The Anti-Tank Company of the US Army Infantry Regiment (October 1940)
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The Anti-Tank Company of the US Army Infantry Regiment (October 1940)
Battalion: An Organizational Study of United States Infantry
The estate of the late John Sayen has graciously given the Tactical Notebook permission to serialize his study of the organizational evolution of American infantry battalions. The author’s preface, as well as previously posted parts of this book, may be found via the following links:
The authors of the tables of organization of 1 October 1940 took the anti-tank platoon out of the regimental headquarters and expanded it into an anti-tank company. In doing this, they provided the infantry regiment with its first (and, for the time being, only) fully motorized company.
The idea for a fully motorized anti-tank company armed with twelve 37mm anti-tank guns came from the contemporary German Army. Indeed, the similarities between the two companies are such that, when both are depicted using German tactical symbols, the only difference that emerges concerns rifle-caliber automatic weapons. (Where the German company had four light machine guns, the American company had twelve Browning automatic rifles.)
If, however, we use the “NATO with silhouette” symbols, three additional differences emerge. First, where the German anti-tank company consisted of four three-gun platoons, its American counterpart had three four-gun platoons. Second, where the leader of each German anti-tank gun crew reported directly to the platoon commander, American anti-tank gun squads were, in keeping with the pattern established for other units armed with infantry heavy weapons, paired off to form sections. Third, where the one light machine gun in each German platoon was operated by a pair of machine gunners in the platoon headquarters, two of the Browning automatic rifles in each platoon were assigned to a separate thirteen-man “rifle squad.” (The other two automatic rifles in each platoon were divided between the two sections.)
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For details on the US Army anti-tank company of October 1940, please see the diagram (with notes) on the other end of the following link:
For Further Reading:
