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Command & Staff in WWII Online
by Ike

In this command structure example, I will name the unit, list the commander's rank and the ranks of the principal staff personnel for it, and mention what comprises the formation or unit. Keep in mind that in the real world all of these headquarters except the platoon have additional soldiers assigned to them as clerks, assistant staff officers, and so on. American Infantry Division example: The lowest level unit that has an officer in charge is a platoon, which is made up of four squads, each of 10 or 12 men. The platoon leader is a lieutenant and he is assisted by a platoon sergeant. Next up the chain of command is the company, which is made up of three to four platoons. The company commander is a captain. There is an Executive Officer (XO), who is a lieutenant, and a First Sergeant, who is the highest-ranking N.C.O. in the company. Next up the chain of command is the battalion, which is made up of four companies. The battalion commander is a lieutenant colonel, his XO is a major, his senior N.C.O. is a Sergeant-Major, and he has four captains assigned as his staff officers. Up to this level, every Army in World War II had essentially the same organization. In the American, French, German, and Italian armies, the next unit up the chain of command was the regiment, made up of three battalions, commanded by a colonel, who XO was a lieutenant colonel, and whose staff officers were one major and three captains. Next up the chain of command, the Division, made up of three regiments (only two in the Italian Army), commanded by a major general, his XO (properly Deputy) was a brigadier general, his senior N.C.O. was a Sergeant-Major, and his five principal staff officers were a colonel as chief of staff, and four lieutenant colonels. In the British Army, the unit right above battalion was the Brigade, commanded by a brigadier, his XO (properly Second in Command) was a colonel, and the rest up from there was identical for our purposes here. Next above the division is the corps, made up of two to five divisions, commanded by a lieutenant general, his XO a major general, his chief of staff a brigadier general, and his four principal staff officers were colonels. Next up the chain of command, the army, made up of two to five corps, commanded by a general, his XO a lieutenant general, his chief of staff a major general, and his principal staff officers brigadier generals. Next up the chain, the army group, was made up of two to five armies, commanded by a general, whose XO was a lieutenant general, chief of staff a major general, and his principal staff officers were major generals. Of course, at that level, you get a lot of variation in numbers of folks in the headquarters. Also, keep in mind that these ranks and numbers of subordinate units are on paper, at full strength; after some combat losses, there were battalions commanded by captains and similar difference from the full-strength organizations. But that is the basic pattern of the command levels, officer ranks, and staff officers in World War 2.

What does a military staff do? In its essentials, the staff collects the information that the commander literally and physically is unable to collect; they analyze the information and present a summary -- called a "staff appreciation" in most armies -- to the commander for his use. Imagine being a division commander, trying to determine from written reports from Corps, Army, and Army Group headquarters and from written reports from your regimental commanders what enemy units were nearby, what their strength was, what their status was, and where they were going. These reports were in the form of aerial recon photographs, sketch maps from patrol leaders, endless lists of sightings of men and equipment with some junior officer's guess as to what the unit insignia he saw was, prisoner interrogation reports -- you get the idea. The staff takes that raw data in all areas and analyzes it, puts in writing their best guess as to what is the correct and accurate information, summarizes that information, analyzes it for implications for their staff area of responsibility, and presents it to the commander for his use. The example here is from Intelligence (American Army: G-2) staff work, but it is the same tangle of documents and reports for each of the other staff sections. A commander must know at least the following things in order to plan and order his subordinates effectively. How many men and how much equipment is under his command and functioning and where are they? (G-1, also called Adjutant) How many men and how much equipment does the enemy have, how well is it functioning, where was it, where is it, where can it go? (G-2, also called Intelligence) How can my troops and equipment get from where they are to where they need to be, in order to attack the enemy or defend from his attacks, or occupy terrain that we must have to win the war? (G-3, also called Plans) How much fuel, ammunition, and food will my men need, how will it get from where my higher commander leaves it (a depot) to where my troops are, what routes must it take, how much must I stockpile in order to have enough fuel, ammunition, and food for this operation? (A typical infantry division in WW2 used about 200 short tons of expendible supplies per day in combat; that's 400,000 pounds of ammunition, fuel, and food.) (G-4, also called Logistics or Supply) Those are the short list of the items of information the commander of a formation must have just to make a plan which will not survive contact with the enemy on the battlefield.

