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Hopefully this will throw some insight on British Army ORBATs and allow designers to design some BR scenarios/campaigns using commonly seen formations on the battlefield. I’ll be using the Flashpoint Red Storm Battlefield tour data for the examples (for ease of use really and you will find slightly different OOB’s looking elsewhere as explained below).

First thing to note is that the Tank Rgt or Infantry Bn change over the years e.g. 3rd div/33 armd bde contained 1st Bn, Queen's Own Highlanders who were replaced by 3rd Bn Light Infantry in late 1989, the Bn org was the same, they took over the vehicles and other assets. So in any OOB source you may/will see slightly different Rgt/Bn.

However you need to look at the Bde org to see the formations not change that much over the years, again looking at 3rd Armoured Division you will see
4th Armoured Brigade consisting of 3 Tank Rgt and 1 Inf Bn
6th Armoured Brigade consisting of 1 Tank Rgt and 3 Inf Bn
33rd Armoured Brigade consisting of 1 Tank Rgt and 3 Inf Bn
See the pattern start to emerge, other brigades also sported a 2 Tank Rgt/2 Inf Bn or 2 tank Rgt/ 1 inf Bn setup, others may contain just 3 or 4 Inf Bn depending on the expected main task.

Flexibility is pretty much the order of the day, based on practical knowledge taken from WW2 experience of how the Germans operated in Kampfgruppen/battlegroups or Combined Combat Teams as US formations were called, so each Bde within divisions were nearly always organised to provide flexibility for the commanders depending on the tasks given by Corp or Division.
Now a Tank heavy Bde (3/1 or 2/2) would be considered offensive Bde or mobile reserve during defensive operations. Similarly an infantry heavy Bde (1/3 or 0/3) would be considered a defensive Bde or used as reserve formation during offensive operations.

Confused yet….dont worry you will be as we now look at Rgt/Bn sized formations i.e. Battlegroups (or Combat Teams if your US orientated). I will focus on armoured/mechanized formations here as an infantry only Bde is straight forward with the Bn’s operating as entire units, there are 2 main types of armoured/mechanized battlegroups used:
a. Tank lead – this was normally a 2/1 or 2/2 formation of 2 sqns of tanks and 1 or 2 companies of infantry under command of the Tank Rgt HQ.
b. Infantry lead – normally a 1//2 formation of 1 sqn of tanks and 2 companies of infantry under command of the infantry Bn HQ
You can carry on down to company sized battlegroups as above just replace sqn/company with troop/platoon, however these size groups were rare unless it was a small task i.e. capture/secure a bridge/rear area crossroad.

Support Assets
AD assets do seem to be missing, each Bde would get a battery of man portable Blowpipe/Javelin while Div would get a Rgt/Battery of Rapier tracked or mobile launchers.
These would normally be distributed down to the formations within each Div/Bde.

Corp support assets normally remained under Corp control and assigned to support Divisions depending on the task.

Division support assets – SPARTY – 3 Field Rgt per Division…oh 3 Bde per division…no prizes for guessing on the SOP split here. there were 2 Field Rgt of M109 (155mm) and 1 Rgt of Abbots (105mm), Bde commanders normally allocated this how they saw fit, however it was not unheard of to assign 2 Batteries of M109 and 1 Battery of Abbot per Bde (Until the introduction of the AS90 which replaced the Abbot and finally the M109’s at which point each Bde got 1 Rgt of AS90)

Bde Support assets:
Air support Assets (Gazelle or Lynx/Tow) would normally be retained under Bde command and operate within the Bde boundaries
Assigning SPARTY assets would normally be 1 SPARTY Bty per Rgt/Bn unless the Bde commander wanted to retain control for mass support to the ‘point’ Rgt/Bn.

Rgt/Bn Support Asssts
First thing to notice is Tank Rgt don’t contain their own Mortar Platoon, only Infantry Bns which have 8 tubes of 81mm, normally operating in 4 sections of 2 tubes although within FPRS they are 2 sections of 4 tubes, as you’ll see below it doesn’t really make much difference.

Anti-tank Platoons – mechanized or armoured infantry are Milan ground/vehicle mounted (Spartan MCT being the normal in the late 80’s), Tank Rgt were normally Striker vehicles.
Infantry Bn would normally allocate its Milan Launchers out to the companies less it’s MCT and maybe a small number of ground launchers that would be held back as Bn reserve.

Reece Platoons were similar with 8 CVRT (Combat Vehicle Recon Tracked) scorpions for Tanks and scimitar for Infantry, operating in pairs forward or on the flanks.

