Editing Battalion (section)

== British Army ==
[[File:Australian 11th Battalion group photo.jpg|thumb|[[11th Battalion (Australia)|Australian 11th (Western Australia) Battalion]], 3rd Infantry Brigade, Australian Imperial Force, posing on the Great Pyramid of Giza on 10 January 1915]]
The term ''battalion'' is used in the [[British Army Infantry]] and some corps including the [[Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers]] and [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]]. It was formerly used in the [[Royal Engineers]] (before they switched to regiments), and was also used in the now defunct [[Royal Army Ordnance Corps]] and [[Royal Pioneer Corps]]. Other [[corps]] usually use the term "regiment" instead.

An infantry battalion is numbered ordinarily within its regiment (e.g., 1st Battalion, [[The Rifles]], usually referred to as 1&nbsp;Rifles). It normally has a headquarters company, support company, and three rifle companies (usually, but not always, A, B and C companies). Each company is commanded by a [[Major (rank)|major]], the officer commanding (OC), with a [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]] or senior [[lieutenant]] as [[second-in-command]] (2IC). The HQ company contains [[signals (military)|signals]], [[quartermaster]], catering, [[Military espionage|intelligence]], administration, pay, training, operations and medical elements. The support company usually contains [[anti-tank]], [[machine gun]], [[mortar (weapon)|mortar]], [[pioneer (military)|pioneer]] and [[reconnaissance]] platoons. Mechanised units usually have an attached [[light aid detachment]] (LAD) of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) to perform field repairs on vehicles and equipment. A British battalion in theatre during World War II had around 845 men; as of 2012, a British battalion had around 650 soldiers. With successive rounds of cutbacks after the war, many infantry regiments were reduced to a single battalion (others were amalgamated to form large regiments that maintained multiple battalions, e.g., the [[Royal Anglian Regiment]]).

Important figures in a battalion headquarters include:
* [[Commanding officer]] (CO) (invariably a [[lieutenant colonel]])
* [[Second-in-command]] (2i/c) (major)
* [[Adjutant]] (captain)
* [[Quartermaster]] (QM) (LE captain)
* Quartermaster (technical) (QM(T))
* Medical officer (MO) ([[Royal Army Medical Service]] captain or major)
* Administrative officer ([[Adjutant General's Corps]] captain or major)
* [[Military Chaplain|Padre]] ([[Royal Army Chaplains Department]] chaplain 4th or 3rd class)
* Operations officer (Ops) (lieutenant)
* Intelligence officer (IO) (lieutenant or captain)
* Regimental Signals officer (RSO) ([[Royal Corps of Signals]] captain)
* [[Regimental sergeant major]] (RSM) ([[warrant officer]] class&nbsp;1)
* [[Regimental quartermaster sergeant]] (RQMS) (warrant officer class&nbsp;2)
* Regimental quartermaster sergeant (technical) (RQMS(T)) (warrant officer class&nbsp;2)
Battalions of other corps are given separate cardinal numbers within their corps (e.g., 101&nbsp;Battalion REME).

=== Battle group ===
A battle group consists of an infantry battalion or [[Armoured regiment (United Kingdom)|armoured regiment]] with sub-units detached from other military units acting under the command of the battalion commander.