The Combatants IV

British Infantry

During the Second World War, the British struggled to find effective formation structures for their army, and the infantry was no exception to this. Unlike most armies which had triangular structures and medium machine-guns at the battalion level, the British infantry battalion in NW Europe often had four rifle companies. Medium machine-guns were not organic to the British infantry battalion, but farmed out from machine-gun companies that were under the control of the divisional machine-gun battalion. Usually, though, a battalion could count on the support of four Vickers .303 medium machine-guns. Likewise, support from heavy 4.2-inch mortars was an asset controlled by echelons higher than battalion. This relative lack of belt-fed machine-guns meant the British battalion had a comparatively low ability to generate "metal on target", especially when compared to their opponents, the German Grenadier and Fallschirmjäger battalions. This may have pleased quartermasters but was a scourge for the infantry, who depended heavily on artillery support to achieve the suppression necessary to advance against dug-in German troops. It is of note that the British Army, like its U. S. counterpart, had placed great stock in marksmanship prior to the Second World War.

Many British battalions in Italy fielded only three rifle companies during 1944-45. Britain, like all the allied powers, suffered from infantry manpower shortages, and this caused the units to adopt modified orders of battle.

A four-company British battalion had the following weapons, with associated rates of fire per minute and weight in grams per bullet or shell:

Rifle No 4, 400 each, 20 rpm, 11.27 grams
Light MG Bren, 40 each, 150 rpm, 11.27 grams
Sub MG Sten, 52 each, 150 rpm, 8 grams
Mortar 3-inch, 6 each, 8 rpm, 4500 grams
Medium MG Vickers, 4 each, 225 rpm, 11.34 grams

These weapons produced a one-minute weight of fire equal to 446.39 Kilograms or 982.06 pounds. This is comparable to the weight of fire produced by a battalion of U. S. Infantry, but far short of the fire weight a German unit of comparable size could produce.