In WW2OL, I really don't expect a great deal of staff work to be necessary, but I think that there will be more to be done than one player will be able to do in the short time he or she will have to plan an operation. Not needing a full time staff is a fine thing, because that way General Whoever and his staff can make the plan for the mission, then when their "squad" jumps off for the attack, Gen. Whoever and his staff will be on the line with their rifles, having a good time. This is the point of this article: What will the staff do? How will they do it? What will the Commander do? The purpose is to have just enough people to make a complete plan for the missions, to enable the "squads" who accept the missions to fight the enemy in a direction and at a place that will contribute to winning the war, and incidentally, allow the commander and his staff to fight with their "squads". In the examples below, I will use the British Expeditionary Force order of battle for France in 1940.

The G-1 or Adjutant will need information from the commanders of the "squads" including the number of troops, their weapons and equipment, and what the number was at the last mission/battle, and what number the CO expects to be available for the next mission. That information can be emailed quite easily to the player acting as the G-1. The G-1 will list that information in some format like this: "3d Battalion, South Wales Borderers with attached tank unit and fighter squadron; infantry section 14 men, one machine gun, one light mortar, one Bren gun; all present last battle; expect 12 available for next mission, two riflemen short; armor: Troop A, 1st Squadron, 5th R.T.R.: three Matilda tanks, six crew; all present last battle; expect all available at next mission; 32 Squadron: 10 Hurricanes, 10 pilots; all present last battle; expect all available for next mission". The G-1 will email the General Commanding that information on all the "squads" and on all the individuals playing "solo", but for the British side, together with a very short summary. Example: "We have, then, the same combat force that was available for the last series of missions." Or whatever is appropriate. With that information available on all the "squads" and individuals who are playing "solo" for the British side, the General Commanding, B.E.F. can know what troops and equipment he has to implement an operation or a mission.

The G-2 or Intelligence Officer will need information on German Army "squads", how many men, what equipment, where on the map they are, what they were doing the last time anyone spotted them. This information may come, in part, from the host computer, representing information gathered at higher headquarters by recon aircraft or by spies or from whatever source. This information will come, in part, from the commanders of the "squads", who should send an email to the G-2 that gives him or her the kind of information needed to determine how, what, were, and when on the German Army "squads". An example of the G-2 staff appreciation -- in a small example -- might be: "2nd SS Panzer Division, 18 infantry, 14 tanks 8 MkII's, 4 MkIII's, 2 MkIV's, recon unit on motorcycles of 4 soldiers; supported in their last mission by 53 JS (Ju-87's); last mission on (date) was attacking our 2nd Division positions at (map reference)." With that kind of information about the whole German Army's "squads" in his area of responsibility, the General then knows what his troops will be facing in their next mission, where the enemy is, and consequently where he isn't, and devise a plan on that basis. Other information would be gathered, too, such as notices from the host computer that an airfield has been bombed to uselessness and it will be -- say -- five weeks real time before it is operational again.

The G-3 or Plans Officer will need to be looking at the staff appreciations with a view to (1) making sure that all the German formations and "squads" are accounted for in the G-2 appreciation; (2) making sure that whatever the current operation is, it is going well and make contingency plans for when (not if!) it does go wrong; (3) doing a preliminary plan of operation for the next mission in the operation based upon the terrain from the maps, as well as the staff appreciations of the G-1, G-2, and G-4. This officer should pay particular attention to requirements for support from other Services or from other nations' forces that may be required or useful and make notes of those requirements a part of his or her staff appreciation.

The G-4 or Logistics Officer will need to pay attention to supply routes, depot locations, and -- if the CRS lads get really ambitious -- what level of supply stocks of what kind of fuel and ammunition should be located in the various depots. When a new mission or operation is being planned, G-4 should look at the terrain from the maps, the strength report from the G-1, the enemy locations and capabilities from the G-2, and consider what changes need to be made to the supply routes, lines of communications, depot locations, and -- if the game supports it -- stockage levels in the depots. When an operation is on going or there is no new mission for which to plan, the G-4 should still look over the other staffs' appreciations to see what if any effect the information in them will have on supply. To use the "airfield closed for repairs" example in the G-2 portion, perhaps the G-4 will realize that because of distances, there will be a gap in fighter coverage to protect a depot in Metz -- for example -- and someone needs to take up the slack in that coverage. The G-4 would include that in her or his staff appreciation, and suggest to the General that he or she take that issue up with someone in the French Air Force or with someone in the R.A.F.

