Watch (3, 4/5, 6, 7)

1 Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (4/6, 5)
1 Cheshire Regiment (3, 4/7)
1 Green Howards (4, 5)
1 King’s Own Royal Border Regiment (4, 4)
1 Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (3, 7)
1 Queen’s Lancashire Regiment (4, 5)
1 Royal Welch Fusiliers (3, 3)
1 Royal Highland Fusiliers (3, Glasgow Highlanders)
1 Queen’s Own Highlanders (3, 4/5)
1 King’s Regiment (6, 8)
1 Royal Scots (8/9)
1 Devon and Dorset Regiment (4, 4)

1 Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (3)
1 Staffordshire Regiment (3)
1 Gordon Highlanders (3)
1 Gloucestershire Regiment (5)

1, 2 2nd Gurkhas
1, 2 6th Gurkhas
1 7th Gurkhas
1 10th Gurkhas

- Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire entirely TA with 1st Leeds Rifles Battalion and 3rd Battalion
- King's Own Scottish Borderers entirely TA with 4/5 Battalion
- London Regiment entirely TA, as per @ with 1, 2, 3, 7, 15
- York and Lancaster Regiment entirely TA with 4 Battalion
- The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) with 5, 6 (Hamilton) and 7 Battalion

The numbering of the TA/HSF battalions is a bit all over the shop, which can be ascribed to different unit histories and what not.

What sticks out to my crazed mind:
- Lack of a 2nd Irish Guards
- Royal Irish Regiment has 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 Battalions as TA, but no 2nd Battalion
- Royal Regiment of Wales has 5 TA/HSF battalions, but no 2nd Battalion
- The Black Watch lacks a 2nd Battalion, whilst having 4 TA/HSF Battalions
- That would give 5 Guards Regiments (2 Battalions), 1 Infantry Regiment with 4 Battalions, 3 with 3, 6 with 2 and 16 x 1, plus 6 Gurkha and 3 Para for 60 battalions, which is a fairly useful number vs 56
- There are at least 2 regular battalions missing from KOSB and POW's Own Regiment of Yorkshire, taking us to 62
- Bumping the London Regiment up to the Regular Army and increasing The Queen's Regiment from 3 to 4 battalions get us to 64
- It also fits nicely with the TA, which with some de-amalgamations could get to 64
- That would be the extent of my outrageous increase in size - 2 battalions which already should be there, 1 Guards battalion, 3 battalions from large regiments in Ireland, Wales and Scotland, 1 from the Home Counties/Queen's Regiment and 1 from London; and 4 TA battalions. Around 4000-5000 more regulars over 14 years and ~2500 TA
- The obvious nomenclature for any subsequently raised battalions (ie wartime conscripted men) would be the 2nd Battalions of the 16/18 single battalion regiments

[James1978]

I know Bernard has been working on expanding the number of Territorial and Home Service Force battalions.
He's aware of the errors in the posted version, and I'll add that I've seen a version of the British Army ORBAT that corrects many of the errors mentioned and has added battalions. It's a work in progress.

2nd The Light Infantry is in Bosnia and UKMF, suggesting that one of them should 4th The Light Infantry

That one has an easy explanation. The NATO led peacekeeping mission in Bosnia was withdrawn by end of April 2005, with most of the UK contingent being sent to reinforce UKMF.

[Jotun]

III Korps:

Flying assets:
77 transport/liaison (BO-105M, NH90, CH-53)
56 attack helicopters (BO-105P, Tiger)

Artillery:
198x FH-70, FH-99, PzH 2000 [1]
90x MLRS (2 extra batteries in Artillery Training Regiment 5)
168x Panzer Mortar 120mm

AT (mobile):
108x Jaguar 2, Marder 2/50

IFV:
787x Marder/Marder 2

MBT: 1155 Leopard 2A4/5/6/6M

GBAD:
180x Gepard A1/A2 (36 per division, 2x 36 corps level, basically mechanizing the two respective corps-level Bofors 40mm/L70 flak battalions from the 1989 orbat)
36x Roland (corps level)

Territorialheer:
Artillery:
72x M109/PzH 2000
30x 120mm mortar

MBT:
205x Leopard 2A4/A5
41x Leopard 1A6

IFV:
35x Marder 2


What jumped out at me was that the Heer was - contrary to Bernard's assessment - quite light (too light?) on heavy artillery, the very German love affair with 120mm mortars notwithstanding. Looking at the former Lance battalions and their attendant Special Weapons Logistics battalions, why not turn the latter into cadred/partly active MLRS formations? It would mean only 54 more MLRS in the Heer's inventory with minimal peacetime personnel expenditure. Come to think of it, the corps-level artillery security battalions are redundant (they were supposed to guard the "special weapons") and could also be turned into cadred/partly active MLRS battalions, as each rocket artillery battalion has an attendant security company in its orbat, and the staff companies are also geared towards providing security.

