Prior to WWI Armies tended to follow the patterns set down during the Middle ages, a Company of 100 men (A company was called a "Troop" if Calvary formation, A "Battery" if Artillery). A regiment was made up of 10 companies (i.e. 1000 men) with the Regiment capable of being reduced into three battalions depending on tactical deployment.
An example of this division is Custer's deployment at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Custer divided his Regiment into three battalions, one of Five Troops under his own command, Major Reno had three Troops with Major Benteen the remaining two troops with the pack mules.
Now Each Troop (i.e. Calvary Company) under Custer's Command had only 66 men in it instead of the "Normal" deployment of 100. This was due to budget constraints. After his defeat each company of the US Army was increased to 100 Officers and Men (and reduced back to 66 men whenever the Indians were back on the reservation within a year of Custer's defeat).
Thus under Custer's Command was no more than 330 (Actual losses were 210 Officers and men for these Units were not even up to their Official Strength). For more on the Battle see
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/custer.htmThis show you one of the problems when looking at unit "size". People come and go in a Military unit, people get sick, people die. Thus you will normally see numbers that reflect what the unit is suppose to have, or a number what the unit tended to have, instead of any exact number (Which would only exist for the moment in unit history that count was taken). Thus each of those units were to have 66 men, their averaged just over 40 at the time of the battle. Even today it is NOT unusual for unit to be below strength (and some units may be above strength, for example during the Cold War it was not uncommon for US Units in Germany to have 13-14 men in a squad that was only to have 12 members. These extras were kept in the unit to cover the losses a unit would incur if combat was incurred, thus keeping closer to the ideal size for a longer period than if you just had the "Correct" number in the unit).
This is further complicated by some countries calling units different names. For Example the Traditional pre-WWI US Regiment (which I have been using as an example) followed French and German Military Traditions as to what was a regiment. A British Regiment was and is much smaller, in fact a US "Battalion" would be the size of a British "Regiment" and a US "Regiment" would equal a British "Brigade".
Another factor is a Unit "Name" may change over time. For Example during the US Civil War, a "Brigade" could consist of anywhere from Two to Five Regiments, but the Brigade strength was around 2000 men. The reason for this is during the Civil War the US refused to "replaced men on the line". i.e. if a unit had a casualty, no one replaced him except from within the same regiment. Thus a Regiment would start at 1000 men (Two Regiments per Brigade) but slowly go down in strength till it fell below 400 men (Where it was five Regiments per Brigade). Thus during the Civil War a "Brigade" consisted of 2000 men of 2-5 Regiments (which each had ten companies so you could have companies of less than 40 men).
During WWI General Pershing thought the Divisional size of the English and French were two small at 15,000 per Division. Pershing came up with the "Square Division" of WWI (And the standard Division in the US till the start of WWII). A "Square Division" consisted of four regiments organized into two Brigades. Total number in the Division, 25,000 men. The British Division of WWI consisted of Three Brigades of Three Regiments per Brigade (Remember US Battalion Equal British Regiment etc).
Just before WWII the US changed its Divisional formation once again. Dropping the Brigade and adopting the "Triangle Division" of three Regimental Combat Groups (Which consisted of one Regiment of three Battalions each). The Regimental Combat teams came out of the experience of the Tank Divisions. It was found greater flexibility was important so each regiment had been divided into three Battalions but each battalion was trained to operate as independent of its regiment. Thus while a Regimental Combat Teams (RCT) generally would consist of all three Battalions of that Regiment, the Regimental Combat Team (RCT) could also be in command of Battalions NOT of the same Regiment.
During the 1950s the US experimented with Different size units to better survive a nuclear war, these all tended to fail in comparison to the earlier Triangular Division so in 1964 in was reinvented as the "ROAD" Division (I forget what ROAD stood for but it is unimportant for this discussion). The major difference between the WWII Triangle Division and the 1964 ROAD Division was the name "Regimental Combat Team" was dropped and the name "Brigade" Adopted.
Thus the Brigade consisted of 2000 men in 2-5 Regiments in 1865, In 1918 a "Brigade" Consisted of two Regiments of three Battalions each (Six Battalions total), and today a Brigade contains about three Battalions (With the term Regiment gone except as part of each Battalions name or as an independent Regiment).
