Army$ An army (from Latin armata "act of arming" via Old French arm?e), in the broadest sense, is the land-based armed forces of a nation. It may also include other branches of the military such as an air force. Within a national military force, the word Army may also mean a field army, which is an operational formation, usually made up of one or more corps.In several countries the army is officially called the Land Army to differentiate it from an air force called the Air Army, notably France. In such countries, the word "army" on its own retains its connotation of a land force in common usage.A Field Army is composed of a headquarters, army troops, a variable number of corps, and a variable number of divisions. A battle is influenced at the Field Army level by transferring divisions and reinforcements from one corps to another to increase the pressure on the enemy at a critical point. Armies are controlled by a General or Lieutienant General.A particular army can be named or numbered to distinguish it from military land forces in general. For example, the First United States 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. First Army), whereas lower formations use figures (e.g. 1st Division).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. In peacetime, a Soviet army was usually subordinate to a military district. For the hierarchy of land forcedom organizations, see military organization. The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with unification of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland and was controlled by the War Office from London. Today it is managed by the Defence Council and the Ministry of Defence.As of April 2007, the British Army includes roughly 110, 580 regular personnel and 38, 460 Territorial Army members. The full time element of the British Army has also been referred to as the Regular Army since the creation of the reservist Territorial Army. The British Army is deployed in many of the world's war zones as part of a fighting force and in United Nations peacekeeping forces. In contrast to the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force, the British Army does not include "Royal" in its title, instead many of its constituent Regiments and Corps are styled Royal .The United States Army is the largest and oldest branch of the armed forces of the United States. Like all armies, it has the primary responsibility for land-based military operations.The modern Army had its roots in the Continental Army which was formed on June 14, 1775, before the establishment of the United States, to meet the demands of the American Revolutionary War. Congress created the United States Army on June 3, 1784 after the end of the war to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The Army considers itself to be descended from the Continental Army, and thus dates its inception from the origins of that force. Control and operation of the Army is administered by the Department of the Army, one of the three service departments of the Department of Defense. The civilian head is the Secretary of the Army and the highest ranking military officer in the department is the Chief of Staff. As of August 31, 2007, the Regular Army reported a strength of 519, 471 soldiers. By the end of 2006, the Army National Guard (ARNG) reported 346, 288 and the United States Army Reserve (USAR) reported 189, 975, putting the approximate combined component strength total at 1, 055, 734.The Red Army (Raboche-Krest'yanskaya Krasnaya Armiya; RKKA, full translation the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army) was the armed force first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and that, in 1922, became the army of the Soviet Union. "Red" refers to the blood shed by the working class in its struggle against capitalism. The appellation 'Red' was dropped after World War II, when national symbols replaced those connoting the old revolutionary fervor, and it was officially renamed the Soviet Army. The Red Army eventually grew to form the largest army in history from the 1940s until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, although China's People's Liberation Army may have exceeded the Red Army in size during some periods.This article focuses upon the land force element of the Soviet Army, later called the Ground Forces. See military of the Soviet Union for a description of the Soviet armed forces as a whole.The Union Army was the army that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the Northern Army, or the National Army. It consisted of the small United States Army (the regular army), augmented by massive numbers of units supplied by the Northern states, composed of volunteers as well as draftees. The Union Army fought and defeated the Confederate States Army during the war, from 1861 to 1865. Of the 2.5 million men who served in the Union Army during the war, about 360, 000 died in combat, from injuries sustained in combat, disease, or other causes, and 280, 000 were wounded.The Salvation Army is a Christian charity and church that is internally organized like a military service.