Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,518
edits
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
(24 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{Useful Notes}}
{{
Following is a list of [[Common Military Units]] found in the US ([[Yanks With Tanks]]) and UK military forces ([[Brits With Battleships]]; which, by extension, covers the rest of [[The Commonwealth]]). Other countries, e.g. Russia (who inherited its military from USSR) and China, use similar hierarchies with a few regional particularities, also outlined below. See also [[Common Ranks]].
Line 237:
== By type of unit ==
=== Infantry ===
Your basic everyday soldier. Will carry an assault rifle with a few machine guns around to provide support. Will have to walk or get a truck to their destination and generally [[Cannon Fodder|do all the hard work]]. They are absolutely necessary to hold or take ground -- and as most wars are to some degree about dominating turf, infantry is irreplaceable.
=== Mechanized Infantry ===
Similar to regular Infantry, but is somewhat more mobile and has more firepower due to the support of an [[Awesome Personnel Carrier|APC or IFV]]. However, these are generally smaller that infantry squads because you can only fit so many men into an armoured vehicle.
=== Cavalry ===
Soldiers who ride horses, hence, [[Cool Horse|inherently cool]]. Now largely relegated to ceremonial roles or an old name retained for a unit that does something else (e.g. the Household Cavalry, who are a reconnaissance regiment). In skilled hands, [[The Cavalry]] was known to turn the tide of battle, hence, it is a [[Trope Namer]]. In olden times
* In some military forces (such as the United States Army), more modern units, such as Reconnaissance, Armor, and Aviation, might be described as "Cavalry"
=== Armored ===
[[Tank Goodness]], basically. These do part of the role of heavy cavalry, that is breaking a hole and smashing things in the rear area. Some varieties also are used to escort infantry assaults. It is to be noted that most armored units have organic (permanently assigned) infantry because these are needed to do such things as feel out the enemy or keep their heads down. This is especially the case because it is just plain hard to ''see'' buried inside a tank (Israelis have long made a point to have the captain poke his head out despite the risk because first sight of an enemy is critical). The difference between "armored" infantry and normal infantry is that normal infantry will do the dirty work stomping out the fragments after the armor has torn up an enemy line and gone right through.
=== Army Aviation ===
Line 254:
=== Paratroops/Airborne ===
[[It's Raining Men]]. Troops designed to be deployed by aircraft, either gliders or parachutes. During the [[Cold War]], the USSR maintained no less than eight divisions of airborne troops (one training, seven regular) and their airborne forces, the VDV, were separate from the other arms of service.
* In point of fact these have been eclipsed since [[World War 2]] as the helicopter does more or less the same chore with fewer of the disadvantages such as scatter (less of a problem with modern parachutes)
=== Engineers ===
Very often omitted in fiction in favor of [[Easy Logistics]]. These build things up and break things down and they have historically dealt with siegework, mines, etc. They are in fact among the most important of troops and highly respected for they get some of the nastiest jobs. Some of these are [[Land Mine Goes Click|mineclearing]] or in the past, zig-zagging trenchworks up to an enemy wall, or digging under(as in the Battle of the Crater in the [[American Civil War]]), or of course [[Hoist by His Own Petard|planting breeching charges]]. In general they get a lot of slow and dangerous jobs without the luxury other troops have of [[Blood Knight|using testosterone]] as an anesthetic.
=== Air Defense ===
Line 272 ⟶ 273:
=== Artillery ===
Often unseen, but specialise in a unique form of [[Death From Above]] thanks to their use of real life [[BFG]]'s and the closest thing one would get to a [[Wave Motion Gun]]. In the past most artillery was used in direct fire mode. This means firing by what you see. Indirect fire is over the horizon at an invisible target according to instructions, like a blindfolded man shooting where he is told. This is the normal mode of artillery today. In siege work artillery was the main player. On the battlefield artillery had an effect that was more like machine guns today except machine guns did not normally appear on the same field as muskets. Today it requires intense mathematics and some of the first computers (mechanical calculators at first) were invented for aiming artillery.
=== Special Forces ===
[[Conservation of Ninjutsu]] personifed, and often get first pick of the latest toys. These specialize in [[Hit and Run Tactics]], as well as doing oddball jobs, some of which is not talked about much
=== Military Police ===
To make sure that the soldiers don't do anything illegal. Often found at the local nightspots dragging people to the stockade or brig. In [[Real Life]], may also be tasked with defending rear-area supply lines, managing POWs (Abu Ghraib is what happens when this goes wrong), and/or acting as meat shields for the command staff.
*More dramatically these are useful counterinsurgency units as partisans often use tactics similar to those of
=== Guards ===
Made obsolete in many ways by changing security techniques, Guards troops are the ones that [[Exactly What it Says on the Tin|guard the person]] of a monarch. They were also his personal strike team in the past when monarchs commanded in the field. In modern times, bodyguarding has become more sophisticated than just putting walking sacks of meat between an assassin and the target
The most important part of security work now is often done by plainclothes agents, special forces, or specially-trained police. However, Guards units do carry real weapons, and despite the gaudy clothes they wear for tourists, do also provide an extra assist.
The US has no similar units designated "guards" (the Coast Guard is a maritime police force and the National Guard is a [[Home Guard]]) . Security for dignitaries is provided by the Secret Service. Britain, and the Vatican and a few other states with a taste for aesthetic anachronism retain them. In the case of British Guards they are soldiers like others and while they might spend part of their time attending the Sovereign have many times in history been put in the line far away quite often with distinction. In a more modernized version, it is common for dictators to maintain
=== Irregulars ===
This is a generic for guerillas or [[Wacky Wayside Tribe|local auxiliaries]].
=== Capital Ships ===
These are ships assigned to the main fleet. They are the biggest and the baddest for they are expected to take a lot of damage and go on fighting. Often they are impractical for any other use and thus will never be found alone. In the Hellenistic Age ships above the Trieme class were capital ships while triemes (which were once the capital ships themselves) were small craft. The excellent Rhodian navy also maintained a modified trieme, the Triheimiola as a police vessel. In the [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men]] days, ships of the line were the capital ships. In [[World War II]] there was some ambiguity
=== Screener, Escort, or Pursuit ships ===
Line 305 ⟶ 306:
----
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]▼
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
▲[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
|