Hauptfeldwebel (rank)

Hauptfeldwebel (HptFw or HF) is the third highest Non-commissioned officer (NCO) rank in German Army and German Air Force.

It is grouped as OR7 in NATO, equivalent to a US Army Sergeant 1st Class, US Marine Gunnery Sergeant, or US Air Force Master Sergeant, and to Warrant Officer Class 2 in the British Army and Royal Navy.

In army/ air force context NCOs of this rank were formally addressed as Herr Hauptfeldwebel also informally / short Hauptfeld.

The sequence of ranks (top-down approach) in that particular group (Senior NCOs with portepee) is as follows:

The abbreviation "OR" stands for "Other Ranks / fr: sous-officiers et militaires du rang / ru:другие ранги, кроме офицероф"!

The Hauptfeldwebel was introduced by the German Wehrmacht in 1938 not as a military rank but as the assignment to “company sergeant (de: Kompaniefeldwebel or Spiess). Most experienced Protégée-NCO with the rank Stabsfeldwebel or Oberfeldwebel (more seldom Feldwebel) have been assigned to that distinguished position.

The assignment Spiess/Hauptfeldwebel, equivalent to the company sergeant major in Anglo-phonic armed forces, has been used before in the GDR National People's Army from 1956 until 1990 as well.

The equivalent assignment to the company sergeant major in the Waffen-SS was the SS-Stabsscharführer from 1938 until 1945 .

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