New member resource: WW1 Orders of Battle (ORBATs)

We’re pleased to announce the addition of a significant new resource to The Western Front Association website: a selection of World War One orders of battle from the collection of Dr George F. Nafziger.

For those unfamiliar, an order of battle (ORBAT) is a detailed listing of the units, formations, and command structure of an army at a particular point in time. It provides insight into how forces were organised, deployed, and commanded, making it an essential resource for understanding the operational aspects of military history. 

Dr George F. Nafziger is a distinguished military historian with a PhD in military history. His career includes four years of active duty service in the US Navy, including two tours in Vietnam, and 21 years in the US Naval Reserve, retiring as a captain in 1995. Over the years, he has authored numerous works, most notably on the Napoleonic Wars. These are available at his website: nafzigercollection.com

Dr Nafziger began collecting orders of battle in the late 1980s, amassing a vast collection covering the period from 1625 to 1945. 

Chronologically, the ORBATs on The WFA’s website cover “Internal Organization of Peacetime German Military Formations” (1902) to “South Front of the Red Army” (1920).

Contingents of national armies detailed include German, Austro-Hungarian, Japanese, Russian, Serbian (and Montenegrin), Turkish, Bulgarian, Austrian, British (including British Indian Army), Australian, French, Belgian, Canadian, Italian, Romanian, USA, Polish and Soviet.

Three examples, from more than 500:

  • War establishment: British territorial division, infantry battalion, 1915
  • German sturmtruppen (assault troops) at Verdun, February 1916
  • Austrian army in the western Balkans, end of August 1916

The ORBATs are being made available electronically, free of charge, to members of The Western Front Association. Dr Nafziger’s goal is to ensure that the work he did in amassing this data is preserved and accessible to the researchers. Originally hosted on the US Army’s Fort Leavenworth website, this historical data is now available to members to use freely. The sources are listed within the documents.

View the Orders of Battle by logging into the ‘members area’ of the website and start exploring the collection.

Orders of Battle →

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