Platoon
The use of the word is first attested in c. 1547, referring to "a subdivision of a company-sized military unit normally consisting of two or more squads or sections".
[clarification needed] While the system is claimed in the 1829 London Encyclopaedia to have been introduced by Gustavus Adolphus the Great of Sweden in 1618,[5] the "peloton" appears to predate his birth.
In the Bangladesh Army, infantry regiments have platoons commanded by a warrant officer, assisted by a sergeant.
It is usually divided into three eight to ten person sections and a heavy weapons detachment that deploys a GPMG, and a Carl Gustav rifle, depending on mission requirements.
The peloton or escadron corresponds to the platoon, equivalent in size to an infantry section and commanded by a lieutenant or sergeant.
It has been transferred into modern usage from medieval army reforms of the Georgian King David the Builder.
Originally, it was meant to be a small detachment of 20 men to be led by a leader of corresponding rank.
Almost all smaller formations are based on the designations of those reforms, which originally suggested tactical flexibility by keeping the size of small units in round numbers (10, 20, 100).
It is unknown whether that usage was abandoned in the 1820s or earlier, but in present days a Georgian platoon still called "Ozeuili" has a similar size to that of other armies.
The Zugtrupp provides support for the platoon leader and acts as a reserve force (such as two additional snipers or an anti-tank weapon crew).
Sections are the smallest components in the Indian army consisting of ten men and commanded by a havildar.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) uses platoons (Hebrew: mahlakot, literally "divisions") as the basic unit composing the company and usually consists of 20 to 40 soldiers (or 3–4 tanks in the Armored Corps).
An infantry battalion contains an organic support company (mortars, machine guns, etc.)
A motorized rifle platoon in the Soviet Armed Forces was mounted in either BTR armored personnel carriers or BMP infantry fighting vehicles, with the former being more numerous into the late 1980s.
[citation needed] Beginning in 1992, the Singapore Armed Forces has allowed warrant officers to be appointed as platoon commanders.
On 1 October 1913, General Sir Ivor Maxse introduced a scheme to reorganize the army.
[39] Under Army 2020, a platoon in the Heavy Protected Mobility Regiments consist of around 30 soldiers in four Mastiff PPV/FRES UV vehicles.
[41][42] The exact size and composition of platoons in the US Army depends on the time period and their intended mission.
The sergeants, assisted by the corporals, led the two sections (half-platoons) and the squads (the terms were often used interchangeably until 1891) of the platoon.
In the American Civil War, drill manuals used to train both sides described how a company could be divided into two platoons, which could be further subdivided into two sections of two squads.
[44] When new drill manuals were published in 1891, they retained the organization of a company divided into two platoons commanded by lieutenants.
[45][46] During the Spanish–American War an infantry company making a frontal assault would advance in rushes: one platoon running forward about fifty yards before going prone, whereupon the other platoon would rise up and rush past it, until close enough to assault the enemy's positions.
[47] By the end of World War I in 1918, the rifle platoon had expanded to its largest size in U.S. Army history into a unit of 59 soldiers.
[48] The doctrinal role of American infantry during World War II was to seize and hold territory.
This was primarily done as part of an overall doctrine of combined arms, but the infantry was capable of acting on their own to accomplish their mission.
When facing against another combined force or organized defensive position, however, infantry acting independently was at a disadvantage.
[49] This mirrored the "triangular" format of larger units, allowing for two subunits to engage in combat while the third remained in reserve as support.
Attaching a light machine gun squad to a rifle platoon was only done in exceptional circumstances.
In the attack (especially if part of the assault echelon) or in a deliberate defense, rifle platoons are usually augmented with a two-man mortar forward observer team and are often reinforced with a seven-man machinegun squad and/or a four-man assault weapons squad from the infantry company's weapons platoon.
Platoons are also used in reconnaissance, light armored reconnaissance (scout dismounts), combat engineer, law enforcement (i.e., military police), Marine Security Force Regiment (MSFR), and Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) companies.