So under a tank Rgt Battle group they retained all their support assets and gained 4 tubes of the infantry Mortar Platoon along with the 1 or 2 Infantry companies and an number of Milan ground launchers (numbers varied depending on the task of the parent Infantry Bn). Main Anti-tank duties were expected to be picked up with either the tanks or the Tank Rgt Striker vehicles.
An Infantry Battlegroup likewise would retain all its existing support assets less those that went with the 1 or 2 companies to the Tank Rgt Battlegroup. It would not expect to receive any support assets with its Tank Sqn.

Example layout from a 2 Tank Rgt/2 Inf Bn Bde forming 4 battlegroups (2 of 2/1 and 2 of 1/2 type)

Tank Rgt BG
A Sqn
B Sqn
C Company (Infantry Bn) + 4 mortars & 5 Milan ground launchers
Standard Tank Rgt Support Elements

Inf Bn BG
A Coy
B Coy
C Sqn (tank Rgt)
Standard Inf Bn Support elements less those above

A 2/2 BG would be
A Sqn
B Sqn
C company (1st Infantry Bn)
C Company (2nd Infantry Bn)
Standard Tank Rgt support assets. although the support assets coming from the Infantry Bn would vary at this point but not unheard of for each company to have a number of its own Mortar & Milan assets

Here is a link where the British Army ORBAT is explained in more detail and with Pictures, also has some interesting 20mm wargaming scenarios that should convert to FPSR easily

British Army ORBAT 1980's

Thanks Tazak this is a great resource.

This is also a good reference for the Brits:
http://orbat.com/site/toe/toe/uk/uk_toe.pdf

Territorial Army Units:

Within the British Army there are a large (and getting larger under recent strategic Defence Reviews) number of 'part time' units.
These 'weekend warriors' or SAS soldiers (Saturday And Sunday) during the 1980's spent a minimum of 1 or 2 weekends per month and a once a year 2 week exercise alongside regular army units.
There was a core of regular officers/soldiers manning key/permanent posts e.g. Bn Commander, QuarterMaster etc... all other positions were manned by the part timers including coy commanders.

TA units come in 2 main flavours:

1. BOAR reinforcements:
Infantry battalions - these units had the same TOE as their regular counterparts in terms of support weapons and ORBAT (Bn HQ, 3 Inf Cop, FS Coy). All TA infantry BN were classed as light role meaning their main form of transport were 4 tonne trucks and a supply of Land Rover for HQ's. None were marked as mechanised units.
Yeomanry Armoured Recce Regiment - Similar TOE to Armoured Recce Regiments in the regular army, although it was equipped with Fox armoured recce vehicles rather than CVRT's.
Field Artillery Regiments - Similar TOE to regular army Field Artillery Regiments, although they were exclusively equipped with towed 105mm Light Guns or towed FH-70 155mm guns. All Batteries had 8 guns.


2. Home Defence:
All remaining TA units were classed as home defence units falling under regional brigade HQs. These HQ's were for peacetime admin only, combat brigade HQs would be formed as required or the regional Bde HQ's would be converted to combat HQ's.
Infantry battalions - the TOE often varied with units having between 3 and 5 infantry companies but often with no fire support company. There were a number of TA Infantry Bn that consisted of 2 FS companies only. Those with FS companies normally fielded 6x 81mm mortars and 6 Milan launchers.
Field Artillery Regiments - batteries were reduced to 6 guns rather than 8

BAOR Air Defence - found some more detail around BAOR AD distribution. I've collated it below:

1 BR Corp (UK) split it’s AO into 3 zones, I'll talk about each zone and the approx. volume of AD systems each zone would have. This does not cover RAF regiments AD units but these would be setup to guard airbases & FOBs.
1. FEBA
2. Corp Rear Area (CRA)
3. Comms Zone (CZ)

1. FEBA - under control of 3 Armoured Divisions, each division has a dedicated AD Bty (36 MANPADS) which would be increased by 2 bty of RAPIER (1 tracked of 12 & 1 towed of 12) from the air defence group
2. CRA - would come under control of 2nd Inf Division with 103 (Lancashire Artillery Volunteers) Air Defence Regt (64 MANPADS), increased by 5 bty of RAPIER (1 tracked of 12 & 4 towed providing 12 each)
3. CZ - no noticeable dedicated AD units but being +300km behind the FEBA local AD would have little effect compared to fighter cover

If you look at the collection of units below I've grouped them into 3 colours/groups.
1. Air Defence group - this forms the core of BAOR air defence with its tracked & towed RAPIER, however the tracked and towed RAPIER for the FEBA would come from these AD regiments
2. Div organic AD, 1 MANPAD bty per Armd Div, 1 MANPAD bty for 24th Air Mobile Bde and an entire TA AD regiment.
3. TA units that were BAOR reinforcements, presumably these would either be consolidated within CRA for extra defence or assigned out to provide local coverage for high value targets (MSR etc)
In late 80's it was decided to raise another AD regiment of 3 bty within the Air Defence Group, this was to be equipped with STARSTREAK HVM (1 to each Armd Div with the HQ troop forming a command element to control all AD assets with the CRZ), due to budget cuts and the fall of the berlin wall this unit didn't come into existence.

