Platoons - a natural unit size for a modern army

1:55 "A leftenant is called a leftenant because he is left with the tenancy of command. He is in lieu of the captain. The lieu-tenant." WOW I never actually knew that... Mind blowing.

Give me a battalion of guards! - No, that's exactly he wants! Take one brigade - King Arthur. Why make trillions, if we can make... billions? - Dr. Evil. Masters of logic.

I got out of the US Army in 2009, and I thought I’d share some supplementary info. In the 101st Airborne, in Iraq from 2005-2009 (just speaking from first hand experience), rifle companies were made up of three infantry platoons and a HQ platoon including the comms, armorer and mortar sections. The three platoons were organized with three normal squads and a weapons squad. The regular squad has two fire teams, as well as a squad leader, and designated defensive marksman. A fire team is organized thusly: Team leader -M4 with M203 grenade launcher Gunner -M249 SAW machine gun Assistant Gunner -M4 and additional ammo Anti Armor -M4 and AT-4 launcher The teams are designated “Alpha” and “Bravo,” preceded by the squad designation, either 1, 2 or 3. Squad leaders carry the M4, as well as mission essential equipment. Designated Marksman carry a variant of the M14 battle rifle occasionally called an M21. This is a ten man squad, and there are three. There’s also a “Weapons Squad” consisting of two machine gun teams, a medic, and a Radio Telephone Operator and a Forward Observer. A gun team is organized thusly: Gunner (team leader) -M240B machine gun with an M9 Assistant Gunner -M4 and tripod Ammo bearer -M4 and additional ammunition Often the Platoon Sergeant acts as the squad leader for Weapons Squad. Lastly, there is the Platoon Leader. Callsigns are easy. You would say the company first, followed by platoon, then squad and finally team. Charlie Company for instance, might have the callsign “Warriors”. So, if I wanted to speak to the alpha team leader in third platoon’s second squad, I’d call: “Warrior 3-2-Alpha” There’s rarely communications equipment below the team level. Also, let’s say I just want their squad leader, I’d call: “Warrior 3-2-Actual” For the sake of callsigns, weapons squad is just fourth squad, with the gun teams designated “Example X-4-Alpha” and “Example X-4-Bravo” Platoon Leaders are their own special thing, so, back in Charlie Co., if you need second platoon’s PL, you’d call: “Warrior 2-6-Actual” Although, typically you’ll be calling the Radio Operator whose call sign is “Warrior 2-6-Romeo.” Lastly, the platoon sergeant’s call sign is “Warrior 2-7-Actual.” So, here it is: 6-Actual 7-Actual 1-Actual SDM 1-Alpha SAW AB AA 1-Bravo SAW AB AA 2-Actual SDM 2-Alpha SAW AB AA 2-Bravo SAW AB AA 3-Actual SDM 3-Alpha SAW AB AA 3-Bravo SAW AB AA Alpha Gun AG AB Bravo Gun AG AB RTO Medic Forward Observer That’s a total of 41 troopers.

Even more awkward is when you have the mortar set up, ask for a smoke (Grenade) and they give you a ciggi.

You sport that helmet incredibly well. And once again, another top rate production.

I thought Band of Brothers did quite a good job of showing the individual 'pieces' that made up warfare, particularly in WW2. Having seen it so many times, the sounds of '1st Platoon, 2nd Squad', or something to that effect, has been drummed into my memory.

That is the first time a British person was able to explain why they pronounce Luietenant as Left-tenant, as opposed to the American Lue-tenant, which closer matches the spelling. Thank you.

So it's the about the same size as a school class because it has the same practical limit?

"i cannot spare a company at this time. i'll give you an army group." "But sir, an army group is larg..." "enough, field marshall Axahad. my decision is made. if you succeed today, yo can expect a promotion to lance corporal." "... yes, king private Vellian. it will be done, my lord."

Nice vid and nice models mate, if you ever fancy a game, give me a shout. As a heads up, soldiers very rarely refer to things by their full names, especially whilst under fire, we have a tendency to uses acronyms, abbreviations and nick names for everything!

As noted by Rich Evans of Red Letter Media: "They're in tactical 'get mowed down' formation."

"Hand me the 51!" Or "Hand me the mortar!" There

Lindy please crowdfund a realistic war movie.

Please give Lindybeige his own TV show on the BBC

I love how "visual" British people are with the way they act out what they're describing. I felt so immersed at 6:13 when you played the part of the Lieutenant giving directions to the smaller teams. I especially am relieved that for the most part, you're only directly speaking to the leaders of each team. Saves me a lot of time writing.

The TV show Band of Brothers sort of demonstrates American small units tactics well to some degree if you want a film that actually implements what you said in the video.

There would be no need to specify the size of mortar launcher if you only had one size with you... So 51mm works just fine.

4:06 it doesn't matter what the size of the mortar shell is called because no mortar team is gong to be lugging an assortment of different sized mortars and need to distinguish between different ones. In the din of battle, it's just going to be "hand me a shell".

"You don't just shout forwards." We learned that in WWI.

"How do we take down this platoon" "That's easy, we kill the batman"