A flag officer is a commissioned officer in a nation's armed forces senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark the position from which that officer exercises command.
23-568: Leberecht Maass (or Maaß ) (24 November 1863 – 28 August 1914) was the Konteradmiral who commanded the German naval forces at the first Battle of Heligoland Bight . He lost his life when his flagship, the light cruiser SMS Cöln , was sunk by British battlecruisers commanded by Vice Admiral David Beatty . Leberecht Maass was born in Korkenhagen , Province of Pomerania . Maass entered
46-548: A World War II destroyer after Maass. Konteradmiral Konteradmiral (abbreviated KAdm) is a senior naval flag officer rank in several German -speaking countries, equivalent to counter or rear admiral . In the Austro-Hungarian K.u.K. Kriegsmarine (1849 to 1918) there were the flag officer ranks Kontreadmiral (also spelled Konteradmiral in the 20th century), Viceadmiral , Admiral and Großadmiral . Konteradmiral , abbreviated KAdm or KADM ,
69-629: A five-point naval star above. The sleeve rings encircled the lower cuffs. The last surviving Kriegsmarine Konteradmiral , Eberhard Godt, died at the age of 95 on 13 September 1995. Konteradmiral ( OF-6 ) was the lowest flag officer grade of the Volksmarine , equivalent to the one-star rank Generalmajor (OF-6 as well). In the GDR Volksmarine there were three flag officer ranks: Konteradmiral , Vizeadmiral , and Admiral . The GDR State Council decided from 25 March 25, 1982 to introduce
92-543: A flag and is an "officer of flag rank" rather than a "flag officer". List of fleets and major commands of the Royal Navy lists most admirals who were "flag officers". A flag officer's junior officer is often known as "Flags". Flag Officers in the Royal Navy are considered as Rear-Admirals and above. Equivalent ranks in the British Army and Royal Marines are called general officer rather than flag officers, and those in
115-411: A flag are formally called "flag officers" and have different flags for different ranks of admiral . Of the 39 officers of flag rank in the Royal Navy in 2006, very few were "flag officers" with entitlement to fly a flag. For example, a Commander-in-Chief Fleet flies an admiral's flag whether ashore or afloat and is a "flag officer". The chief of staff (support), a rear admiral, is not entitled to fly
138-413: A pennant that flies from the mast or flagpole on the base, when resident, or on vehicles that carry them. A flag officer's rank is denoted by a wide strip of gold braid on the cuff of the service dress tunic, one to four gold maple leaves over a crossed sword and baton, all beneath a royal crown, on epaulettes and shoulder boards ; and two rows of gold oak leaves on the peak of the service cap. Since
161-662: A specific flag. India's honorary ranks ( five star ranks ) are field marshal in the Army, Marshal of the Indian Air Force in the Air Force and admiral of the fleet in the Navy. A similar equivalence is applied to senior police officers of rank Deputy Inspector General (DIG) , Inspector General (IG) , Additional Director General (ADG) and Director General (DG) . In the United Kingdom,
184-810: Is a B7 grade in the pay rules of the Federal Ministry of Defence . The sequence of ranks in decreasing seniority is: In the Kaiserliche Marine and Kriegsmarine , Konteradmiral was an OF-6 one-star officer rank equivalent to a Heer or Luftwaffe Generalmajor , and to an SS- Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of the Waffen-SS . The rank insignia consisted of shoulder strap and sleeve stripes. Shoulder straps had to be worn on uniform jackets and consisted of twisted gold-braids (no pips or stars) on padding in navy blue weapon color. Cuff insignia consisted of one golden big stripe, one normal stripe, and
207-519: Is an admiral , vice admiral , rear admiral , or commodore , the naval equivalent of a general officer of the army or air force. It is a somewhat counterintuitive usage of the term, as only flag officers in command of commands or formations actually have their own flags (technically a commodore has only a broad pennant , not a flag), and army and air force generals in command of commands or formations also have their own flags, but are not called flag officers. Base commanders, usually full colonels , have
230-531: Is applied to all general officers authorized to fly their own command flags —i.e., brigadier general , or pay grade O-7, and above. As a matter of law, Title 10 of the United States Code makes a distinction between general officers and flag officers (general officer for the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force; flag officer for the Navy and Coast Guard). Non-naval officers usually fly their flags from their headquarters, vessels, or vehicles, typically only for
253-590: Is the second lowest naval flag officer rank in the German Navy . It is equivalent to Generalmajor in the Heer and Luftwaffe or to Admiralstabsarzt and Generalstabsarzt in the Zentraler Sanitätsdienst der Bundeswehr . The rank insignia, worn on the sleeves and shoulders, is a single five-pointed star above a single normal stripe and a wide stripe. The star is omitted on rank loops. Konteradmiral