The General will have the job of Chief of Staff. That is, he will have to coordinate the work of the staff officers and remind them when their staff appreciations are due, help any with his or her area of responsibility, train new staff, replace staff as they are promoted out and all of that. Each staff officer in each HQ should send a copy of each new staff appreciation to the other members of their HQ staff, as well as to the Commander.

Where will this "staff" come from? Well, my idea is that when a player is picked as a commander of a formation, that he or she picks two or three or four other players to be the command staff for the Headquarters. These folks could be people from the commander's "squad" or from other "squads" in the same national armed forces. Whether these staff positions are recognized by the game itself or not doesn't matter, since the functions can be carried out outside of the game mechanics. It would however be a lot easier, particularly in the G-2 area, if the game did recognize staff officers and provided them with information for each of their areas of responsibility.

Both the air forces and the navies will have staffs to perform the same functions. There will be some differences between the Services, but I think those differences are obvious. Examples of the differerences include: the naval commanders and staff would be concerned with coaling depots/refueling stations for their ships and with new construction of warships for the fleet. The air commanders and their staffs would be concerned with the flight radius of their various aircraft and what that implies for construction of new airfields. The armor commanders will have exactly the same concerns as the infantry commanders, except they will have a higher useage rate for expendible supplies in the ammunition and fuel areas than does the infantry.

What can we expect in the way of commanders? I do not know, but I have a guess. At the beginning, CRS will have only the commanders at the national level for each country involved in "Blitzkreig 1940", and it looks like that commander is going to be called the "Country Commander". And, of course, he or she will need a staff. Later on, as the other theaters open up, my guess is that a theater commander will be created for the each theater for each nation with forces in that theater. My guess as to title? "Theater Commander". And there will be a "Country Commander" for those nations who are brought into the game for the first time in each new theater. Probably CRS will make a theater commander position in the first theater for those nations who started out with their "Country Commander" in "Blitzkreig, 1940", when the second theater is opened. I don't think there will be any lower-level commander or command structure recognized by the game. However, it may be practical and useful for us, the players, to have a "Mission Commander" ("Task Force", "Battlegroup"...) position as one of the jobs that can be volunteered for in any given mission. In part, whether this will work or be useful or even possible depends on how the game is structured. This is purely guess work on my part, but it is my best guess at this point on how command will be set up in the game.

A recent post by Mo said that organizations and organizing our efforts is going to be entirely up to us. That made me re-think the staff aspects of the game. What do I suggest as the appropriate staff? Glad you asked! My thoughts on Country Commanders is that they will need two of what I'm going to call "Deputy Country Commander (D.C.C.)"; one for Air Operations and one for Naval Operations. The Country Commander can handle the Logistics (G-4) without a staff officer, since it seems that it will be mostly designation of lines of supply and communication. There will need to be an Adjutant (G-1) to take care of the friendly unit strength part of the staff work. After re-thinking staff work in the game, my thought is that one staff officer can handle both the Intelligence and the Operations staff work. So, that totals four in the Country HQ staff: D.C.C. for Air Ops, D.C.C. for Naval Ops, Adjutant, and Intelligence/Operations Officer. The Theater Commander will also need a staff and my ideas on that are simply have an Adjutant and an Intelligence/Operations Officer, with the Theater Commander taking care of the Logistics (G-4) as the Country Commander does. Only in a theater where there is a great deal of both land and naval or land and air will a Theater Commander need a Deputy Theater Commander for Air Operations or for Naval Operations.

Consider using "ICQ" or some similar program to have staff conferences in a real time chat, where a commander and the staff talk over the situation, plan the next operation or missions, and in general do those things that a commander and the staff do. These are my ideas of the information that should be in the various forms that the General, the unit commanders, and the staff will use. The reason for the forms is that frankly I think there is going to be a high volume of information on friendly and enemy units that will be useful and maybe even essential to maintain and update. As you can imagine, the Country Commander and his/her staff trying to remember the forces involved in the last set of battles and all of that kind of information is going to be difficult, without some kind of "paperwork". Don't mistake me, here, folks. These forms may not be useful at all in the game. They are just something that I am guessing will help us in the command and staff part of the game. Furthermore, I just pulled the forms out of my head; they were not received by an express courier with a return address of "Mt. Sinai". In the Adjutant (G1) area, the commanding officers of the player units will need to send an initial report of how many soldiers are in that unit, whether the unit is infantry, armour, air, or naval, the email address of the CO, the website address, and if the unit has decided on a standard equipment or weapons load, what that is. As that information changes, the player unit CO will need to send an update on that information to the Adjutant. The Adjutant will need to prepare a unit lising using that information, but in an abbreviated form, such as unit name, number of troops available for action, and their location in the game if that is important. Also, a staff appreciation for the General will need to be prepared, including a summary of the friendly forces available, and pointing out any significant changes since the last staff appreciation. A copy should be sent to all the other staff officers as well, so they have information to work with in their areas of responsibility. In addition, when a new General is appointed and a new staff takes over, the out-going staff should send the new staff officers a copy of all of their staff files, so that the new staff will know what has been going on and so there will be some continuity of ideas, thinking, and knowledge in the headquarters.

