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DateOriginal Topic
18th July 2002TO&E of a British Line Company, 1879?
By Doug Bonforte
Can someone advise what the composition and organization was of B Co, 2/24th.? The movie "Zulu" makes reference to "sections", "squads" and "platoons", but is this accurate? How many men would have been in each? What was the lowest tactical unit? Was there some equivalent to our modern 2-3-4 man 'fire teams'? Thanks.
DateReplies
18th July 2002Bill Cainan
Doug

Remember, we are talking colonial warfare in the 1870s. Concentrated volley fire is the order of the day, and as a consequence tactical formations used did not differ substantially from the Napoleonic era, though we do see a greater use of the "extended line" formation, particularly in manouevering over open ground. No 2/3/4 man fire and manoeuvre teams I'm afraid.

Below the Company, there was only one sub-division, that of a SECTION, which was defined as a "fourth part of a Company". The term SQUAD was used to refer to "a small number of men formed for srill or for work".
The "half Company" was also a fairly regularly used sub-organisation. PLATOONS are NOT mentioned !

I am not sure if there exists any table of organisation showing which Sections the men of B Coy 2/24th were actually split up into. Perhaps Martin Everett of the SWB Museum has something on this ? Certainly, the more coomon rolls that exist tend to show just Company lists, with no subdivisions.

However, iIf you look at the B Company nominal roll (1 x Officer, 81 NCOs & Ptes - NOT including the 17 listed as "sick"), it is fairly easy to establish a Section strength on the 22 Jan 1879, merely by dividing each rank by four ! So a Section strength is likely to be:

1 x Sergeant/Lance Sergeant
2 x Corporals/Lance Corporals
1 x Drummer
17 x Ptes

The Company Officers (in this instance only 1 but it could be up to 3) would be supported by one Colour Sergeant (=Company Sergeant Major). This small HQ would need to include, batmen, runners, cooks etc, - though the more of these you include, the less Ptes you have in each section. However, this is me thinking logically - and we are talking 1879 ! Remember the quote from "Zulu" about Bromhead offering to clean Chard's kit - "I wasn't offering to do it myself, old boy." !

Hope that has been of some help ?

Bill
18th July 2002Bill Cainan
Oops. In the above, para 2, please substitute "drill" for "srill" !

Bill
5th July 2003patrick sammon
Good day,

I have just re-read "British Forces in Zululand" (Osprey Elite Series), and it does not have any information about company composition. I have seen such info for the Napoleonic period, so such a breakdown into platoons or sections must have existed in 1879 as well.

does anyone know of a good source for such information?

5th July 2003patrick sammon
Good day,

I have just re-read "British Forces in Zululand" (Osprey Elite Series), and it does not have any information about company composition. I have seen such info for the Napoleonic period, so such a breakdown into platoons or sections must have existed in 1879 as well.

does anyone know of a good source for such information?