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Date	Original Topic
12th June 2002	British Infantry Battalion By Matt Ragan I have been searching rather unsuccessfully for a website that shows the organization of a British battalion circa the battle of Rourke's Drift. How many men in a Platoon? A company? A Battalion? A cavalry troop? A cavalry squadron? How many guns in a field battery? And also I'm curious, what is a Zulu platoon equivalent fighitng unit called? A company equivalent? A battalion equivalent? Many thanks, ~Matt
Date	Replies
12th June 2002	Gary Laliberty Hi Matt, Well, I will try and help you out. Here goes: Each Infantry Battalion consisted ideally of 30 Officers, and 866 men. This was divided up into Eight lettered Companies, each ideally consisting of 107 men and 3 Officers---a Captain, a (1st) Lieutenant, and a Second Lieutenant. The Battalion Officers Staff, consisted of--- a Lieutenant Colonel (in Command), two Majors, an Adjutant, a PayMaster, and a QuarterMaster. Each Cavalry Regiment ideally consisted of 4 Squadrons, each of 120 privates, 22 NCO's (including 4 artificers and 2 trumpeters),and 6 Officers, with a HeadQuarters Staff, for a total of 653 men. Each Artillery Battery ideally consisted of 6 Guns, the Crew for each gun ideally consisted of, 1 NCO and 4 Gunners. Well Matt, the Zulu army will be a little harder to spell out here. Because the Zulu army was not a 'standing army' but, a 'civilian army'. Call out by the King in time of need. May I suggest two very good books..." ZULU --1816-1906 " by Ian Knight and Angus McBride from the Warrior Series #14 published by Osprey Military Books, also " The Zulus" by Ian Knight and Angus McBride from the Elite Series #21 also from Osprey. Well, I hope that this has helped you. Gary
13th June 2002	Matt Ragan Thank you very much!
13th June 2002	Matt Ragan Erm... one more question.. how many Battalions in a Regiment?
13th June 2002	Gary Laliberty Hi Matt, Well, in the 1870's the British Army had about 109 Line Infantry Regiments. The first 25 regiments were each composed of 2 Battalions, the remainder of one. But in 1881 several of the single-battalion regiments were amalgamated to form a single Regiment. In theory, one battlion was always supposed to be stationed at the depot whilst the other served overseas, but in fact the demands of the British Empire meant that a significantly more were overseas at any given time. Gary