Generale d'Armata
Generale d'Armata (German: Army General ) was a military rank in the Kingdom of Italy . This army rank and its equivalents in the other armed forces were abolished with the rank of Marshal of Italy and its equivalents after the Second World War . Since 1997 there has been the rank of generals in Italy as the highest rank ( four-star general ) in the army and air force (in the navy Ammiraglio or Admiral).
history
Until 1915 there were only three ranks in the rank group of generals in the Italian army : Generale d'Esercito ("Army General", basically reserved for the monarch, three stars), Tenente Generale ( lieutenant general , in the sense of deputy commander-in-chief, two stars) and Maggior Generale ( major general , one star). During the First World War, this subdivision quickly proved to be inadequate, as there were four levels of large formation from the brigade, through the division and the corps, to the army ( there were no army groups in Italy during the First World War) and the highest rank was reserved for the king. Therefore, between the three Italian general ranks between 1915 and 1918, several provisional ranks were built using crowns and stripes, including 1915 as the first of the Tenente Generale in comando d'Armata ("Lieutenant General as Army Commander"). This intermediate level forms the origin of the Generale d ' Armata .
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| Italian rank | Generale d'Esercito | Tenente Generale Capo di Stato Maggiore | Tenente generals in comando d'Armata | Tenente generals in comando di Corpo d'Armata | Tenente generals in comando di divisione | Maggior Generale in comando di Divisione | Maggior Generale in comando di Brigata | Brigadier Generale (Colonnello Brigadiers) | |||
| equivalent to | Army General (King) | Lieutenant General (Chief of Staff) | Lieutenant General ( OB Army) |
Lieutenant General ( KG Corps) |
Lieutenant General (Division Commander) | Major General (Division Commander) | Major General (Brigade Commander) | Brigadier | |||
After the First World War, the intermediate stages were abolished. In the 1920s, all three branches of the armed forces switched to a system with five ranks, the rank designations of which were generally based on the various major associations: Maresciallo d'Italia ("Marshal of Italy"), Generale d'Armata ( Army General , Colonel General , General ), Generale di Corpo d'Armata ("Army Corps General", General, Lieutenant General ), Generale di Divisione (Lieutenant General, Major General , Division General ), Generale di Brigata (Major General, Brigadier General )
Of particular importance here was that one could only be promoted to the ranks of Maresciallo d'Italia and Generale d'Armata for special services in the war , so they could not be reached in peacetime. For this reason, the intermediate level Generale designato d'Armata or "designated army general" (long form: Generale di Corpo d'Armata designato d'Armata ) was introduced due to the need at the highest military command authorities , which could also be reached regularly in peacetime. The rank badges introduced under fascism , whose stripes were based on the badges of the navy and the air force, showed irregularities in the progression that particularly affected the army general (three stripes / stars instead of the four expected).
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| Italian rank |
Primo Maresciallo dell'Impero (only King and Mussolini) |
Maresciallo d'Italia | Generale d'Armata | Generale designato d'Armata | Generale di Corpo d'Armata | Generale di Divisione | Generale di Brigata | ||||
| equivalent to | First Reichsmarschall | Marshal of Italy | Army General | Army General-Designate | Army Corps General | Division general | Brigadier General | ||||
The rank badges, which could be seen in the form shown above on the lower sleeves, were replaced from 1943 by stars on epaulettes. The system remained unchanged for the time being. In 1947 the Italian Republic de facto abolished not only the “First Reichsmarschall” (death of the king and dictator) and the “Marshal of Italy” introduced in 1938, but also the “Army General” (retired marshals and army generals) because of his special status not revoked). At the same time, the rank of Generale di Corpo d'Armata ("Army Corps General", Lieutenant General) received three stars and the remaining rank of Generale (di Corpo d'Armata) designato d'Armata a fourth functional star with a red border. Later this special rank was renamed Generale di Corpo d'Armata con incarichi speciali or "Lieutenant General with special duties". This rank is still reserved for the Chiefs of Staff of the armed forces and is otherwise reserved for very few other posts ( Secretary General of the Ministry of Defense , NATO ). As part of the reform of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the rank of generals (four "full" stars) was created in 1997, which is reserved for the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces in peacetime. He is in the broader sense in the succession of the rank of Generale d'Armata .
Army general-designate until 1972
Lieutenant General in a special position
General since 1997
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Equivalents
In the case of the navy and the air force , the development described above took place in parallel. The ranks equivalent to the Generale d'Armata (Generale designato d'Armata) were Ammiraglio d'Armata (Ammiraglio designato d'Armata) and Generale d'Armata Aerea (Generale designato d'Armata Aerea) . There were never comparable ranks and intermediate ranks among the Carabinieri .
See also
literature
- Elio and Vittorio Del Giudice: Atlante delle Uniformi militari italiani dal 1934 ad oggi . Ermanno Albertelli Editore, Parma 1984.
- Paolo Marzetti: Uniformi e distintivi dell'esercito italiano 1933 - 1945. Ermanno Albertelli Editore, Parma 1981.