Good day all,
I'll snip most of this posting for brevity, then post some observations.
----- Original Message ----- From: seven@gaudaprime.com To: blakes7@lists.lysator.liu.se Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2001 1:22 PM Subject: [B7L] What was the Size of the Fifth Legion - 280,000 T?
Tarrant in Rumours mentions both armies and fleets when he calls Servalan High Admiral of the Galactic Fleets and Lord General of the Six Armies. Grose was a Section Leader in the Fifth Legion, an army thing rather than naval (Legion in the Roman military was land-based), and the rank of Colonel (held by Grose's commanding officer Astrid) does not occur in naval lists.
<snip> Relative ranks and unit sizes probably wobble about over time, depending on the whims and fancies of commanding officers and political requirements. For one example, during World War One, fighter pilots were largely junior officers, during WW2, there were Sargent pilots and in modern times seems like colonels are expected to fly combat missions. Several nations have divided their armed forces into sub units called armies, even if they are not all strictly ground troopers. Secondly, as far as I can tell, the ratio of support troops to combat troops increases with the level of technological sophistication of the army, and there is probably a corresponding decrease in the combat effectiveness of support troops if they are forced into combat. In all probability, the bulk of the combat strength of the Federation ground troopers probably came from a relatively small front line force backed by a much larger support force. Finally, like the Nazis and the Soviets, there would likely have been different bodies of troops, all nominally ground troopers, under various different power structures within the Federation. Besides the "Regulars" under the direct control of Servalan as Supreme Commander, the Federation Space Navy might have had some "Marines" attached permanently to star ships and bases, the 'civil' administration would have had "Police" units, Federation governors, their own private armies, etc, all theoretically under the command of the Supreme Commander, though practically, such cooperation depended on the relationship between Servalan and the local commanders.
To conclude, the Six Armies in Tarrant's reference may have been an antiquated title, may have referred to only part of the Federation armed forces, such as the Home Guard of Earth which may have special historical meaning, or that the term army, is being used to refer to all military units from or in a given territory.
I hope that all makes some sort of sense,
Catch you later, Walter Minne