When you see a British unit without any AD of any kind they are armed with Blowpipe. That was the worst AD system ever put into operational use by any military ever.

Just kidding about them being there if you see nothing. I am not kidding about how bad Blowpipe was. The firing units per hits in the Falkland Campaign are astounding.

Good Hunting.

MR

Royal Engineers
Before I expand on the RE I would like to draw attention to REME to avoid confusion with the RE, the REME (Royal electrical Mechanical Engineers) were attached to all formations and are primary responsible for repairing a units vehicles and electrical devices under a 1st line repair task. My personal view is that the REME should be considered out of scope of the game as their role is more non-combat.

NOTE: “Plant” vehicles are heavy construction-type equipment such as bulldozers more often than not standard civilian kit painted a dab green

Main composition was based around a number of FV432, Spartans and FV180 Combat Engineer Tractor. Main tasks included hand demolition and construction, clearing obstacles, digging tank firing positions along with minelaying using the ranger minelaying system mounted on top of the FV432 or laying bar mines (anti-tank mines) using a towed plough attachment. Mine clearing was also within their remit using the Giant Viper mine clearance system (could clear a 250m by 6m lane in under 2min) that can be towed by a number of different vehicles.

Engineer Regiment
1 per armoured division and 1 at corp level, consisted of a HQ/command sqn, 2 sqn of engineers in FV432/Spartan and FV180 CETs and a field support sqn that holds bridging equipment and a plant troop with trench digging vehicles.
2-3 (Mech) Field Squadrons, each: 9 Spartans, 14 FV432/4, 5 CET (Combat Engineer Tractor), 4 “Plant” vehicles and 1 Field Support Squadron: between 29 - 46 “Plant” vehicles, 2x 30m Girder Bridges

Armoured Engineer Regiment – RHQ & 3 Sqn
Each Armd Div would receive 1x Armd Engr Sqn
3 Armoured Squadrons, each: 12 AVRE, 12 AVLB, 7 CVR (T), 4 FV434? & 4 CET
Each Sqn Consisted of SHQ, 4x Armd Engr Tps
9 Chieftain AVLB, 5 Scammell Crusaders, 9 Centurion AVRE (normally 6 AVRE 165 with 165mm Demolition gun and 3 AVRE 105 with 105mm tank gun)

Amphibious Engineer Regiment (held at corp level)
2 Amphibious Squadrons: 30 M2 ferries, 3 CVR(T)
1 Amphibious Squadron: 24 M2 ferries, 6 CET

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

When you see a British unit without any AD of any kind they are armed with Blowpipe. That was the worst AD system ever put into operational use by any military ever.

Just kidding about them being there if you see nothing. I am not kidding about how bad Blowpipe was. The firing units per hits in the Falkland Campaign are astounding.

Good Hunting.

MR

completely agree, I recall that a indepth review credited blowpipe with 1 possible out of some 92 missiles fired

BAOR Late 1970’s until 1983
Special mention should be made around the BAOR ORBAT from around 1977 until 1982/1983 for a number of quite major changes.

BAOR at that time consisted of 4 armoured divisions (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th) until Dec 1982 when 2nd armoured division was renamed 2nd Infantry division and its core elements moved back to the UK mainland, its task however remained unchanged and was to deploy to Germany should the cold war turn hot.

Each Armoured Division consisted of 2 Task Forces lettered A & B TF in 1st Armoured Division, C & D TF in 2nd Armoured, E & F TF in 3rd Armoured with G & H TF in 4th Armoured.
There are 2 trains of thought around each TF about wither they had predetermined units being within each TF or the units attached directly to the Division HQ with the units to be allocated to each TF as required for the TF mission. This ORBAT carried on until 1981 when the TF were renamed back to brigades.

Field forces: Field forces were a throw over from early formation groupings, within BAOR until about 1982 there were 3 field forces, the Berlin Field force, 5th and 7th Field forces. 7th field force was UK based and was to move to Germany during the onset of war, 5th was based in Germany and consisted of 3 mech bn, an armoured recce regiment and supported by an arty regiment.

