Template:Infobox command structure/doc

Usage

Command structure box

Command structure
Relationship type:	Administrative
Parent unit:	Royal Berkshire Regiment, UK
Parent level:	none
Start date:	1/4/1908
End date:
Sources:

Command structure
Relationship type:	Tactical
Parent unit:	145th Infantry Brigade, UK
Parent level:	Brigade
Start date:	May 1915
End date:
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
| command_start_date =
| command_end_date =
| relationship_type = 
| parent =
| parent_level =
| subordinate =
| subordinate_level =
| ref = 
}}

Note: When using parameters, avoid the ambiguous abbreviation "N/A", and instead use "unknown" or "none". Please cite reliable sources where possible using <ref> tags. These should be placed in the date fields after the dates, not in the parent or subordinate fields.

• name – no longer used.
• command_start_date – the date when this relationship started.
• command_end_date – the date when this relationship ended.
• relationship_type – the type of relationship. See below for more details and examples.
• parent or subordinate – optional – the page name of one of the unit's parent units or subordinate units. Use only one of theses parameters in each instance. The value of this parameter is automatically turned into a wikilink so there's no need to add link markup. It must contain only one unit page name and no ref tags or any other text.
• parent_level or subordinate_level – optional – the level of the parent or subordinate unit given in the 'parent' or 'subordinate' parameter. Don't enter the level of the unit whose page the infobox is on. See below for more details and examples.
• ref – references to sources that support the information entered in the other parameters. This will automatically create a footnote. You don't need to use ref tags.

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 means relationships that combined most or all tactical and administrative functions. This is mainly used for 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. There might be a few cases where this type applies to relationships in the British Army, but these are rare because the lower levels of sub-units are mostly not represented by unit pages on this site.
• 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 of relationship can sometimes be international, for example, some Canadian militia units were affiliated with British regiments.

Levels

Levels are only used for relationships that have some tactical role. They do not apply to purely administrative relationships. For administrative relationships, a value of 'none' can be entered or the field can be left blank. 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 shouldn't be entered.