Very basic questions. First army, second army, and such what was the signifcance of the numbers? And when we speak of 101st Airborn, etc., what, again, are the meaning of the numbers and who or what determines the sequence? One other releated inquiry. Divisions, Corps', Company, etc., are the number, rank, and function of personnell the same in other country's armed forces?
US armies were generally numbered in the order of formation, but that was not a hard and fast rule. The US 1st through 4th armies were formed pre-war and functioned more or less as an administrative formation comprising sections of the country. The US 2nd and 4th stayed stateside and function as training organizations, while the 1st and 3rd conducted offensive operations in Europe. US division were numbered numerically, with 1-25 assinged to the regular army and not all were necessarily formed. Numbers 26-45 were National Guard division and were activated in 1940. Divisions 46 to 108 were Army of the US and were formed to supply the needed numbers of disvions. Not all divisions were formed and some divisions drew regiments from NG divisions when they were converted from a square division to triagular division. The 82nd and 101st originally were infantry divisions and served in WWI as such, then disbanded after the war. Divisional and regimental numbers were skipped for a myriad of reasons, mainly centering on changing manpower needs. The infantry regiments of the 82nd and 101st were assigned elsewhere when those divisions converted to parachute divisions. Divisions are different from country to country and from divisional type to type. Germany started out the war with about a 16,000 man infantry division and ended the war with about a 10,000 man division (although rarely were the fully manned). The US division's TO&E called for a 16,000 infantry division for most of the war (it changed several times) but in actuality, counting attached units (tank & tank destroyer, AAA, engineer), the US infantry division was about 20,000. As far as other unit types, numbers were different also for differing nations. Army group numbers were arbitrary. e.g. The 21st Army Group (AG) was so numbered because it's original constituent armies were the British 2nd and US 1st. When the 12th AG was formed out of the 21stAG, Bradley just reversed the numbers of the parent AG. The 15th AG was numbered such as it was comprised of the US 7th and British 8th Armies (7+8=15) I don't know why the 6th AG was numbered as it was.
Much thanks. I had pondered this for years but remained reticent because of the inexcusable assumption that it was known and understood by everyone but me. Silly. Thanks, again.
Oh don't think that! I used to wonder myself and it has only been after copious reading over the years that I found the information at various times. I still wonder why sometimes specific divisional numbers were skipped. I know it had to do with the number of divisions planned being dropped from 300 to 90, but how did they decide which specific divisional numbers would or would not be used. I'm guessing it partly do the whims of the officer(s) making the decisions, but who knows.
