Symbols and Trees
By Phil Gardocki
Formation Focus
Purpose
For the Grognards (“Grognard” was a term used to describe members of the French Napoleonic Old Guard that now refers to hard core war gamers) among us, NATO symbols and organization trees seem second nature. But to neophytes they can be confusing. The purpose of this article is to explain the icon sets used in Formation Focus. This article has two parts:
1) The first and longest part discusses the components of each symbol (icon).
2) The second and shorter part explains what the organization trees mean and how to interpret the ones found in Formation Focus articles.
SYMBOL COMPONENTS:
The symbol set used in Formation Focus was adapted from the standard NATO set. The symbols used have four parts: color, tag, size, and equipment classification.
COLOR: The color is the easiest to understand. It represents the nationality of the unit element in question. From the early days of Avalon Hill, these tended to be blue for the dominant attacker units in a game, and pink or red for the defender. Later games went with color schemes that tended towards the dominant uniform colors of the various nations. The Germans tended to be gray, the SS black, the Russians brown, the American Army blue, the American Marines green, the British red or khaki, the Canadians light blue and the Japanese tan or mustard. The colors of other nations would then be fit into the palette limitations of the print run.
TAG: The tag is a short-hand representation of the unit’s name. In the examples above and below, the brown unit is the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps, and the gray unit is the 11th Panzer Division. With tags, it is helpful to know something else about the unit in question, or the shorthand nature of the tags will not be as useful.
Tags for subordinate components of units can be individual or representative of a position within an organization. In the above example, all the subordinate components have been tagged. Underneath the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps, there are three brigades tagged “1G”, “2G”, and “3G”. They would be called 1st Guards Mechanized Brigade, 2nd Guards Mechanized Brigade and 3rd Guards Mechanized Brigade. Underneath them are three Tank Regiments, which would be referred to as the 18th, 19th, and 20th Guards Tank Regiments. Subordinate to the regiments are three infantry battalions, which are tagged I, II, and III, but would be referred to as 1st Battalion, 1st Guards Mechanized Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 1st Guards Mechanized Brigade, etc. A similar pattern would follow for the 2 different mortar battalions attached to the brigades, as in the 4th Battalion, 1st Guards Mechanized Brigade. The battalions under the 116th Guards Artillery Regiment also follow this pattern of being the I/116G, or 1st Battalion, 116th Guards Artillery Regiment. Other battalions have their own independent numbers, as in the 52nd Guards Antitank Battalion and 407th Guards Mortar Battalion. On the Soviet side, this was the case because many units were built in pieces, and then combined later to form larger units. No attempt was made to number the subordinate units coherently, apparently as an attempt to confuse first German intelligence and later Western historians. The German Panzer division has a similar tag structure.
SIZE: Unlike the tags, the size has a clearly delineated hierocracy, and
is not subjective. It is a row of either Xs, apostrophes (also called “tics” or
vertical lines), or dots above the symbol. In the size differentiations
of formations, x represents be bigger units, apostrophe’s the middle
components, and dots the smallest units. The more symbols, the larger the unit.
Supreme Headquarters: Six Xs shows the largest unit. For the Soviets, it
is STAVKA, which is short for Stavka Verkhovnogo Glavnokomandovaniia, which in
English is the Main Command of the Armed Forces of the
Army Group or Front: Five Xs represent a Soviet front or German army group. While both were collections of armies, the Soviet front commander was more of a combat commander, directing his subordinate armies to attack and defend. A German army group commander’s main job was to administer the territories controlled by the army group, to keep the rails clear and root out partisans. In size, a Soviet front tended to be about the same size as a German Army.
Army: Four Xs show an army size formation. For both sides this is a collection of corps, divisions, and lesser assets. In many cases, a Soviet army commander directly commanded the divisions within his Army. There could be as few as five divisions for a rifle army, and up to 15 divisions for a shock army. A German army commander was responsible for directing the corps under his command, providing army assets when needed and getting supplies from rail heads to the divisions within the corps. In 1940 and 1941, army sized formations referred to as “panzer groups” were formed. Their purpose was to provide the mobile striking power for an army group, switching between subordination to different regular infantry armies, which in turn would alternate between attack and mop-up operations. This concept did not work so well, and the panzer groups were re-designated “panzer armies” in 1942. In manpower, armies could range from 20,000 to 250,000 men.
