Battalion

The word "battalion" came into the English language in the 16th century from the French bataillon, meaning "battle squadron" (similar to the Italian battaglione meaning the same thing) and the Spanish batallón, derived from the Vulgar Latin noun battalia ("battle") and ultimately from the Classical Latin verb battuere ("to beat" or "to strike").

With all these components, a battalion is the smallest military unit capable of "limited independent operations".

[citation needed] NATO defines a battalion as being "larger than a company, but smaller than a regiment" while "consisting of two or more company-, battery-, or troop-sized units along with a headquarters.

"[5] The standard NATO symbol for a battalion represented by a pair of vertical lines above a framed unit icon.

The HQ company contains signals, quartermaster, catering, intelligence, administration, pay, training, operations and medical elements.

The support company usually contains anti-tank, machine gun, mortar, pioneer and reconnaissance platoons.

Mechanised units usually have an attached light aid detachment (LAD) of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) to perform field repairs on vehicles and equipment.

In the Canadian Forces, most battalions are reserve units of between 100 and 200 soldiers that include an operationally ready, field-deployable component of approximately a half-company apiece.

Those regiments consisting of more than one battalion are: Tactically, the Canadian battalion forms the core of the infantry battle group, which also includes various supporting elements such as armour, artillery, combat engineers and combat service support.

With the Dutch artillery units, the equivalent of a battalion is called an afdeling (which translates to "section").

There are also support battalions in the Dutch Army, which specialise on a specific task: for example, supplies and transport or communications.

The Netherlands have four battalions that are permanently reserved for the United Nations, for the purpose of peacekeeping duties.

Both consisted of a battalion headquarters of 12 personnel and three motorised rifle companies of 110 personnel each, along with a number of combat support units: a mortar battery consisting of eight 120 mm 120-PM-43 mortars or automatic 82 mm 2B9 Vasileks, an air defence platoon with nine MANPADs, either the SA-7 Grail, SA-14 Gremlin or SA-16 Gimlet and an automatic grenade launcher platoon with six 30 mm AGS-17 launchers.

The addition of the antitank platoon meant that a BTR battalion at full strength was 525 personnel and 60 BTRs, including three command variants, while a BMP battalion consisted of 497 personnel and 45 BMPs, including three command variants.

[28][29] A Soviet artillery battalion in the late 1980s consisted of a battalion headquarters, a headquarters platoon, a maintenance and supply platoon and three firing batteries, each with six artillery pieces, whether the self-propelled 2S1 Gvozdikas or the towed D-30 howitzers, and numbering 260 personnel or 240 personnel respectively.

In addition to his principal duties, senior officers, such as majorer, the överstelöjtnant and överste, also commanded a company.

So that the överste could focus on the operations of his regiment and first battalion, command of his company was delegated to a kaptenlöjtnant.

Underofficer (NCO) ranks consisted of furir, förare, fältväbel, sergeant and rustmästare.

For example, during the confusion and high casualty rates of both the Normandy Landings and the Battle of the Bulge, in order to bolster the strength of a depleted infantry regiment, companies and even battalions were moved around as necessary.

The U.S. Army also created independent tank battalions to attach to infantry divisions during World War II in order to give them fire support.

A United States Marine Corps battalion includes the battalion headquarters, consisting of the commanding officer (usually a lieutenant colonel, sometimes a colonel), an executive officer (the second-in-command, usually a major), the sergeant major and the executive staff (S-1 through S-4 and S-6).

United States Marine Corps infantry battalions are task organised into Battalion Landing Teams (BLTs) as the ground combat element (GCE) of a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU).

A standard U.S. Marine infantry battalion is typically supported by an artillery battery and a platoon each of tanks, amphibious assault vehicles, light armoured reconnaissance vehicles, reconnaissance Marines and combat engineers.

They are structured roughly analogous to an Army or Marine Corps battalion with staff and commanding officers of similar grade and experience.

In Myanmar (Army, People's Defence Force and various EAOs), battalions (or Regiments), called Tat Yinn (တပ်ရင်း), are the main maneuver units.