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Simple Answer

Military elements

10 men in a squad

3 squads in a platoon

3 platoons in a company

3 companies in a battalion

3 battalions in a regiment <----

3 regiments in a division

Regiments were sometimes called Brigades

Answer

WW2

Prior to WW2, the typical infantry division was a "square system" that contained 4 of its units and sub-units. An Infantry Division contained 4 infantry Regiments organized into 2 Brigades. So there were 2 Regiments under each Brigade. The Infantry Division also contained 2 Artillery brigades, each containing 2 Artillery Battalions.

This organization was too large. So in 1941, the Army re-organized into a Triangle system, made up of 3 units and subunits with a total of 15,000 men. The Brigade was generally done away with.

British in WW2

The British army still organized with the Brigade as the primary unit within a Division. The British Brigade contained 2 or 4 battalions of infantry.

Modern US Army

The modern army is organized with Brigades.

Answer

I am not aware of regiments being synonymous with brigades. Traditionally, the regiment was the basic unit of an army, as a single warship was the basic unit of a navy. The exception, perhaps not surprisingly, is in the French Army where battalions were the basic unit instead of regiments.

A brigade is roughly half of a division. In the early part of WW2, the British Army placed much emphasis on the brigade while other armies preferred the division.

Even still, there are exceptions, and the term brigade is rather loose, especially when it comes to airborne troops. The Italian Folgore Division, wiped out after its brave stand at Second El Alamein, was really only a brigade. Although the German Army had little use for brigades, the Ramcke Brigade of the German Air Force escaped from Second El Alamein by hijacking a British truck convoy. More recently, within the US 82nd Airborne Division, the Division Ready Brigade was created to go anywhere in the world on 24-hour notice. [I suppose this thinking is based on the saying reputed to General Forrest in the Civil War, and a brigade in time may be better than a division too late.]

For countries with smaller populations, the brigade might be the preferable unit. During the Cold War, while other NATO countries furnished divisions in Western Europe, Canada fielded only one brigade. After the Cold War ended two old enemies combined to form the Franco-German Brigade. And there is the famous Golani Brigade of the Israeli Army. During WW2 the US-Canadian 1st Special Service Force (aka the Devil's Brigade) acquitted itself very well in battle.

Normally, a brigade will be commanded by a brigadier, or (in US parlance) a one-star, general.

Answer

As can be seen from the above, the definition of what constitutes a bridage shifts over time, and varies from nation to nation (thus, what a brigade was in the US Civil War in the Union Army looks very, very different from a modern US Army Brigade, let alone what a British Army WW2 brigade looked like).

In modern armies (regardless of whether they are of "functional" or "regimental" organizational structure), the brigade has replaced the division as the smallest command group able to conduct independent operations, without attaching additional support services. That is, the brigade has organic support services able to provide for all the needs of that brigade in its normal mode of combat operations. (In this context, "support services" means combat support, e.g. artillery, engineers, possibly helicopter transport, etc., and does NOT mean logistical support).

Depending on the exact mission role envisioned for it, a brigade can have between 2 and 6 battalions, and anywhere from 1,000 to about 6,000 personnel. For example, Mechanized brigades (ones intended for heavy ground combat with tanks and IFVs), tend towards the upper limits, while Cavalry units tend towards the mid-lower end (particularly if they are mostly Air Cavalry).

In the UK and some other services, a brigade is commanded by a Brigadier. In the US, it is commanded by a Colonel (rarely, a Brigadier General).

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13y ago

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