Corps: Three Xs designate a corps sized formation. For the Soviets, this had different meanings during the war. The prewar model of a Soviet corps closely paralleled the German model. However, once the war started, the administrative overhead could not be maintained from an officer corps decimated by prewar purges. The Soviet corps organization was broken up and its tasks given over to the army level of command, with the major artillery assets directly under STAVKA. Starting later in 1941, the corps organization was revived as a bucket of independent brigades. This model did not work well, as there was no real command control for the brigades - they fought independently and were slaughtered without much coordination from above. For infantry units, the corps model was dropped for another year, but for mobile units it persisted. By mid 1943, with trained officers coming out of schools by the hundreds of thousands, the corps structure was rolled back out to command infantry divisions. In size, a typical Soviet corps was a slightly smaller than a German division. The German corps was their main maneuver element. Since the army command level was in charge of pushing supplies, the corps commander could concentrate all his efforts on the combat elements. In manpower, a German corps could range from 10,000 to 80,000 men.
Division: With two Xs, the division has long been the main combat element of every army. In the beginning of the Second World War, the Soviet and German divisions were about the same size, and on paper, the Soviet division was superior in firepower. In subsequent reorganizations, Soviet divisions were officially downsized to about 75% the size of a full strength German division, but the realities on the ground gave the Soviets only about one-third of the manpower of a German division. The division is a mini army, which contains all the combined arms assets it needs to fight - infantry, armor, artillery, anti-tank, motorization and supplies. In manpower, divisions could range from 3,000 to 20,000 men.
Brigade or Kampfgruppe: A single X denotes a brigade or kampfgruppe. A brigade is obviously smaller than a division, but (usually) larger than a regiment. Some brigades were independent while others were components of divisions or corps. For the Germans, independent brigades were regarded as a waste of manpower, as their administrative overhead was close to that of a full division, with less firepower. Early Soviet brigades tended to be either groups of identical battalions, like the marines drawn from Soviet ships or the NKVD units drawn from the border police. Another common pairing of two different battalions could combine a tank battalion and an infantry battalion to create a tank brigade. Soviet brigades had horrendous casualty rates, often disappearing after a couple days. Collecting brigades into corps did not mitigate this problem. A Soviet after war report was highly critical of the brigade system as wasteful of resources. In manpower, Soviet brigades could range from 2,000 to 6,000 men. For the Germans, the single “X” designation covers brigades but also kampfgruppes (battle groups), which were ad hoc collections of regiments and/or smaller units formed into a single combat formation. Often this was a result of units being cut of from their parents, but not from other units. These marriages of convenience sometimes lasted only a few days. Long term kampfgruppes were created to distribute assets over a wide area. A panzer division would usually have its mobile elements broken up into smaller units, formed into combined arms teams and distributed all along a front, so there would be always be some rapid response forces near a fracture point in the line.
Smaller Units: The next three units, in order of size, are regiments, battalions, and companies. Different branches of the service sometimes have different names for units of these sizes. For example, a company would be called a battery by the artillery branch, a squadron or a saber by the cavalry branch or a column by the supply services. In size, a regiment would be from 1,200 to 4,000 men, a battalion from 450 to1500 men and companies from 50 to 250 men. Other typical numbers found in formations of these sizes are:
Tank Regiments: 44 – 180 tanks.
Tank Battalions: 21 – 90 tanks.
Tank Companies: 5 – 30 tanks.
Artillery Regiments: 24 – 48 artillery pieces.
Artillery Battalions: 8 – 12 artillery pieces.
Artillery Companies (Batteries): 3 – 4 medium artillery pieces.
6 – 10 self-propelled assault guns.
6 – 8 light guns or mortars.
4 – 6 self-propelled artillery pieces.
In Formation Focus, I vary from the NATO standard practice and do not use the single tick to identify companies. This is for ease of viewing on-line and because I do not discuss any smaller components. So, if there is no size designation, assumed it to be a company sized unit.
The remaining unit sizes are platoons, squads, and sections. Platoons will range from 15 to 35 men, squads from 7 to 15, and sections (or teams) from 2 to 3 men. In some armies, the “section” terminology is used for squads and, in other armies, two squads may be designated as a section.
EQUIPMENT CLASSIFICATION: Now that we have covered all the outside detail of each unit box, let’s get to what the symbols mean.
Tanks, Panzers, or Armored Units: The term “tank” applies to turreted armored fighting vehicles. From left to right these show super heavy, heavy, medium and light tanks. Some liberties were taken with the NATO standard icons to represent the type of the equipment.
Super Heavy Tanks: Super heavy tanks were regarded as 70 tons or heavier or having frontal armor exceeding 20cm. In WWII, this applies to only to King Tigers and Ioesph Stalin IIIs.
Heavy Tanks: Heavy tanks were regarded as 50 tons or heavier or having frontal armor exceeding 10cm. Examples include KV-1s, Ioesph Stalin IIs, Panthers (which the Germans classed as a “medium” tank), and Tigers.
Medium Tanks: Definitions for the medium tank varied over the course of the war. In 1941, a 9 ton tank would be deployed in medium tank companies. By the end of the war, most medium tanks would be in excess of 18 tons. They included T-26s, T-34s, Czech 38ts, Panzer IIIs, and Panzer IVs.
