In my previous post regarding the “Colmar Pocket,” I discovered I had made some mistakes. Not understanding military hierarchy I claimed that Uncle Billy and Audie Murphy were in the same infantry unit but that was in error; they were in the same 3rd Division. I also thought a Division was a subset of a Regiment but the opposite is true, a Regiment is a subset of a Division. So, Uncle Billy was in the 30th Regiment of the 3rd Division, on loan to the French 1st Army and Audie was in the 15th Regiment of the 3rd Division.
This new information also changes the locations depicted on the map included in the previous posting and it turns out that Audie Murphy is where I thought Uncle Billy was and Uncle Billy is 10 miles to the south. Here is an updated map:
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| The Battlefield at Colmar |
For anybody who is interested, this is how military hierarchy is organized:
Army 80,000 to 200,000 men two or more Corps
Corps 20,000 to 45,000 men two or more Divisions
Division 10,000 to 15,000 men two to four Regiments
Regiment 3,000 to 5,000 men two or more Battalions
Battalion 300 to 1300 men two to six Companies
Company 80 to 225 men two to eight Platoons
Platoon 26 to 55 men two or more Squads
Squad 8 to 13 men
