What makes up a World War 2 us army battalion?

Answer 1

There were battalions of many different types. If you are thinking in terms of foot soldiers, the main units of the US Army were infantry divisions, and each division had three infantry regiments in it, and each regiment had three infantry battalions. An infantry battalion had three rifle companies and one heavy weapons company. In each regiment the 1st Battalion was rifle companies A, B and C, and heavy weapons company D. 2nd Bn was E, F and G and weapons company H. 3rd Bn was I, K, L and weapons company M. "J" was not used as it sounds too much like K and could cause confusion. The WWI US Army was "square", four regiments to a division. On the eve of WWII the US Army "triangularized" and went with three regiments to a division. But the organization was triangular from bottom to top. The basic unit was the 12 man infantry squad, which was divided (in theory) into three four man fire teams. Three infantry squads, plus a weapons squad, made an infantry platoon. Three infantry platoons, plus a weapons platoon, made an infantry company. Three rifle companies plus a weapons company made an infantry battalion. Three battalions made a regiment, and three regiments made a division (along with four artillery battalions). Three infantry divisions (usually) plus an armored division made a corps. Three corps (usually) made a field army. This was done to simplify matters. The Army knew it would need thousands of junior officers for combat leaders, and trained them in Officer Candidate Schools. OCS taught exactly one tactic: the holding attack. You pin the enemy in place with one or two of your maneuver units, and use the other one or two to try to get around his flank and maybe on into his rear, to "turn" his position and force him to fall back. Thus in WWII the holding attack could be applied at any level of command a man might reach.

Airborne battalions had only three companies. Armored battalions usually had three tank companies, and instead of regiments had "Combat Commands", A, B and R. Each combat command had a tank battalion and an armored infantry battalion of three companies.

Additionally, the US Army in WWII had literally thousands of "separate" battalions, sometimes called "independent" battalions, of various types. Lots and lots of artillery battalions of various calibers, which were in addition to the four artillery battalions which were organic parts of each infantry division. All 8 inch gun battalions - the heaviest of the US Field Artillery in WWII - were independent battalions. So were all "Chemical Mortars" the largest mortars, with 4.2 inch tubes. There were also numerous signals, engineers, tank, and tank destroyer battalions. The independent tank battalions were in addition to the 16 armored divisions the US Army fielded in WWII. There were more than one hundred independent tank battalions. The idea was that the armored divisions would be used for breakthrough and exploitation, and the independent tank battalions would be used to provide tank support for infantry units. All these independent battalions of various types were not a permanent part of any larger formation. Sometimes they were called "bastard battalions" - no parent unit. They were assigned to higher HQs than divisions, to a corp or to a field army. For that reason, sometimes collectively they were referred to as "corp troops" or "army troops". The idea was that when the army triangularized, the infantry division table of organization (TO & E) was pared down to the bare bones, and all these separate battalions were created to supplement their strength, as and where and when needed. They could be moved around by a corp or an army commander as circumstances dictated. In practice, in Europe, very frequently an independent tank battalion was "attached" to the same infantry division for long periods, which allowed teamwork to be developed.