| British Army Infantry |
Article Index for British Army |
Shopping Infantry |
Website Links For British |
Information AboutBritish Army Infantry |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT BRITISH ARMY INFANTRY | |
| british administrative corps | |
|
DIVISIONS OF INFANTRY The infantry in the British Army is divided for administrative purposes into six divisions. These are not the same as the ready and regenerative divisions (see below), but are based on either the geographical recruiting areas of regiments, or the type of regiments:
Regular Army There are further units in the army that are classed as infantry, but are not grouped in the various infantry divisions:
Territorial Army
TYPES OF INFANTRY Within the British Army, there are four main types of infantry:
The British Army currently employs a process known as Arms Plot , which involves an infantry battalion performing one role for a period of time (usually two and a half years), before being posted elsewhere to re-train and take up another role. As part of the re-organisation (see below), this process will be ended, with battalions being given a fixed role. Deployments The majority of infantry battalions are based in the UK, but there are a significant number that are based overseas: UK Battalions
Overseas Battalions There are three locations that have a permanent British infantry presence; Germany, Cyprus and Brunei. Other postings are usually roulement postings from either the UK, Germany or Cyprus.
DIVISIONS AND BRIGADES 1. London District is operationally separate from any higher formation, but for budgetary and administrative purposes comes under the remit of 4 Division. REORGANISATION The major part of the army Re-organisation announced in 2004 involved a radical restructuring of the infantry. The Arms Plot system would be abolished, with instead individual battalions being given fixed roles. In order to ensure that officers and men could continue to gain the variety of skills the arms plot provided, the restructuring would also see a series of amalgamations of the remaining single battalion infantry regiments into large regiments. In addition, the regular army will lose a total of four battalions. The roles will be divided up as follows:
Guards Division For various reasons, the five single battalion regiments of the Guards Division will not be amalgamated - however, each battalion will be given a fixed role. Scottish Division The six battalions of the Scottish Division will be amalgamated into a single five battalion regiment to be called the Royal Regiment Of Scotland . This will see the Royal Scots and King's Own Scottish Borderers also amalgamate into a single battalion. King's Division The six battalions of the King's Division will amalgamate into two regiments;
Prince of Wales's Division The original seven battalions of the Prince of Wales's Division have been reduced to five with the transfer of the Devonshire And Dorset Regiment and the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire And Wiltshire Regiment to the Light Division. The five remaining battalions will amalgamate into two regiments;
Queen's Division The three existing large regiments of the Queen's Division remain unaffected by the restructuring. Light Division The four current battalions of the Light Division in two regiments have been added to by two battalions from the Prince of Wales's Division. These two will be amalgamated into a single battalion and become a new battalion of the Light Infantry . This enlarged regiment will then amalgamate with the Royal Green Jackets to form a new five battalion regiment, to be called The Rifles . Other Infantry Regiments The single regular battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment will remain unamalgamated to "retain an infantry footprint in Northern Ireland". The Royal Gurkha Rifles will also remain unaffected by the restructuring. One battalion of the Parachute Regiment will be re-roled as a "special Forces Support Battalion" , while the other two remain unaffected. Territorial Army With the exception of the Royal Gurkha Rifles, every infantry regiment will gain at least one TA battalion (the Royal Regiment of Scotland and The Rifles will have two). This will include the Guards Division, which for the first time will have an affiliated TA battalion. New Structure
DEFUNCT REGIMENTS Over time, a handful of infantry regiments have disappeared from the roll through disbandment rather than amalgamation. In the 20th Century, seven regiments disappeared like this:
FICTIONAL REGIMENTS In recent years, there have been many depictions of the British Army of various periods in fiction. Two notable ones depicting the modern British Army have been Spearhead from the period of the late 1970s , and Soldier Soldier from the early to mid 1990s . Both are seen as reasonably accurate depictions of life in the army at those times, and both are centred on a fictional infantry regiment: the Royal Wessex Rangers and the King's Own Fusiliers. Depicting the British army of the Napoeonic era in the popular "Sharpe" series of books and films is the fictional South Essex Regiment(later renamed the Prince of Wales' own volunteers) SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINK
|
|
|