Now this is further complicated by the affects of WWI in increasing the number of personal at each level of a unit. Early on in WWI it was found that the traditional numbers and organization was no longer sufficient for the Battlefield. The Machine Gun came to dominate the Battlefield, and the Infantry "Section" changed from being a straight Rifle Grouping to a unit design to protect and support the Section's Machine Gun. To counteract the machine gun, various efforts were made in ways to throw grenades further and further. These involved into the modern Infantry Mortar by 1916.
In addition to the introduction of the machine gun and Mortar into the Infantry Company, a more rigid command structure was introduced. The Battalion became a "real" unit instead of a unit made up based on the tactical decision of the Regimental Commander. The same happened to the Platoon which in American, French and German tradition was used as an subdivision of a Company used on an ad hoc basis (in the British usage Platoon and Company were interchangeable).
Thus by 1918 the typical western infantry "Section" was 8 men, formed into a Platoon (24 men plus headquarters of 6 total 30). Three Platoon to a Company with Headquarters of 10 with attached machine gun platoon and Mortar Platoon (Total of about 150 men). Three Companies to a Battalion with a "Heavy Weapons Company" (roughly 700 men). Three Battalion to a regiment (about 3000 men). In the US Service two regiments to a Brigade (7000 men). Two Brigades to a Division (14,000 men in the Infantry Brigades with 9000 in Support functions total 25,000 men.
In non-US Divisions it was three regiments to a Division, 9000 men in the Infantry Division, 6000 in support functions.
When the US adopted the Triangle Division during WWII, it also decided that the "Section" was two small and replaced it with the infantry "Squad" of 12 men. Three Squads to the Platoon with Headquarter (total 42 men), Three Platoon with Heavy Weapons Platoon to a Company (180 men). Three Companies to a Battalion (with a Heavy Weapons Company of 250 men, total for Battalion 800 men).
Thus do to the addition of weapons into the Squad, Platoon and Company during WWI, each increased in size from its pre-WWI size (almost doubling in size in most cases).
Now the squad has also changed since WWII. In leg units it tends to be 12 men, but in armored units it tend to be the number of people that can fit into a Armoued Infrantry Combat Vehcile (In the case of the M2 Bradly 9 men, in case of the Soviet BMP 7 men).
Notice I used the term "Western Armies". The above tend to be true of non-Soviet trained armies. During the Revolution the Red Army abolished all ranks. Commanders were referred to as "Comrade in Command of a Regiment", or "Comrade in command of a Company". Ranks were NOT re-introduced till 1943 where Stalin decided the problems of His Generals Not being Generals when it came to meetings with British and American Generals was worse than the Czarist idea of ranks.
One of the affect of this lack of ranks for 20 years was that the Soviets could form their units into functional size units without having to worry about the fact that a Company had to be commanded by a "Captain", a Regiments had to be Commanded by a "Colonel" etc. Also the fighting on the Eastern Front during both WWI and WWII was more mobile than the Western Front of 1914-1918 thus the greater flexibility of Smaller units was appreciated. Thus Soviet units tended to be 1/3 smaller than their Western units of the same name. One reason for this was the Soviets preferred to introduced the new weapons of the Heavy Machine Gun and Mortar as independent units instead of directly into the Infantry Company or Division. Thus a Soviet Infantry Regiment would be smaller than an American or German Regiment for the primary reason being that the German or American Regiment would have Heavy Mortars attached directly to the Regiment, while the Soviet Mortars would be in an independent formation that was attached as needed.
Thus the size of a unit depends on several factors including its history. Below are the best guess for the size of most units, but remember the above when using these numbers:
Section = 8 men
Squad = 12 men of two fire teams
Platoon = 42 men of Three Squads or Sections
Company = 180 men of Three Platoons
Battalion = 800 men of Three Companies
Regiment= 3000 men of Three Battalions
Brigade = 3000 men of Three Battalions
Division = 15000 men of Three Brigades or Regiments
Corp = 100,000 men of Three Divisions)
Army = 300,000 men of three Corps
Army Group = 1 million men of Three Armies
Front = Soviet name for Army Group.
Demi- = name used in front of one of the above that indicates a smaller than normal size for that unit. For example a Demi-Battalion may consist of to companies of 500 men instead of the normal 800 size units. Mostly used during the experiments of the 1950s.
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