army - Field Army

The branch of the armed forces configured and equipped to make war on land. The term army, while referring to a nation's land forces, is also conferred on large military formations engaged in a particular theatre of war (the British ‘Eighth Army’, for example). These are subdivided into Army Corps and Divisions, and may be combined for command purposes into Army Groups.

Army (From Latin armata ("act of arming") via Old French armée) can, in some countries, refer to any armed force.

Within a national army, an army can also refer to a large formation, usually comprising one or more corps.

'Army' is also often used in the description or title of military or paramilitary organizations which are not part of a country's official armed forces (and may well be illegal), such as the Irish Republican Army, and also in some non-military organisations organised on a quasi-military basis, such as the Salvation Army and the Church Army.

Field Army

A Field Army is composed of a headquarters, army troops, a variable number of corps, and a variable number of divisions. A particular army is named or numbered to distinguish it from military land forces in general—for example, the U.S. First Army and the Army of Northern Virginia. In the British Army it is normal to spell out the ordinal number of an army (e.g.

Armies (as well as army groups and theaters) are large formations which vary significantly between armed forces in size, composition, and scope of responsibility.

In the Soviet Red Army, "armies" were actually corps-sized formations, subordinate to an army-sized "front" in wartime.