Sorry if this is the wrong sub, but I figure it’s likely a question rooted in history.
I’ve been watching a lot of WWII documentaries recently and am curious as to how names for different military divisions and squadrons come from? Eg so and so’s “8th panzer division” so and so’s “9th army” General so and so’s “1st tank army”
How/why are these divisions assigned these numbers? Are the division numbers assigned at random? What was the first military to assign such a classification?
Thanks!
A bunch of reasons and sources, depending. More input is always welcome, especially as to where the system arises; for the meantime, you may be interested in this previous post on the matter, where u/the_howling_cow examines the system of the US Army in WWII, while u/Bacarruda provides a general overview and a look at how the armies at Waterloo did it.