"British TO&Es 70's and 80's" Topic

Okay one more time. Although this only concerns armor (armour) platoons (troops :^)….

My TO&E info show a British Armor Company as 3 tank troops of 3 tanks each. With the HQ element on 3 additional tanks.

Did this change at any point during the 80's?

I don't think BAOR armoured squadrons were ever organised like that!

In 1987 a squadron had four troops of three tanks plus an HQ with two more tanks (plus various support vehicles). iirc the earlier type 74 Regiments had four troops of four tanks and they changed to smaller troops in, ummm, 1983?

I think the modern Type 58 Regiments have gone back to four troops of four with a squadron HQ of two.

Thanks Martin. I'll go with that.

My source doesn't really show Squadron/Company as pure tanks or infantry. But rather as Team and Battlegroup. This info is dated 1978:

Infantry Heavy Team:

2 Mech Infantry Platoons (3 squads each, 4 FV-432)
1 Tank Troop (3 Tanks)
1 Reece Section (2 Scimitar)
6 81mm Mortar SP (Presumably on FV-432 mods)
1 AT Section (2 FV-432 with Swingfire)
Team HQ (3 FV-432)

Armor Heavy Team:

2 Tanks Troops (3 Tanks)
1 Infantry Platoon (3 squads each, 4 FV-432)
1 Reece Section (2 Scorpion)
1 AT Section (2 FV-432 with Swingfire)
Team HQ (3 Additional Tanks)

Battlegroup:

1 Battlegroup/Battalion HQ
2 Armor Heavy Teams
2 Infantry Heavy Teams
6 SP 105mm Howizters

The U.S. didn't use a fixed Team or Task Force organization. The OPLAN designated the cross attachments. If you were in an Infantry Company, you sometimes deployed as that company. Or your company may send a platoon to join an Armor Team, and receive a armor platoon from that tank company now making you an Infantry Team. So while I have experience with the Team system, withing your task force, it didn't always apply to your unit.

Battle groups (battalions) and Combat Teams (companies) were formed by cross attaching platoons and sections between the constituent units of the Brigade. They weren't permanent organisations (although they might be well established for particular tasks).

The change from Type 74 to Type 57 armoured regiments was around 1980-1. The 74 Regt was a bit of a misnomer anyway because the armoured regiments only had enough crews for 66 tanks max. The other 8 were a locally held war maintenance reserve- after 1981 the WMR was held more centrally, and increased a lot in the 1980s.

Quite right that from c1981 a UK armoured squadron was 4x3 + 2 command tanks (usually one with a dozer blade).

Re mixed company combat teams- the British were leading exponents of this format in the 1970s. But that was changed pretty rapidly when tank expert Nigel Bagnall arrived to command 1 (BR) Corps- he was all in favour of more concentration of armour and insisted that the minimum force of tanks within a mixed Battalion-level BG was a full squadron. Occasionally, a troop might be temporarily detached to a mech company after that- but for a specific objective only. Very big change in British outlook from 70s to early/mid 80s- esp emphasis on manoeuvring much larger armoured formations around infantry-secured vital ground.