General
A
General is an officer of high
military rank. The term is used by nearly every country in the world. General may be a rank on its own, or can be used as a generic term for "general officers". In most nations, the various grades of General are at the top of the rank structure; but some countries have even higher ranks such as
Field Marshal or
Marshal.
"General Officer", often referred to less formally and imprecisely as "General", refers to a military officer who holds any rank grade of General. The exact rank of a general may be determined by combining a prefix (e.g.
Major General) or suffix (e.g.
General of the Army).
A General, without prefix or suffix (and sometimes referred to informally as a "full general"), is usually the most senior general officer rank, above
Lieutenant General. 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.
While historically an
army rank, General is also used in most
air forces, although those based on the
British Royal Air Force use
Air Marshal instead, with
Air Officer being the generic title. In most
navies of the world, the equivalent rank is
Admiral and the generic term is
Flag Officer; however a noteworthy historical exception was the Cromwellian naval rank
General at sea. In the
Israeli Defence Forces there are no separate naval ranks and the Hebrew term
Aluf can be both "General" and "Admiral". 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.
The rank of General began appearing around the time of the organization of professional armies in the
17th century. At first, it was added as an adjective to existing names of ranks, yielding
Colonel General,
Captain General,
Lieutenant General and
Sergeant Major General. These titles were used to distinguish the ruler's most important officers and usually involved a certain amount of negotiation over
precedence.
The following are the more common modern grades of General in English-speaking countries, listed by seniority (highest to lowest); many non-Anglophone countries have ranks that translate exactly. Not all countries use all these ranks. Grades of general are also not necessarily equal in all countries (for instance, in some countries Major General is the lowest general officer rank and may well be closer to Brigadier General in countries that have them).
Some countries have or had additional grades of General, including:
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Captain General*
General of the Air Force*
General of the Armies (exclusive to the
United States Army), a title created for General
John J. Pershing, and subsequently granted posthumously to
George Washington.
Some countries prefer to name their general ranks by their nominal command authority (e.g. France has
général d'armée,
général de corps d'armée,
général de division, and
général de brigade (in each case, suffixed
aerienne for air force officers).
In some nations (particularly in the
Commonwealth), the equivalent to Brigadier General is
Brigadier, which is not considered by these armies to be a general officer rank, although it is generally treated as equivalent to the rank of Brigadier General for comparative purposes. The British service had the rank of brigadier-general until 1922; the title was changed first to "colonel commandant" and then, in 1928, to "brigadier"; holders of the new ranks were not considered general officers. This was done in response to political complaints that there were "too many generals."
During
World War I and
World War II, the German Navy maintained a rank known as
General Admiral, but this was a naval position unconnected to the regular land forces rank of General.
The following articles deal with the rank of General as it is employed in the militaries of various countries.
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Général (
France)
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General (
Germany)
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Generał (
Poland)
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General (
Switzerland)
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General (
United Kingdom)
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General (
United States)
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Aluf (
Israel)
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Daejang (
North Korea)
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Taejang (
South Korea)
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Strategos (
Greece)
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Salar (
Persia)
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Obergruppenführer (
Nazi Germany)
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Generalissimo*
Shogun*
Comparative military ranks*
U.S. Army officer rank insignia*
British Army officer rank insignia*
Polish Armed Forces rank insignia*
Generals of World War II*
Schema-root.org: US Generals News feeds for US Generals in the news
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Marines.mil: General Officer Biographies Biographies of United States Marine Corps General Officers
