Four OS2U Kingfisher airplanes flying in right echelon formation.

An echelon formation is a military formation in which members are arranged diagonally. Each member is stationed behind and to the right (a 'right echelon'), or behind and to the left ('left echelon'), of the member ahead. The name of the formation comes from the French word échelle, meaning ladder, which describes the staircase effect that this formation has when viewed from above. Image File history File links OS2U kingfisher aircraft flying in echelon formation. ... Image File history File links OS2U kingfisher aircraft flying in echelon formation. ... The Vought OS2U Kingfisher was a catapult-launched, observation floatplane. ...

Use of the formation dates back to ancient infantry and cavalry warfare when attempting to flank an enemy or to break one wing with overwhelming numbers. One of the earliest uses was at the Battle of Leuctra when the Thebans attacked the Spartan right with a column 48 men deep while their weaker center and right was refused. The echelon formation was also used by Frederick II of Prussia. Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme in World War I. Infantry are soldiers who fight primarily on foot with small arms in organized military units, though they may be transported to the battlefield by horses, ships, automobiles, skis, or other means. ... Soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback in combat are commonly known as cavalry (from French cavalerie). ... Flank is a word which might mean any of several different things: A flank is the side of either a horse or a military unit. ... Combatants Thebes Sparta Commanders Epaminondas Cleombrotus I † Strength 6,000–7,000 10,000–11,000 Casualties Unknown About 2,000 The Battle of Leuctra is a battle fought between the Thebans and the Spartans and their allies in the neighbourhood of Leuctra, a village in Boeotia in the territory... Thebes (in Demotic Greek: Θήβα — Thíva, Katharevousa: — Thēbai or Thíve) is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. ... Frederick II (German: ; January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was a King of Prussia (1740–1786) and an enlightened monarch of the Hohenzollern dynasty. ...

The tactic persists up to the present day, where it is regularly employed by all branches of the modern armed forces. Tactically, echelon formations are used because of the excellent range of vision offered to each participant in the formation. In particular, it is commonly employed by armored cavalry because of the large, overlapping fields of fire that it gives to each tank in the formation, and by combat aircraft, where the close, streamlined flight formation can allow the planes to shed drag.

"Echeloning" is the name of a tactic in used by the United Kingdom's Armed forces, mainly the Infantry. It consists of using a Company to attack a set of positions. Once the first platoon in the company has reached its limit of exploitation (either ammunition has been expended, fatigue is high, or caualties are rising, another platoon "echelons though" it, to continue onto the next position. The tactic is similar to "leap-frogging" Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme in World War I. Infantry are soldiers who fight primarily on foot with small arms in organized military units, though they may be transported to the battlefield by horses, ships, automobiles, skis, or other means. ... Look up company in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The term exploitation may carry two distinct meanings: The act of utilizing something for any purpose. ... Fatigue may refer to: Fatigue (physical) - tiredness in humans Fatigue (material) - failure by repeated stress in materials Fatigues (uniform) - military uniform (BDU or ACU) Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - a medical condition Battle fatigue - also known as Post-traumatic stress disorder Readers fatigue - a side-effect of parsing poorly formatted textual... Platoon is a term from military science. ...

Echelon formations are also commonly used by civic, or riot police to move crowds either to the left or right. Riot control are the measures to control a riot or to break up an unwanted demonstration (usually of protestors). ...

Derived meanings

The name has also been adopted by the birdwatching community to describe the familiar V-shaped formations of flights of geese, ducks and other migratory birds, though this more symmetric formation is more strictly defined as a V formation. Birdwatching or birding is the observation and study of birds. ... Look up goose in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Subfamilies Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. ... Flock of Barnacle Geese during autumn migration Many species of birds undertake seasonal journeys of various lengths, a phenomenon known as Bird migration. ... Canadian geese in V formation. ...

In geology an echelon formation is a set of short linear features that overlap or are staggered in a line that runs obliquely to the strike of the individual features. Echelon faults are an example of this. This article includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ...

In mathematics, it refers to a kind of matrix where the non-zero elements are shaped in an echelon-like manner. See the ecehlon disambiguation page for more meanings.