For the Intelligence/Operations (G2/3) Officer, that officer will need to keep an enemy player units list, with the same type of information as the Adjutant keeps on the friendly player units. The CO of each player unit will need to send the Intel/Ops Officer an After Action Report by email when the mission is finished, win or lose. This AAR should contain information on what the actual strength of the unit was, what the enemy's strength and force composition was (including unit identification if possible), generally how the battle went, and any other pertinent information. For instance, "The Germans retreated in the direction of Lille." This information enables the Intel/Ops Officer to do his job. A summary of that information needs to be included in each staff appreciation from the Intel/Ops Officer, along with what the Intel/Ops Officer thinks that means in terms of the capability and intentions of the enemy commander. In the Operations part, this staff officer should draft the Operations Order for the General to issue to the players and player unit CO's. How this will work in the game depends on exactly how the mission planner and mission posting system works. I suspect, at this point, that the missions will be posted in some form similar to a real world operations order and that will be in effect for one tactical mission.

The Operations Order the Intel/Ops Officer should draft and the General should pass around is more general than the mission. In order to have a consistent plan of operations and something to base mission planning on, this Operations Order should be, in effect, the outline of a series of missions with one or more objectives, and one final objective. Let me make up an example, using the British Expeditionary Force and the "Blitzkreig" theater as the context. At the beginning of "Blitzkreig", the first campaign, the British Country Commander has to plan and issue missions intended to hold off the expected German attacks into France and the Low Countries in his area of responsibility. It is these missions that players sign up for and complete for promotion points. So that those missions can operate, if successful, to defend the Continent, it will be necessary to have a broader overall plan of operations. That is what the Operations Order is intended to create. So, for instance, "Operation Lion of Lucerne" is the British plan for defending the Belgian capital of Brussels from a German advance. The Operations Order will have several sections: (1) Situation, where the General and his staff set out their appreciation of the military situation at the operational (not tactical or strategic) level; (2) Enemy Forces, where they set out what they know or believe to be the current enemy dispositions and strengths; (3) Friendly Forces, where they set out what they have in the way of British units to accomplish the task; (4) Objectives, which are what the missions that will be written later are intended to accomplish; (5) Commander's Intent, which will give the subordinate commanders the general idea of what the General wants to do, how he wants it done, and just as importantly, how he doesn't want it done; (6) Support, what Allied forces are available to assist, land, air, and sea, and, if it has been worked out, how those Allied forces will assist and who is the contact point for calling in such assistance; (7) Signals, which is any special or unusual communications information, as well as any standard communications information, such as "Use Channel 332 to contact Allied air support". Then as the war progresses, the General and his staff have an overall plan to use as a framework to plan missions. This is not going to be a 10 page document, folks. Two or three pages should be enough for the longest Operations Order in WW2OL. Since the Rats have told us several times that the higher commands will rotate among the highest-ranking players, it would provide continuity to have a file of Operations Orders and pass them on to the new Country or Theater Commanders. That continuity would create a more efficient headquarters more able to successfully direct a nation's war effort, whether as a Theater Headquarters or as a Country Headquarters.

By using staff officers, we can accomplish several things at the same time. First, the player who gets to be a Commanding Officer of a formation will have people who can help plan and execute missions and operations, reducing the time required for what will probably be a very time-consuming and busy career in WW2OL. Second, the players selected as staff officers will be able to learn how to general, both in the overall military sense and in the game mechanics sense prior to their being selected for command themselves. Third, it will increase the valuable and enjoyable role-playing aspects of the game, of which WW2OL already promises a great deal.