Light Tanks: Light Tanks range from 2 to 10 ton vehicles. Examples include the Soviet BT series, T40, T50, T60, German Panzer Is and IIs, Italian Semoventes, and in later years, the Czech 35 and 38s (initially rated as medium tanks).
Tank Destroyers and Assault Guns: Shown are the symbols for heavy and
normal tank destroyers. The
Sometimes there was no difference in equipment between tank destroyers and assault guns - the unit’s mission would determine the nomenclature. Assault guns were also turretless armored fighting vehicles but all were fully enclosed and had a fair amount of armor. The purpose of these units is to provide close in artillery support, and obstacle removal. German assault guns organizationally belonged to the artillery branch, as opposed to tank destroyers, which belonged to the panzer branch. Initially, the only assault gun was the German Sturmgeschutz III, which had 3cm of armor and a short, L/12, 7.5cm barrel. The Soviets were impressed with this design and put their 7.62cm gun on an open-topped, tracked carriage. Both armor and guns improved over the course of the war and the last Sturmgeschutz models had 8cm of armor and a long 7.5cm L/48 barrel. Both sides experimented with larger machines, The German’s introduced a 10.5cm barrel to its Sturmgeschutz III and built the heavily armored Brummbar with a short 150mm howitzer for fighting in cities. The Soviets built their SU-122s, ISU-122s, SU-152s and ISU-152s, all of which had in excess of 10cm of armor.
Mechanized Infantry or Panzer Grenadiers: This symbol represents either half-tracked mounted infantry, or infantry/tank teams. This mechanization often came with superior integral mortar and antitank guns as well, often mounted on halftracks to accompany the troops.
Armored Reconnaissance and Armored Cars: Both are scouting assets. An armored recon unit normally has some integral tanks or other tracked vehicles and an armored car unit is usually equipped with road bound armored cars accompanied by trucks.
Armored Antiaircraft: These units have antiaircraft guns, often multibarreled, that are mounted on wheeled or tracked vehicles. They are intended to accompany armored, mechanized and motorized units.
Artillery: From left to right, the symbols show siege artillery, heavy field artillery, medium field artillery, light field artillery, and self propelled artillery.
Siege Guns: The siege gun classification is used to cover pieces with barrels in excess of 20cm diameter and they were deployed as Army assets. Some of the largest models could only be transported by rail - the monster German 80cm “Dora” could only be transported on a double wide rail. For the largest pieces, an entire battery might consist of only one gun and its numerous gunners and support personnel. The most common siege guns were the German 20.3cm artillery pieces.
Heavy Artillery: The heavy gun classification is used to cover pieces with barrels of 15cm - 20cm diameter. Early war Soviet divisions had a dozen 15.2 cm guns but, with the first reorganization in July, 1941, these were sent to central depots and relegated as STAVKA assets. They were not used again in divisions until the creation of the Soviet breakthrough artillery divisions. German infantry divisions had a dozen 15cm howitzers with a range of around 13 km. The Germans also deployed 15cm cannon artillery battalions as Army assets. These long-barreled cannons had a range of 25km.
Medium Artillery: The medium gun classification is used to cover pieces with barrels of 9cm – 14.9cm diameter. For the Germans, this was 10.5cm gun, of which each division had 36, and, for the Soviets, the 12.2cm gun, each division having 12. Despite having a heavier throw weight per barrel, the Soviet divisions were outnumbered 3-1 in barrels, and the German gun out ranged its Soviet counterpart 14km to 9km.
Light Artillery: Light artillery is a catch-all term for most of the remaining artillery. In general, it covers all small diameter artillery tubes from about 6.5cm to 8.9cm, all mortars and very short-barreled but larger caliber artillery pieces. The most common piece for the Soviets was their ubiquitous 7.6cm field gun. For the Germans, it included short barreled pieces like their infantry support guns, which existed on the battalion and regiment levels - these had diameters of 7.5cm and 15cm, both had L/12 barrel lengths and they had a practical range, in most cases, of 3 to 4 km.
Self-Propelled Artillery: This term covers all tracked mounted artillery pieces, which ranged from 6.5cm to 15cm.
Rockets: Rocket batteries could be normal (less than 16cm) or heavy (over 16cm), depending on the size rockets used. The Soviets called their rocket the “Katyusha” or “Little Kate”. The Germans referred to the Russian multiple barrel rocket launchers as “Stalin's Organs” and called their own “Nebelwerfers”. The size of these rockets ranged from 8.2cm to 31cm. All rocket units were motorized either by being mounted on a truck or halftrack or towed. Of the truck mounted units, the Germans mounted their launchers, three each on the sides of their vehicles, while the Soviets took up as much of the surface area as possible, putting 24 8.2cm rockets on a T-40 tank chassis and cramming 48 into a truck. Rocket units provided massive high explosive support in a short time frame, although they were not as accurate and lacked the range of their artillery analogs.
