Highest military ranks

In many nations the highest military ranks are classed as being equivalent to, or are officially described as, five-star ranks. However, a number of nations have used or proposed ranks such as generalissimo which are senior to their five-star equivalent ranks. This article summarises those ranks.

Adopted from Italian (generalissimo) and Latin (generalissimus), the rank titles literally mean "the utmost general". A number of countries, including the Republic of China, France, Russia, Venezuela, Brazil, Spain, Cuba, Mexico, Sweden and the USSR, have used these ranks. In most of these countries, the rank has only been held by one or two men.

The rank of grand marshal has been used by the armed forces of the Empire of Japan, the Republic of China and the military of North Korea. All three nations have used the Chinese rank of 大元帥 (da yuan shuai; literally "great marshal") with their own languages. In Japanese, the rank is dai-gensui and in Korean it is taewonsu.

During the early years of the Republic of China, three individuals assumed the rank of "grand marshal of the army and navy" (陸海軍大元帥): Yuan Shikai in 1913, Sun Yat-sen in 1917 and Zhang Zuolin in 1927. The rank of "general special class" or "generalissimo" (特級上將) was awarded to Chiang Kai-shek in 1935. No one in the PRC has ever been awarded the rank, though the supreme rank of "grand marshal of the People's Republic of China" (中華人民共和國大元帥 zhōnghuá rénmín gònghéguó dà yuánshuài) was proposed after the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949 (perhaps for Mao Zedong), but was never conferred.

The title Marshal General of France or more exactly "Marshal General of the King's camps and armies" (French: Maréchal général des camps et armées du roi) was given to signify that the recipient had authority over all the French armies in the days when a marshal usually governed only one army. This dignity was bestowed only on Marshals of France, usually when the dignity of Constable of France was unavailable or, after 1626, suppressed.

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