The Support Brigade

Raymond E. Bell Jr explains more about the army he’s recruited for his grandchildren and in particular the 58th Combat Support Brigade

- Raymond E. Bell Jr

For toy soldiers of the 19th Century, combat support could be a happenstance matter. A wagon here, a mobile forge there, and a one-horse ambulance present could in most cases count for all the combat support available for the toy troops. The arrival of the 20th Century, and especially World War I, combat support presented another face. Now not only logistics vehicles but tankettes, motorized machine guns, mobile anti-aircraft gun trucks, and lorry drawn artillery became part of the realm of combat support. And it was here that Britains toy soldiers became a major factor in representing the evolving modernization of combat.

In my grandchildren’s II Corps’ 22nd Infantry Division, the 58th Combat Support Brigade holds the exclusive distinction of being a unit specially organized to provide the division’s two infantry brigades’ foot soldiers with the requisite back-up support to fight a war. These troops make up the brigade’s 1st Machine Gun Battalion; ‘C’ Company, 14th Armor Regiment; three batteries of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Artillery; “B” Battery, 2nd Air Defense Battalion, 1st Artillery; Number 4 Company, Royal Army Service Corps; and a bridge platoon of 38 Company, Royal Engineers. This array of organizations is composed of Britains figures produced from after World War I to just prior to the 21st Century but represent military personnel, weapons, transport, and equipment present in the pre-World War II British Army.