American Rifle Company

The American Rifle Company is an organizational unit of the US army and a unit available in Flames of War. It is made up of 3 rifle platoons, a weapons Platoon, and a mortar section.

IRL

A company is an organizational unit made up of 3-6 platoons. They first originated with the Platoon as an organizational unit in the 1600s under Gustavus Adolphus, whom you may recognize as the one who spearheaded the platoon. The short version is that Companies are made up of several platoons, all that fall under the command of either a Captain or major.

American Rifle Companies in early WWII tended to have a headquarters of 24 men, with most of these men being purely for administrative or logistical purposes, all under the command of a Captain. The unit had 3 rifle platoons, which is detailed elsewhere. In addition, a weapons platoon was included in every company, which had a mortar section and a machine gun section, with each being equipped with a 60mm mortar and M1919 machine gun respectively. There would be three mortar and two machine gun squads per company. The late war organization tables expanded the Headquarters by 16 men due to increased mechanization and cut down on the number of riflemen, divying up some of the remainder from being simple riflemen to dedicated scouts. Otherwise the changes until the end of the war are rather minor.

Frankly the most dangerous part of US infantry companies was the prolific prescence of radios. Virtually EVERY US COMPANY, regardless of type, had a radio (usually an SCR-300 walkie-talkie). Some of the frontline platoons had radios (SCR-536 handy talkies) when available. No other army in the whole war attempted to give every officer a radio of their own (although Germany tried with Panzergrenadier units). What this meant was that every frontline US unit could call in artillery or close air support in minutes, often with the frontline lieutenants making their requests DIRECTLY to the battery captains.

Modern American Rifle Companies have been shrunk far below the original ~200 men to a far smaller ~135, largely due to improved organization and technological advancements.