General

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A General Officer is an officer of high military rank. The term is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is just called General.

All General officer ranks The various grades of general officer are at the top of the rank structure. The General Officer ranks came about by adding General as an adjective to existing names of ranks. Although in some countries the highest general officers are titled Field Marshal or Marshal. All officers who commanded more than a single regiment (the most significant level of unit) came to be known as a "general officer".

Common systems There are two common systems of using general ranks. One form, used in the United Kingdom, eventually spread to the Commonwealth of Nations and the United States. The system is not particularly British in origin, and variations of this system were once used throughout Europe. The other is derived from the French Revolution, where generals' ranks are named according to the unit they (theoretically) command.

Old European system{]|-||-|align="center"| Colonel General]|-||-|align="center"| Lieutenant General|-||-|align="center"| [Brigadier Brigadier General|-||}

This system uses five ranks. Some countries (like the United States) have a brigadier rank, and some countries (like Russia) have a colonel general rank, but countries usually don't have both. (i.e. Excluding one of the italicised ranks.)

In some nations (particularly in the Commonwealth of Nations), the equivalent to Brigadier General is Brigadier, which is not always considered by these armies to be a general officer rank a part entiere, although it is always treated as equivalent to the rank of Brigadier General for comparative purposes.

French (Revolutionary) system{]|-||-|align="center"| [Army General|-||-|align="center"| [Divisional General|-||}

Other versions Other versions of general include:

Adjutant General
Commandant-General
Inspector General
Captain General
General of the Army (used in the USA and Liberia) (not to be confused with the common rank of Army General)
General of the Air Force (USA only)
General of the Armies of the United States (exclusive to the United States Army), a title created for General John J. Pershing, and subsequently granted posthumously to George Washington.
General Admiral (or General Admiral) (German Navy)
Air General and Aviation General (Chilean Air Force; roughly equivalent to Air Chief Marshal and Air Vice-Marshal respectively)
Wing General and Group General (Mexican Air Force; roughly equivalent to Air Commodore and Acting Air Commodore respectively)
Director General (a common admistrative term, but rare in military services)

Director General of National Defence (most senior rank in the Mexican Armed Forces)

Controller General (general officer rank in the French National Police)
Prefect General (the most senior rank of the Argentine Naval Prefecture)
Master-General of Ordnance

The specific General rank In the old system, a General, without prefix or suffix (and sometimes referred to informally as a "full general"), is usually the most senior type of general, above Lieutenant General and directly below Field Marshal. In some armies, however, the rank of Captain General, General of the Army, Army General or Colonel General occupied or occupies this position. These ranks may be considered to be equivalent to a full General or to a Field Marshal, depending on the army in question.

The rank of General came about as a "Captain-General", the captain of an army in general, i.e. the whole army. The rank of Captain-General began appearing around the time of the organization of professional armies in the 17th century. In most countries "Captain-General" contracted to just "General".

General ranks by country The following articles deal with the rank of General as it is employed in the militaries of various countries.

General (Australia) (Australia)
General (Brazil) (Brazil)
General (France) (France)
General (Germany) (Germany)
General (Indonesia) (Indonesia)
General (Mexico) (Mexico)
General (Pakistan (Pakistan)
General (Poland) (Poland)
General (Russia) (Russia)
General (Switzerland) (Switzerland)
General (Turkey) (Turkey)
General (United Kingdom) (United Kingdom)
General (United States) (United States)

General equivalent ranks

Aluf (Israel)
Daejang (South Korea)
Strategos (Greece)
Shang Jiang (China)
Panglima (Malaysian royal army)
Bogyoke Kyi (Myanmar Army)
Lewa'a (Egyptian military)

Other General ranks

Obergruppenführer

Air Force and Navy Equivalents Some countries (such as the United States) use the General Officer ranks for both the army and the air force. But some countries only use the General Officer ranks for the army, while in the air force they use Air Officers as the equivalent of General Officers. They use the air force rank of Air Marshal as the equivalent of the specific army rank of General. This latter group includes the United Kingdom Royal Air Force and those based on it (e.g. India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Nigeria etc.).

In most navy of the world, Flag Officers are the equivalent of General Officers. And the naval rank of Admiral is equivalent to the specific army rank of General. However a noteworthy historical exception was the Oliver Cromwell naval rank General at sea. In recent years in the American service there is a tendency to use "Flag Officer" and "Flag Rank" to refer to generals and admirals of the services collectively.

See also

Generalissimo
Shogun
Comparative military ranks
U.S. Army officer rank insignia
British Army officer rank insignia
Polish Armed Forces rank insignia

External links

Generals of World War II
Schema-root.org: US Generals News feeds for US Generals in the news
Marines.mil: General Officer Biographies Biographies of United States Marine Corps General Officers

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