When studying World War 2, a common question is what precisely each army group or unit name means. This question arises a fair bit with readers of WorldWar2Facts.org, so we have compiled a table to help explain what the unit or group names mean, what units made up larger WW2 army units, the rough size of the unit, and what rank of officer or NCO was generally in charge. Depending on the country, the specific rank or number of personnel may have been different during the war; however, this table should provide the reader with the proper context to continue his or her studies of the war. The numbers provided are roughly based on the notional sizes for infantry units. For mechanized or support units, there will be a bit more variation in the total numbers within the group. Additionally, although we use the term "army" in this table, the Marines use a similar hierarchy with mainly the same names
At the start of World War II no one in the Nazi government believed that they would lose the war