American Rifle Company

This article is fucking 'Murican. Expect copious amounts of Freedom with an infrequent side of Awesome.

The American Rifle Company is an organizational unit of the US army and a unit available in Flames of War. It is made up of 3 rifle platoons, a weapons Platoon, and a mortar section.

IRL

During the Inter-war period, the US army contracted in size considerably, having less than 119,000 soldiers on active duty in 1935. This began to change after the invasion of Poland, with a build up of forces.

A company is an organizational unit made up of 3-6 platoons. They first originated with the Platoon as an organizational unit in the 1600s under Gustavus Adolphus, whom you may recognize as the one who spearheaded the platoon. The short version is that Companies are made up of several platoons, all that fall under the command of either a Captain or major.

American Rifle Companies in early WWII tended to have a headquarters of 24 men, with most of these men being purely for administrative or logistical purposes, all under the command of a Captain. The unit had 3 rifle platoons, which is detailed elsewhere. In addition, a weapons platoon was included in every company, which had a mortar section and a machine gun section, with each being equipped with a 60mm mortar and M1919 machine gun respectively. There would be three mortar and two machine gun squads per company. The late war organization tables expanded the Headquarters by 16 men due to increased mechanization and cut down on the number of riflemen, divying up some of the remainder from being simple riflemen to dedicated scouts. Otherwise the changes until the end of the war are rather minor.

Frankly the most dangerous part of US infantry companies was the prolific presence of radios. Virtually EVERY US COMPANY, regardless of type, had a radio (usually an SCR-300 walkie-talkie). Some of the frontline platoons had radios (SCR-536 handy talkies) when available. No other army in the whole war attempted to give every commanding officer in the chain a radio (although Germany tried with Panzergrenadier units). What this meant was that every frontline US unit could easily call in artillery or close air support. A running joke on /K asserts that if you shot at someone you could not identity, if they shoot back with rifles they were British, if they shoot back with machine guns they were German, and if at first, nothing happens, and then five minutes later your position is obliterated by artillery: they were American.

Modern American Rifle Companies have been shrunk far below the original ~200 men to a far smaller ~135, largely due to improved organization and technological advancements.