Uniform Insignia Forum

hello , i am posting here for the first time.
I have this question :
wich army in the world had or has the greatest number of different ranks beginning from the lowest officer rank ( commisioned officers ) to the highest generals or marshalls or generalissimo's ?And this beginning from 1939 until now?
Untill now i have two candidates : the former Italian army of WW 2 where Mussolini held the " Marshall of Italy " rank.
Or else the former Soviet Union with their triple marshall ranks.
Thanks in advance for your answers and help.
And keep up the good work on this excellent site !!!!
Tiaan 25 from Belgium

Most number of ranks? I would have to go with the US Army today due to all of the NCO level sergeant ranks.

US ARMY
Enlisted = 9 + ranks
WO = 5 ranks
CO = 10 ranks
24 + ranks

ITALIAN ARMY
Truppa = 9 ranks
Sottufficiali = 8 ranks
Ufficiali = 11 ranks
28 ranks

The number of rank insignias are higher than that in the Italian Army, due to the numerous insignias denoting different positions of the same rank, etc. For instance, for Majors:

Major
Major commanding battallion
Major acting in a senior position

thank you very much for these answers !
So the present day Italian army has special insignia denoting the position an officers holds, on top of his normal rank insignia?
And where might i find excamples these special insignia?
Thank you in advance again !!!!
Tiaan 25

Two authors spring to mind:
Guido Rosignoli has a number of books regarding Italian insignia.
B L Davis’s book Nato Forces also has Italian Insignia.
Try E-Bay or if you just want a couple of pages it could be arranged.

tiaan25 wrote:thank you very much for these answers !
So the present day Italian army has special insignia denoting the position an officers holds, on top of his normal rank insignia?
And where might i find excamples these special insignia?
Thank you in advance again !!!!
Tiaan 25

If you look at the page:

http://www.uniforminsignia.org/index.php?p=show&id=108&sid=858

You will see insignia where the stars are red-backed. These indicate an officer holding a brevet-ish higher rank.

Erskine

thanks for the many interesting answers !!!!!
They were a great help.

hi people!
i have found some good info on the sites you all proposed.
Thanks for that.
Especially the present day Italian army rank insignia are interesting.
But these questions remain :
there are some hounorary ranks.( a titolo onorifico )
Is that just what they are ?Hounorary ?
Or do they mean something more?Do they outrank ?Or are they beeing outranked ?
And that the 'brevetish ' ranks: do they outrank the others ?
I mean , does a major general ( generale maggior con funzioni del grade superiori ) who wears the red embroided star outrank the other major generals ?
And are there rank insignia that only show the " greca " and no stars at all ?
Thanks.
Tiaan

Brevet rank.
In the UK brevet rank could be a permanent rank but with regimental pay for the rank below, for example a brevet major received the pay of a captain.
Another case would be, a Lieutenant Colonel could be made Brevet Colonel it he had been appointed Aide-de-camp to the Queen.
I don’t know but would assume that this would be a general rule in other forces.

Here someone tries to explain the Italian system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Vatiskaf

thanks so much for pointing me to this info,administrator !!!
It makes it much more clear to me.
tiaan from Belgium

i mean "thanks so much " to the moderator, of course.
tiaan from Belgium