In all of the books that i am reading i find that they all say something about the First or Third or whatever number they are. What do they mean? And another question...When we first entered to war, about how many men did we have in the U.S. Army?
On out break of war in 1939 the U.S. Army consisted of approximatley 200000 men but by 1941 had expanded to 2 million. in this no. it must be remembered that you include the army air corps which was still part of the army unlike the RAF. the terms first army or third army are the main tactical units that are deployed in theatre. for example the U.S. 12th army group, the formation higher than the army, comprised at various times of the campaign in europe the 9th, 1st, 3rd and 15th U.S. army. these armies typically had 3 corps and 10 divisions in there order of battle. hope this helps.
Army units in Western Armies: Theatre of Operations Army Group Army Corps Division Brigade Regiment Batallion Company Platoon Squadron
In the British Army, Regiments did not fight as Regiments, but in battalions; the regiment was the parent, with the battalion as the child, so to speak. Thus in a British formation: Army Group Army Corps Division Brigade (3 in every division) Battalion (3 in every brigade) Company Platoon Section Armoured and specialist troops obviously being organised slightly differently.
Well, then we have to mention that there were no brigades in the German Army, except for a few exceptions which contained two or three regiments instead of average infantry division's four.
