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Rising From The Ranks
Rising from the ranks, through the ranks or commissioned from the ranks refers to enlisted soldiers being commissioned as officers. In class-conscious societies of the past, such as Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, for example, this was a relatively rare occurrence. Revolutionary and Napoleonic France Despite the nickname "the little corporal", Napoleon did not rise from the ranks. (He was commissioned a second lieutenant after graduating from military school.) However, he did famously state, "''Tout soldat français porte dans sa giberne le bâton de maréchal de France.''" ("Every French soldier carries the baton of a marshal of France in his cartridge bag.") That is, any soldier could attain such a lofty rank. And indeed, many seized the opportunities opened to them by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars to serve as such under his command, including: * Jean Bernadotte, later king of Sweden * Jean-Baptiste Bessières * Jean Lannes * François Joseph Lefebvre * André ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enlisted Rank
An enlisted rank (also known as an enlisted grade or enlisted rate) is, in some armed services, any rank below that of a commissioned officer. The term can be inclusive of non-commissioned officers or warrant officers, except in United States military usage where warrant officers/chief warrant officers are a separate officer category ranking above enlisted grades and below commissioned officer grades. In most cases, enlisted service personnel perform jobs specific to their own occupational specialty, as opposed to the more generalized command responsibilities of commissioned officers. The term "enlistment" refers solely to a military commitment (whether officer or enlisted) whereas the terms "taken on strength" and "struck off strength" refer to a service member being carried on a given unit's roll. Canadian Forces In the Canadian Forces, the term non-commissioned member (NCM) is used. North Atlantic Treaty Organization For the ranks used by the North Atlantic Treaty Organizat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir William Robertson, 1st Baronet
Field Marshal Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Baronet, (29 January 1860 – 12 February 1933) was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) – the professional head of the British Army – from 1916 to 1918 during the First World War. As CIGS he was committed to a Western Front strategy focusing on Germany and was against what he saw as peripheral operations on other fronts. While CIGS, Robertson had increasingly poor relations with David Lloyd George, Secretary of State for War and then Prime Minister, and threatened resignation at Lloyd George's attempt to subordinate the British forces to the French Commander-in-Chief, Robert Nivelle. In 1917 Robertson supported the continuation of the Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres) at odds with Lloyd George's view that Britain's war effort ought to be focused on the other theatres until the arrival of sufficient US troops on the Western Front. Robertson is the only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mustang (military Officer)
Mustang is a military slang term used in the United States Armed Forces to refer to a commissioned officer who began their career as an enlisted service member (completing at least one service obligation contract) prior to commissioning as an officer, a limited duty officer (LDO), or chief warrant officer (CWO). The British army equivalent is temporary gentleman. Mustang officers are generally older, and theoretically more experienced than their peers-in-grade who have entered the military via commissioning from one of the service academies (such as the United States Merchant Marine Academy, United States Military Academy, United States Air Force Academy, United States Naval Academy, or United States Coast Guard Academy), Officer Candidate School, or the Reserve Officer Training Corps. History The original definition of ''mustang'' was a military officer who had earned a battlefield commission; they were especially prevalent during World War II and the Korean War. Notable exam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Horse Guards
The Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues) (RHG) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry. Raised in August 1650 at Newcastle upon Tyne and County Durham by Sir Arthur Haselrigge on the orders of Oliver Cromwell as a Regiment of Horse, the regiment became the Earl of Oxford's Regiment in 1660 upon the Restoration of King Charles II. As, uniquely, the regiment's coat was blue in colour at the time, it was nicknamed "the Oxford Blues", from which was derived the nickname the "Blues." In 1750 the regiment became the Royal Horse Guards Blue and eventually, in 1877, the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues). The regiment served in the French Revolutionary Wars and in the Peninsular War. Two squadrons fought, with distinction, in the Household Brigade at the Battle of Waterloo. In 1918, the regiment served as the 3rd Battalion, Guards Machine Gun Regiment. During the Second World War the regiment was part of the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Elley