Lastly, during the late 1970’s FV438 swingfire was moved out of the armoured regiments and given to the royal horse artillery as independent squadrons. This move returned some of the RHA units back to their old WW2 role of tank destroyer equipped units. However the RHA were not to hold onto these for long as in 1981/1982 they were given back to the armoured regiments.

That's great stuff Tazak. The Brits are about to get a campaign of their own as soon as I can figure out the ORBAT and the best time frame to put them in! [:D]

Good Hunting.

MR

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

The Brits are about to get a campaign of their own [:D]

Good Hunting.

MR

Drool.......[&o] cant wait

After the discussion on aircraft on the forums here, I have been poking around for a suitable resource on the RAF when I came across this on cold war gamer site. Looks like NORTHAG would see A-10 and F4 wild weasel airsupport, will have to copy them over to the UK forces USER DATA with some other items once 2.03 comes out

Was clearing out some old stuff I had lying around and found some of my old army training material from my section commanders course, I've scanned it into word and saved it as a PDF document to keep the size down.

Gives a very good insight into the British army low level tactics and section/platoon organisation. Interesting to note that it talks about the GPMG-SF team being attached to a platoon rather than retained at company HQ level, I know we had enough GPMGs but not sure if there were enough SF tripods and sights to provide 1 per platoon (it briefly mentions GPMG (LT) which is the same weapon but without tripod and sights).

Also look at the amount of antitank firepower we had, the introduction of the LAW80 greatly increased the firepower over the old 1x Carl Gustav 84mm MAW and 2x 66mm LAW per section. We were truly thankful about not having to lug the carl gustav around on exercises it weighted in at 9kg that some poor sod had to carry......want to guess what the platoon sergeant used as a threat if we crossed him [8|]

Interesting read. Thank you for posting that.

As you know, I've been researching the BIB for Berlin and I found an old BBC doco from 1989 about 1LI. Inside Out: Ticking with the Crow/The Officers Mess.

There is some great nuggets of info in there that I found in regards to orbat:

1. The Btn was very undermanned, C Coy, one of the line coys, has only 64 all-ranks out of about a 100
2. Support Coy was comprised of:

- Antitank Pl, with Milan and Wombat mounted on Landrovers, commanded by a Capt.
- Mortar Pl, one of the largest in Btn with 55 men also commanded by a Capt.
- Assault Pioneer Pl. Any one know their make up? I'm thinking 3 sections of 5-8 men each.
- Recce Pl, 8 Fox armoured cars and also seems to have dismounted recce troops in land rovers
- APC Pl, 4 FV432 Rardens

3. The CO mentions during a call out drill that most of the Btn would be marching as the trucks would be used to collect ammunition.

4. At the Queen's Birthday Parade, the Brigade as a whole paraded with 985 men all ranks.

How would the Mtr Pl be so large? 8x*81mm Mtr with crew of 3 = 24 + hq group of 5-6 men only equals 30 or so men. Would the other 20 odd be drivers and ammo hauler? or is there a mini-FDC involved?

The Btn was very undermanned, C Coy, one of the line coys, has only 64 all-ranks out of about a 100

This was quite common throughout the Army, at the start of the 91 gulf war all units sent to Saudi were brought up to strength from other battalions
It was expected that BAOR units would have been brought up to strength by a mix of TA and UK based units in times of war

Assault Pioneer Pl. Any one know their make up? I'm thinking 3 sections of 5-8 men each.

Normally this would be a standard platoon retrained so yes 3x sections of 8 men and a HQ element

How would the Mtr Pl be so large? 8x*81mm Mtr with crew of 3 = 24 + hq group of 5-6 men only equals 30 or so men. Would the other 20 odd be drivers and ammo hauler? or is there a mini-FDC involved

Each Mortar team would of had its own 1 tonne landrover and 2 additional men per team (driver & co-driver/ammo handler), mini-FDC activities would have been handled by the platoon HQ element.

Ok, thanks. Would the Assault Pioneers carry any special equipment like sappers would? i.e. explosives or mines? I seem to recall that weren't allowed to carry explosive.
 
 

Not really, AP training was mainly around low level stuff - mine clearing/assault breaching/booby traps i.e. the stuff that would hold up a platoon or company, equipment we would've had access to was limited to single mines, breaching charges and small amounts of C4 (very heavily controlled as no-one trusted your basic squaddie with C4 [:-])

What about satchel charges?