International Encyclopedia of Military History

(Note: Sample material is taken from uncorrected proofs. Changes may be made prior to publication.)

ORDER OF BATTLE of a given country, service, or field force consists of the identification, strength, command structure, and disposition of the personnel, units, and equipment of its constituted military forces. Determining an opponent's order of battle remains one of the top priorities of any intelligence operation. Operationally, the order of battle will consist of all the forces controlled or supporting a commander for a certain campaign. The commander may not be able to bring all of the order of battle forces to bear in a given operation. The forces actually used in a battle or campaign will be a subset of the order of battle, usually termed the organization for combat or task organization. Hence, Napoleon I disposed of a considerable order of battle on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, but his detachments left him much weaker, including two corps under Marshal Emmanuel Grouchy that failed to screen the Prussian forces and did not contribute to the battle.

The order of battle details the major commands and all the cascade of units and subordinate units under the control of those commands, listing as well the commanders and effective strengths of the various units at all levels. These data give an analyst a view of the capabilities of a force, superior to a simple list of the numbers of personnel, tanks, planes, ships, and so forth. Intelligence analysts further detail an order of battle by assessing effective strength, previous performance in action, training and replacement levels, and matters of supply and morale. Orders of battle may also include supporting forces, such as transportation units, escorts, replenishment and supply, surveillance and reconnaissance units and air support, which may not come under the command of the organization thus detailed, but provide essential services and augmentation of the supported unit's objectives in a campaign.

Kenneth W. Estes