Template:Infobox command structure/doc

Usage

Command structure box

Command structure
Relationship type:	Administrative
Parent unit:	Royal Berkshire Regiment, UK
Parent level:
Start date:	1/4/1908
End date:	unknown
Sources:

Command structure
Relationship type:	Tactical
Parent unit:	[[145th Infantry Brigade, UK]]
Parent level:	Brigade
Start date:	May 1915
End date:	unknown
Sources:

A command structure box may be used to summarise information about an individual military unit's parent or subordinate units. It should generally be used on pages that also use {{Infobox military unit}} and be placed below that template. Where necessary, multiple boxes may be used to show the unit's command structure during different periods or in different types of hierarchy. Each instance of this template should show exactly one parent or one subordinate. It should not be used to show a parent and a subordinate in the same box. Currently each relationship has to be entered manually on both unit pages that it relates to. Each unit page needs a separate instance of this template for every parent that it had, and a separate instance for every child that it had. Non-consecutive periods of service with the same parent should be shown in separate instances of the template.

Pages below battalion level don't usually have their own pages unless they operated independently of their parent (eg divisional cavalry squadrons), or their hierarchy didn't have a battalion level (eg company was usually the basic unit of engineers in the British Empire). Therefore unit pages should not usually have infoboxes for sub-units such as companies and squadrons.

The box should be added using the {{Infobox command structure}} template, as shown below:

{{Infobox command structure
| unit_name = (usually omitted because it defaults to the page title)
| command_start_date =
| command_end_date =
| relationship_type = 
| parent =
| parent_level =
| subordinate =
| subordinate_level =
}}

Note: When using parameters, avoid the ambiguous abbreviation "N/A", and instead use "unknown" or "none". All subjective or qualitative judgements and numerical quantities or statistics must be cited to a reliable source (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Military_history).

• name – the name of the unit or formation. Defaults to the page name so doesn't need to be entered.
• command_start_date – the date when this relationship started.
• command_start_date – the date when this relationship ended.
• relationship_type – optional – the type of relationship. See below for more details and examples.
• parent – optional – one of the unit's parent units.
• parent_level – optional – the level of the parent unit. See below for more details and examples.
• subordinate – optional – one of the unit's subordinate units.
• subordinate_level – optional – the level of the subordinate unit. See below for more details and examples.

Relationship Types

Currently used relationship types are shown in bold, with explanations in normal type:

• Administrative means relationships that were only administrative and had no tactical or operational role. eg the relationship between a British infantry battalion and its parent regiment, or between a British regiment and its record office.
• Tactical means relationships that were mostly tactical with little or no administrative role. eg the relationship between a British battalion and its parent brigade, or a British brigade and its parent division.
• Tactical and Administrative refers to the continental system in which tactical and administrative hierarchies were unified up to division level. eg the relationship between an American infantry battalion and its parent regiment, or between an American regiment and its parent brigade. You might also find "Both" used to refer to this kind of relationship on this site, but this needs to be replaced with the more explicit "Tactical and Administrative".
• Affiliation means a less formal relationship that didn't involve tactical command or administrative records. Affiliated units might share a name or badge with a parent regiment but were otherwise separate. This type is new and has not yet been used on any pages.

Levels

Levels are only used for relationships that have some tactical role. They do not apply to purely administrative relationships. Level names have not been finalised but will probably follow the continental system:

• Army Group
• Army
• Army Corps
• Division
• Brigade
• Regiment
• Battalion

In this system, the brigades used by British Empire forces were the equivalent of regiment level. There was no eqivalent of the continental brigade in the British system. Currently {{BritishBrigade}} is used as a placeholder where a unit's parent is a British-style brigade.

You only need to enter the level of the other unit in the relationship (that is, the parent or child of the current unit). The level of the unit whose page the infobox is on isn't normally entered.