Lieutenant-General Sir John Elley KMT OS (9 January 176423 January 1839) was a British soldier who joined the cavalry as a private and rose to general officer rank. He fought with distinction during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and later served as the last Governor of Galway and as Member of Parliament for Windsor. Early life Information about Elley is scarce, perhaps partly because of his humble origins. He was born in London in 1764. His father ran an eating-house at Furnival's Inn, Holborn. Apprenticed to Mr. John Gelderd, a tannery owner of the village of Meanwood near Leeds, West Yorkshire, he became engaged to his master's daughter Anne. After her untimely death, he enlisted in 1789 as a trooper in the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards and saw service in the Flanders Campaign (1793–1795). Army career Elley made his first step out of the ranks by becoming a cornet in his regiment on 14 June 1794. On 30 January 1796, he was promoted to lieutenant, and 11 J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1960–1963) then Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MP (1974–1987). Before entering politics, Powell was a classical scholar. During the Second World War, he served in both staff and intelligence positions, reaching the rank of brigadier. He also wrote poetry, and many books on classical and political subjects. Powell attracted widespread attention for his "Rivers of Blood" speech, delivered on 20 April 1968 to the General Meeting of the West Midlands Area Conservative Political Centre. In it, Powell criticised the rates of immigration into the UK, especially from the New Commonwealth, and opposed the anti-discrimination legislation Race Relations Bill. The speech drew sharp criticism from some of Powell's own party members and ''The Time ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Fitzroy Maclean, 1st Baronet
Major-General Sir Fitzroy Hew Royle Maclean, 1st Baronet, (11 March 1911 – 15 June 1996) was a Scottish soldier, writer and politician. He was a Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) from 1941 to 1974 and was one of only two men who during the Second World War enlisted in the British Army as a private and rose to the rank of brigadier, the other being future fellow Conservative MP Enoch Powell. Maclean wrote several books, including ''Eastern Approaches'', in which he recounted three extraordinary series of adventures: travelling, often incognito, in Soviet Central Asia; fighting in the Western Desert campaign, where he specialised in commando raids behind enemy lines; and living rough with Josip Broz Tito and his Yugoslav Partisans while commanding the Maclean Mission there. It has been widely speculated that Ian Fleming used Maclean as one of his inspirations for James Bond. Early life Maclean was born in Cairo to Major Charles Wilberforce Maclean QOCH (1875–1953), a memb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bengal Army
The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company (EIC) until the Government of India Act 1858 (passed in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857) transferred all three presidencies to the direct authority of the British Crown. In 1895 all three presidency armies were merged into the Indian Army. History Origins The Bengal Army originated with the establishment of a European Regiment in 1756. While the East India Company had previously maintained a small force of Dutch and Eurasian mercenaries in Bengal, this was destroyed when Calcutta was captured by the Nawab of Bengal on 30 June that year. Under East India Company In 1757 the first locally recruited unit of Bengal sepoys was created in the form of the ''Lal Paltan'' battalion. It was recruited from soldiers that had served in the Nawab's Army ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia), and later with East Asia. The company seized control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. At its peak, the company was the largest corporation in the world. The EIC had its own armed forces in the form of the company's three Presidency armies, totalling about 260,000 soldiers, twice the size of the British army at the time. The operations of the company had a profound effect on the global balance of trade, almost single-handedly reversing the trend of eastward drain of Western bullion, seen since Roman times. Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies", the company rose to account for half of the world's trade duri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Horsford
Major-General Sir John Horsford KCB (13 May 1751 – 20 April 1817) was a British soldier who rose through the ranks to become a general in the East India Company's Bengal Army. Biography Early life He was born at St George in the East, Middlesex, the son of John Horsford. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, and matriculated at St. John's College, Oxford, 30 June 1768, and was a fellow from 1768 to 1771, but never took a degree. India In 1772, to avoid entering the church, and without the knowledge of his father, he enlisted for service with the East India Company under the assumed name of John Rover. He travelled to India on the East Indiaman, the ''Duke of Grafton''.H.S. King and Company, History of the Organization, Equipment, and War Services of the Regiment of Bengal Artillery, Volume 2, 1877, p.60 He spent his first six years in India in the ranks of the Bengal Artillery, until he caught the attention of its commander Colonel Pearse. It is recorded that one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Major General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a lieutenant general outranking a major general, whereas a major outranks a lieutenant. In the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth and in the United States, when appointed to a field command, a major general is typically in command of a Division (military), division consisting of around 6,000 to 25,000 troops (several regiments or brigades). It is a two-star general, two-star rank that is subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the rank of brigadier or brigadier general. In the Commonwealth, major general is equivalent to the navy rank of rear admiral. In air forces with a separate rank structure (Commonwealth), major general is equivalent to air vice-marshal. In some countries including much of Eastern Europe, major ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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