[1] FH-99 is the proposed (Jan, Cye, moi) FH-70 upgraded with a 52-caliber PzH2000 barrel

[Simon Darkshade]

I do find the comparative study of different NATO armies, divisions and their armaments/TOE a bit interesting, so this is an exercise made for my warped little mind. It does show three distinct approaches to a broadly similar tactical challenge and opposition; the French have a different one again, but that is so convoluted as to simply make a man sigh and remark that 'Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.'

By my count of earlier this afternoon, the German Army has around 101 regular infantry battalions or equivalent and a further 67 in reserve; that may be a bit different here depending on the arrangements of reserve units assigned to LANDJUT under AFNORTH, the factfile thereof not having made the transition quite yet.

[Louie]

I know Bernard has been working on expanding the number of Territorial and Home Service Force battalions.
He's aware of the errors in the posted version, and I'll add that I've seen a version of the British Army ORBAT that corrects many of the errors mentioned and has added battalions. It's a work in progress.

2nd The Light Infantry is in Bosnia and UKMF, suggesting that one of them should 4th The Light Infantry

That one has an easy explanation. The NATO led peacekeeping mission in Bosnia was withdrawn by end of April 2005, with most of the UK contingent being sent to reinforce UKMF.

We are revamping the ORBAT as of now to fix some anomalies. Everything should be clearer after it is published. IRL there were hundreds of JTPs (Joint Theatre Plans) that covered reinforcements and pulling back units and equipment from overseas. This will be reflected in the ORBAT. IRL the aspiration was to have the HSF double in strength in the 90’s, of course this was based on funding and equipment stocks. By the 90’s and full role out of SA80 and associated webbing the equipment issue would have alleviated (in the 80’s many uncommitted reservists may have had to be issued with ‘37 Pat webbing and No.4s). There was also a study into making the HSF be Command Cadres for mobilized Reservist Coys and legislating a LLTA (Limited Liability TA) scheme. IRL this never happened do to the fall of the Wall. The UK was divided into 77 TAORs (mostly based on existing Counties & Police Boundaries) with London having an additional five. Each was supposed to have a varying number of formed units for KPs in their TAOR and one TA Coy as a MRF to respond to any attacks. After communicating with Bernard, the British Army of TLW took all these IRL studies and translated them to each TAOR having its own, cadre, Home Service Bn which would have between two and five Coys depending on size and KPs. In peacetime the HSF Coys would be administered by their local TA unit, on TTW the Home Service Bns would be activated and take under command the HSF Coys plus assigned Reservist Coys with one being the MRF for the TAOR while the others provided KP protection.

[Bernard Woolley]

The Royal Irish Regiment does have a 2nd battalion. Sure it’s in there.

A note on British regimental battalion numbers. In general post 1908 they went something like this:

Regular
1st & 2nd battalions*
Special Reserve (ex-militia)
3rd battalion*
Territorial
4th battalion and above.
War Raised
Generally followed on from the Territorial battalions

*Some regiments had 3, or even 4 battalions. However, by the late 20th Century a lot of regiments only had a single regular battalion. What had been the militia/Special Reserve/Supplementary Reserve battalions largely disappeared after the FWW, being placed into ‘suspended animation’ until disbandment in 1953. Many, regiments had their 2nd battalions amalgamated with the 1st post FWW. Various reforms to the TA meant that battalions appeared, amalgamated, disappeared, reappeared and amalgamated again. However, this is why a modern day Regiment might look like this:

Regular
1st battalion
Territorial
4th battalion
7th/8th battalion

It’s all a bit confusing and based on precedence (generally) etc. The most recent reform has effectively ironed a lot of this out. The single battalion regiments were amalgamated into multi battalion large regiments.

Regiments.org used to be a great resource for tracking changes over the centuries, but not all of it survives at the Wayback Machine.