Field Marshal
A
Marshal or
Field Marshal (sometimes spelled
Marshall) (
Chinese:
shuai,
German:
Feldmarschall,
Polish marszałek,
Swedish:
Fältmarskalk) is, in some nations, the highest
military rank, one step above a full
General; and of a comparable rank to the highest ranking General(s) in an
army that does not use the term.
The title
field marshal is only used by land forces. The
air force equivalent (used in some countries) is
Marshal of the Air Force, where Air Force is replaced by the name of the service in question, for example,
Marshal of the Royal Air Force. The naval equivalent is
Admiral of the Fleet. As the highest rank, answerable only to the nation's ruler, appointments have often been made as much for political as for military purposes, and not infrequently as a way to publicly reward a successful general.
The Rank Insiginia of a Field Marshal in the
British Army is shown in the illustration above. It comprises of two batons in a wreath, with a crown on top.
See also: General In some countries, previously under a sphere of
British influence, an adapted version of the insignia is used for
Field Marshals, often with the crown being replaced with an alternative cultural or national emblem.
The rank of
marshal goes back to the early
Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the King's
horses mare scalci from the time of the early Frankish Kings. In the
1300s, a distinction began to be drawn between "court marshals" and "military marshals". Philip II of France (reigned
1179 to
1223) first instituted the office of
marescallus Franciae and it became on of the greatest offices of the crown. The office of
Marshal of France (
Maréchal de France) developed, and by the time of the
Thirty Years War, most Continental armies had a field marshal or two.
The office of Marshal was known in
England from the twelfth century but in the introduction of the modern military title,
Great Britain was a relative latecomer. It was introduced by
George I, the first Hanoverian king, in the style of the continental armies; the
Duke of Argyll became the first field marshal in
1736.
The field marshal's special symbol was a
baton, famously mentioned by
Napoleon: "Every French soldier carries a marshal's baton in his knapsack". The Maréchaux de France carried as their insignia of rank blue batons with gold
fleurs-de-lis, engraved with the motto "
Decus pacis, terror belli ("The symbol of peace, the terror of war").
Hermann Göring, holder of the singular rank "Marshal of the Empire" (
Reichsmarschall) of
Nazi Germany, also carried a baton.
With no medieval tradition to preserve, and a persistent aversion to anything that smacked of aristocracy, the
United States never created the rank. However, this became a problem for the
Allies in
World War II, when
Dwight Eisenhower, a "mere" General, was chosen to be the
Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, and was thus in a position to give orders to field marshals, who technically outranked him. The solution was to create the rank of
General of the Army, wearing five stars, and equivalent to field marshal. (An alternate story holds that
George C. Marshall did not want to be called "Marshal Marshall.")
In the
Soviet Union, the rank of
Marshal of the Soviet Union was actually the second-highest rank;
Josef Stalin, who had appointed himself an "MSU", subsequently promoted himself to the rank of
Generalissimo of the Soviet Union, a rank he and only he was ever appointed to hold.
At the beginning of the
21st century, with military forces shrinking worldwide, there remain few field marshals to be seen anywhere. Although traditionally the British monarch is a field marshal,
Queen Elizabeth II does not hold that rank (although she has since 1964 been the
Lord High Admiral), and the
Prince of Wales has indicated an unwillingness to be the only five-star officer of the military; the
Duke of Edinburgh is one of the few Field Marshals of the British Army remaining.
List of Marshals
Afghanistan
- HRH Nasrullah Khan (later Emir of Afghanistan) (1875-1920)\n* 1905 - HRH Inayatullah Khan (later King of Afghanistan) (1888-1946)\n* HRH Mahmud Khan (1887-1959)\n* 1929 - HRH Shah Wali Khan (1888-1977)
Albania
Australia
Austria/Austria-Hungary
- List of Austrian Field Marshals
Brazil
Cambodia
China
Egypt
Ethiopia
Finland
France
Germany
India
Iran
Iraq
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Nepal
- List of Nepalese Field Marshals
New Zealand
North Korea
Pakistan
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
- List of Russian Field Marshals
Serbia
Spain
- 1810 - Henry Joseph O'Donnell, Count of La Bisbal (1769-1834)\n* 1844 - Ramon Maria Narvaez, Duke of Valencia (1800-1868)
Sweden
Thailand
Tunisia
- List of Tunisian Field Marshals
Turkey
Uganda
United Kingdom
Yugoslavia
Other meanings
Category:Field Marshals\nCategory:Military ranks
\n
