Life of a British Soldier in WW2

[animal800]

Hello there! I'm currently working on a story that starts with a British soldier on a secret mission in France in February of 1944. I can figure out what life was generally like for people of this era, but my main questions are as such:

What would his group be called and how would they function? Are they a troop, a platoon, something else? Would they have all been in the same group for a long time, or would this mission be their first time working together? Since this is a top secret, highly important mission, would they have to be of a certain skill set/part of the special ops, or is it possible for them to be regular soldiers who just got assigned on a mission and went with it?

I also had a running joke planned with one of the men being American, but is that actually logistical? Did American and British soldiers ever get put on assorted international teams, or did they generally just stick to their own armies/platoons?

This is my first time using this site, so apologies if I messed something up. Thank you for your time!

Comments

[nineveh_uk]

I suggest you look into the SAS https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Special_Air_Service

[animal800]

Thank you, I had no idea about this!!

[vae]

If it's that secret, he'd probably have at least some contact with/coordination with the SOE, it might be worth looking into what's known of their operations. (It's not much, there was a coincidental fire that destroyed records before they could ever be declassified.)

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/soe-the-secret-british-organisation-of-the-second-world-war

[aflatmirror]

I'm currently researching a different time and place in milhist but similar goal (ordinary soldiers' day to day lives), and I just wanted to put in a plug for soldier memoirs and autobiographical fiction!

[kitarella_imagines]

Hello 😊

A small group of them would be called 'a squad'.

Americans and Brits could work together but more likely they wouldn't because they would have different commanders/ chains of command etc.

They'd only get so much training, but if they're going behind enemy lines, they would need to go to commando school for a while. The Commandos and SAS started in WW2.

(source: my husband who does WW2 army re-enactment events and knows a lot about WW2. He is a sergeant in his re-enactment artillery detachment.)

Quick Note

[(Anonymous)]

To answer one of your questions: generally, groups (or units) are made out of smaller units, which are made out of smaller units, and so on and so forth. At the time (according to my googling), the smallest unit a soldier would consider themselves a member of would be a "section" of 8-10 soldiers, but platoons of 3 sections would be small and close as well. There's a long chain there. (https://www.britishmilitaryhistory.co.uk/documents-units-formations-1930-1956/)