Quote Originally Posted by Tukhachevskii View Post
Funny you should say that. I was reading Royal Marines and some things really caught my eye. From 1943 to about the early 1960s (maybe a bit later for some units) the RM Cdo was organised into five troops with a HQ and Weapons troop (2 x mortar 2 x MMG). Each troop (a large platoon sized org) had 63 all ranks. Organised as either four ten man sections, a 10 man spt section and a 13man HQ (1943) or two 26 man sections (two 11 man sub-sections and a fure support sub-section) c. 1950s. There simply was no Sqn (Coy) HQ. From I have read the Company organisation was introduced for better interoperability with Army units when rotating especially during the whole East of Suez drawdown. Given the mission of the RM I suppose it made sense to have large Troops. Would love to know how well the system worked (i.e., without a Coy HQ/layer of command) though in practice given it lasted over 20 years and was tested by WWII combat conditions.
The U.S. Army Rangers organized the same way. If you go to Bayonet Strength you can look at the MTOE for British Commando, etc.

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