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Welcome to Orders of Battle.com

Second World War Military Unit Database

Orders Of Battle.com is an interactive Database on Military Units and Commanders in the Second World War (1939-1945).

It currently concentrates on the major powers engaged in the War such as the British Commonwealth, Germany and the United States of America.

In the future, it is hoped to begin adding information on units from France, the Soviet Union, Italy and Axis-Allied countries such as Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. At some point, I also hope to cover the First World War as well.

Using this database, the user can view information on military units of all sizes including Army Groups, Armies, Corps, Divisions, Brigades, Regiments and Battalions for the major powers in the Second World War and the officers who commanded them.

It is possible, using the Unit Index Page, to list all Units of a specific Service, Type and Size for a specific Country and then drill-down to a specific Unit using the Unit Index page. Once in a Unit listing, the user can see Unit History, Subordinate Units, Superior Units, Theatres served, Commanders, Locations, Battle Honours, Notes and Orders of Battle. It is then possible to drill-down to see information for associated Units or Commanders or generate an Order of Battle for that unit for a specific date.

For units from the British Commonwealth, users can view all units for a specific Corps or Regiment using the Corps Unit Index Page.

Click the Unit Updates Page to display unit records which have been recently updated.

Similarly, using the Person Index Page, one can list all Commanders for a specific Nationality and then examine a specific Commander and see all Units associated with that Commander. Information held for Commanders can include Full Name, Date of Birth, Date of Death, Awards and Biographical Notes.

Please click the Person Updates Page to see person records which have recently been updated.

The Unit Data page displays the short and full names of the unit and the title of the unit in the national language (where known), the Size, Unit Type, Corps (Commonwealth units only) and Force and any notes associated. It organises all other data about a unit by category:

Category	Description
History	Dates of events in the history of the unit such as creation, disbandment, surrender, reorganisation, changes of name and conversion to/from other units
Theatre	Dates served in Theatres of Operations around the world
Subordinates	Units which were formally subordinate or attached to the unit.
Superiors	Units to which the current unit was formally subordinate or attached
Appointments	Commanders and Staff Officers associated with the unit
Battle Honours	Battle Honours (Commonwealth) and Campaigns (USA) awarded to the Unit
Locations	Towns and Cities where the Unit was located (not often known)
Notes	Additional Unit data

Please see the Sources Page for a list of published sources, both books and web pages. Please see the Links Page for a list of useful web sites which might be of interest.

Reference Pages such as Theatres, History Types, Roles and Forces provide definitions for terms used in the database.

The Index Page is mainly designed to help search engines index the site, but it can be used to as a general index of records with separate pages for each State and Nationality.