World War II Armed Forces and Orders of Battle

An order of battle is a structured description of the units, command relationships and equipment of a military force at a given point in time. For the Second World War, orders of battle are used by historians to reconstruct which formations took part in a campaign, how they were subordinated, and what strength they held. They are essential for understanding the scale and organisation of the armies that fought between 1939 and 1945.

Land armies of the period were built from a hierarchy of formations. The largest field commands were army groups, which controlled several armies; each army was composed of corps, and each corps of divisions. The division was the basic combined-arms formation capable of independent operations, and during the war infantry, armoured (panzer), airborne and other specialised division types were fielded. Below the division, troops were organised into regiments or brigades, then battalions, companies, platoons and sections, with naming conventions differing between nations.

The major combatants each maintained distinct structures. The British Army grouped infantry battalions within regiments that carried long historical traditions, while German and Soviet forces used their own divisional and corps systems. Orders of battle also record supporting arms such as artillery, engineers, signals and logistics, which were vital to sustaining operations. Because units were raised, destroyed, renamed and re-formed throughout the war, an order of battle is always tied to a specific date and operation rather than describing a fixed, unchanging structure.

Frequently asked questions

What is an order of battle?

It is a detailed listing of the units in a military force, their command structure and strength at a particular time, used to analyse how a campaign was organised.

How were World War II armies organised?

Forces descended from army groups to armies, corps, divisions, regiments or brigades, then battalions, companies and smaller units, with the division as the core combined-arms formation.

What is the difference between a regiment and a battalion?

A battalion is a unit of several hundred soldiers; a regiment is a larger or administrative formation that, depending on the army, could contain or oversee several battalions.