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#1732881533578276-599: The German Imperial Navy in 1883. Between 1893 and 1895 Maass commanded a torpedo boat. Between 1898 and 1901 he commanded a squadron and between 1903 and 1906 he was department chief in the torpedo department. Maass served as director of the Naval School (1906-1908) and was promoted to captain in March 1908. He commanded the cruiser Freya (April 1908-June 1909), the armored cruiser Scharnhorst (March 1909-June 1910) and
299-582: The Royal Air Force (as well as the rank of air commodore ) are called air officers , although all are entitled to fly flags of rank. Captain was the highest rank in the United States Navy from its beginning in 1775 until 1857, when Congress created the temporary rank of flag officer, which was bestowed on senior Navy captains who were assigned to lead a squadron of vessels in addition to command of their own ship. This temporary usage gave way to
322-514: The unification of the Canadian Forces in 1968, a flag officer's dress tunic had a single broad stripe on the sleeve and epaulettes. In May 2010 the naval uniform dark dress tunic was adjusted—exterior epaulettes were removed, reverting to the sleeve ring and executive curl -rank insignia used by most navies. commodores ' uniforms display a broad stripe, and each succeeding rank receives an additional sleeve ring. There are no epaulettes on
345-563: The (British) Royal Navy's Harwich Force of two light cruisers , Arethusa and Fearless , and 31 destroyers and commanded by Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt , made a raid on German ships near the German naval base at Heligoland . Providing distant cover were the battlecruisers New Zealand and Invincible of Cruiser Force K under Rear-Admiral Moore. In the early morning hours the Harwich Force encountered German torpedo boats on patrol west of Heligoland. The Germans quickly dispatched
368-649: The exterior of the tunic, but they are still worn on the uniform shirt underneath. In the Indian Armed Forces , it is applied to brigadiers , major generals , lieutenant generals and generals in the Army ; commodores , rear admirals , vice admirals and admirals in the Navy ; and air commodores , air vice marshals , air marshals and air chief marshals in the Air Force . Each of these flag officers are designated with
391-504: The fog and smoke, Mainz found herself between Tyrwhitt's and Goodenough's forces and was sunk by them after a prolonged battle. Called for assistance by Tyrwhitt, Admiral Beatty, whose First Battlecruiser Squadron of Lion , Queen Mary and Princess Royal had by then joined Moore's New Zealand and Invincible , arrived within little more than an hour at 12.40 p.m. and sank the hopelessly outgunned, but desperately resisting light cruisers Cöln and Ariadne . The German navy named
414-524: The generic terms general officer , used by land and some air forces to describe all grades of generals, and air officer , used by other air forces to describe all grades of air marshals and air commodores . A flag officer sometimes is a junior officer , called a flag lieutenant or flag adjutant , attached as a personal adjutant or aide-de-camp . In the Canadian Armed Forces , a flag officer ( French : officier général , "general officer")
437-667: The light cruisers Frauenlob and Stettin to the scene, joined shortly afterwards by three more light cruisers out of Wilhelmshaven , including Rear Admiral Maass's flagship, Köln , as well as Ariadne and Strassburg . They were subsequently joined by yet another light cruiser, Mainz out of Emden . Tyrwhitt's Arethusa was severely damaged by Frauenlob , but the German cruiser also suffered heavy hits and retreated to Heligoland. Tyrwhitt soon received support from Commodore Goodenough 's squadron of six modern Town-class light cruisers: Southampton , Birmingham , Falmouth , Liverpool , Lowestoft and Nottingham . In
460-594: The old battleship Weissenburg (August 1910-September 1910). In October 1910 Maass was promoted to commander of the II Dockyard Division. On 9 December 1913 Maass was promoted to Konteradmiral , flying his flag on the cruiser Cöln . At the start of the First World War, Maass served as Leader of Torpedo Boats [ de ] and commander of the II Scouting Squadron. On 28 August 1914,
483-477: The permanent ranks of commodore and rear admiral in 1862. The term "flag officer" is still in use today, explicitly defined as an officer of the U.S. Navy or Coast Guard serving in or having the grade of admiral, vice admiral, rear admiral, or rear admiral (lower half), equivalent to general officers of an army. In the United States Army , Air Force , and Marine Corps , the term "flag officer" generally
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#1732881533578506-401: The rank of Flottenadmiral . Flag officer Different countries use the term "flag officer" in different ways: The generic title of flag officer is used in many modern navies and coast guards to denote those who hold the rank of rear admiral or its equivalent and above, also called "flag ranks". In some navies, this also includes the rank of commodore . Flag officer corresponds to
529-480: The term is only used for the Royal Navy , with there being a more specific distinction being between a "flag officer" and an "officer of flag rank". Formerly, all officers promoted to flag rank were considered to be "flag officers". The term is still widely used to refer to any officer of flag rank. Present usage is that rear admirals and above are officers of flag rank, but only those officers who are authorised to fly
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