Antitank Guns: The general rule of thumb is that heavy antitank guns are 7.5cm and above, medium antitank guns are 4.5 – 5.7cm and light antitank guns are 4cm and under. The performance of different guns of the same caliber varied wildly, so that some guns of roughly the same caliber may be on the judged differently. The Soviet 7.62cm antitank gun is rated as a medium gun, while the German 7.5cm antitank gun, with a much higher penetration, is rated as a heavy gun. Many antitank units were equipped with mixed calibers.
Heavy, Medium and Light Antiaircraft Guns: This does not include tracked, self-propelled antiaircraft units, which are classed as armored antiaircraft units (see above). The classifications of antiaircraft guns are that heavy antiaircraft guns are 8.5cm and above, medium antiaircraft guns are 3.7 – 8cm and light antiaircraft guns are 3.7cm and under.
Infantry: This is the most common symbol, infantry. This symbol can be used from the smallest section up to army level formations. On a company level, this represents 100 to 200 men, nine to 24 machineguns and two to three mortar teams.
Heavy Weapons and Machineguns: Almost every infantry battalion had one or two extra companies that could function as infantry companies but had extra, heavier weapons. On the Soviet side, these units included heavier, or at least tripod or wheeled mounted, machineguns and larger mortars than were directly attached to standard infantry companies. On the German side, the heavy weapons company contained six mortars, two light (7.5cm L/12) infantry support guns, in addition to twelve machineguns. Some machinegun companies were organized into independent machinegun battalions, but otherwise these machinegun units existed only as companies.
Naval infantry: These were sailors trained or at least equipped for ground combat.
Security Troops: These were policemen with some military training, often mounted on bicycles and armed with submachine guns. They were a poor match when sent into action against regular army formations.
Paratroopers: Being classed as paratroopers meant variations in organization and equipment from ordinary infantry, whether actually trained to jump or not.
Motorized Infantry: Motorized units have enough integral motorization to carry the entire unit. Usually, this implies trucks. The second symbol is used if the primary movers for the unit are motorcycles or bicycles.
Commandos: These were any infantry used in raids or other special operations. The Germans referred to theirs as “Brandenbergers”. Their Soviet equivalents were referred to as “special” infantry.
Submachine Gun Infantry: Submachine gun companies tended to be smaller than infantry companies, about 95 men. The theory and the hope was that their superior firepower would make up for inferior manpower. Many Soviet units of this type were transported into combat riding on tanks.
Ski Troops: These were not as common as thought. Although there was
plenty of snow,
Mountain Troops: Raised in the Alpine regions of
Cavalry and Cavalry Heavy Weapons: All cavalry units were actually just horse mounted infantry. A cavalry heavy weapons unit, analogous to an infantry heavy weapons company, would have a collection of heavy mortars, light artillery and machineguns, either horse drawn, packed and/or broken down into smaller loads.
Engineers and Bridging Units: The term “engineers” covers an assortment of trained specialists from assault troops armed with explosives and flamethrowers to construction troops. Bridging units represent specialized gap crossing equipment ranging from prefabricated bridges to collections of pontoon floats.
Headquarters: While there are headquarters all up and down the chain of command, this symbol is used to represent a major command with supporting staff representing upwards to thousands of men.
Communications Troops: They secure communications by providing radios and stringing telephone wire.
Supply and Transport: Military rail transport units existed to run the railroads, the real heavy lifter in the theater. These symbols represent road bound transportation and supply units, which have vehicles, either trucks or wagons, to carry supplies or other essential items. One of these companies represents about 25 tons of lift capacity, typically provided by ten to 15 trucks or 35 wagons.
THE TREES:
Units are placed in organizational trees with lines connecting subordinate elements to their parents. For divisional-sized units, there are two branches descending downward. This is for the sake of brevity. The elements on the left are regiment and brigade structures with their subordinate battalions and, on the right, individual battalion sized structures not subordinate to any regiment or brigade. The unit symbols or icons are shown overlapped. In the structure below, there are three overlapped regiments. The line underneath the three regiments shows a single antitank company. This means each regiment has one such company in its organization. This line continues to a structure of three infantry battalions. This means each regiment has three infantry battalions for a total of nine infantry battalions in the three regiments.
In this example we have three regiments, each of three battalions plus one company of antitank guns. Each battalion has three infantry companies and one machine gun company. This means there are 13 (nine infantry, three machine gun and one antitank gun) companies per regiment, or, in this case, about 2,500 men. When battalion and regimental staff and integral supply units are added, this regiment represents about 3,400 men sat full strength.
There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?
