Military formations led by a colonel? (7)
I believe the answer is:
columns
'military formations' is the definition.
'columns' can be an answer for 'formations' (column is a kind of formation). I'm not sure about the 'military' bit.
'led by a colonel?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'colonel?' could be 'col' and 'col' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for columns that I've seen before include "editorials" , "Divisions of a newspaper page" , "Posts" , "for such as the Standard?" , "Cavalcades" .)