Basic structure of British Army units

Servicemen joined a regiment, often based in the local area and named after it. Within the regiment they would be assigned to one of several battalions. Battalions were split into companies and then further into platoons and sections.

The battalion was the basic tactical unit of the army and that group of men would stay together throughout the war, usually operating away from the rest of the parent regiment. Battalions from different regiments would make up a brigade and two or three brigades were in a division. The division would be moved around different corps of the Army depending on the need for manpower on the extensive battlefront.

A battalion would maintain a war diary of its activities, logging marches, training, action and of course, casualties.

The battalion would usually be referred to in conjunction with the parent regiment. Redford Bell's unit was therefore called the 7th Battalion, Border Regiment or the 7th Borders for short. In larger operations and histories, sometimes only the brigades or the divisions would be named, depending on how much detail was required.