is the highest rank of the

Royal Danish Navy The Royal Danish Navy (, ) is the Naval warfare, sea-based branch of the Danish Armed Forces force. The RDN is mainly responsible for maritime defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Denmark, Danish territorial waters (incl. Faroe Islands and ...

. As a

four-star rank Military star ranking is military terminology, used in mainly English speaking countries, to describe general and flag officers. Within NATO's armed forces, the stars are equal to OF-6–10. Star ranking One-star A one-star rank is usual ...

it is the equivalent to the rank of

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

in the

Royal Danish Army The Royal Danish Army (; ; ) is the land-based branch of the Danish Armed Forces, together with the Danish Home Guard. For the last decade, the Royal Danish Army has undergone a massive transformation of structures, equipment and training methods ...

and

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

. The rank is rated OF-9 within

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

. It has the grade of M406 within the Ministry of Defence's pay structure. The rank of Admiral is reserved for the

Chief of Defence A chief of defence (or head of defence) is the highest ranked Officer (armed forces), commissioned officer of a nation's armed forces. The acronym CHOD is in common use within NATO and the European Union as a generic term for the highest national ...

and the King À la suite.

History

Originally, admiral was not a rank, but rather a title given to the commander of any given naval force. It soon, however, changed to become an actual rank. On 25 May 1671, the rank was codified, by

King Christian V Christian V (15 April 1646 – 25 August 1699) was King of Denmark and Norway from 1670 until his death in 1699. Well-regarded by the common people, he was the first king anointed at Frederiksborg Castle chapel as absolute monarch since the de ...

, with the publication of the

Danish order of precedence The Danish order of precedence is a symbolic hierarchy of Denmark, Danish officials used to direct protocol. It has no official status and entails no special privileges, but has been established in practical use, e.g. determining seating arrange ...

. Here admiral was placed below Lieutenant general admirals (), and above Vice admirals (). In 1868, following the defeat in the

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War (; or German Danish War), also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War, was the second military conflict over the Schleswig–Holstein question of the nineteenth century. The war began on 1 Februar ...

, it was decided to collect all admiral ranks into one "Admiral", as part of the major cuts made to the Danish military. This new rank was only allowed for the King and the chief of the Naval Officers' Corps. In 1880, the ranks of vice admiral and counter admiral were reintroduced. At the same time, the rank of admiral was made exclusively for royalty. The rank was reintroduce for fleet officers in 1950, following the decision to award the rank to naval officers promoted to Chief of Defence.

Insignia

The first uniforms for the Navy was introduced in 1722, though they did not have any insignia. In 1771, the first insignia was introduced for admirals. These were gold rings on the cuffs, with three for full admirals, two for vice admirals, and one for counter admirals. This insignia was however removed before proper introduction as Christian VII wished to introduce

epaulette Epaulette (; also spelled epaulet) is a type of ornamental shoulder piece or decoration used as insignia of rank by armed forces and other organizations. Flexible metal epaulettes (usually made from brass) are referred to as ''shoulder scale ...

s. However, after the fall of

Johann Friedrich Struensee Count, Lensgreve Johann Friedrich Struensee (5 August 1737 – 28 April 1772) was a German-Danish physician, philosopher and statesman. He became royal physician to the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark and a minister in the Danish gov ...

, the old ranks were reintroduced promptly. In 1801, epaulettes were introduced for all officers of the Navy. In 1841, new insignia was introduced for all officers. With the advent of steamship, epaulettes quickly became dirty and were in general cumbersome. As a result, they were removed for daily wear, and were replaced by smaller lace epaulettes. In 1871, sleeve insignia was introduce in favour of epaulettes. Following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the navy began more international cooperation, the admiral ranks were seen as excessive compared to other nations and its relative size. Sleeve insignia was changed to look more like the insignia of the Royal Navy.

Rank insignia

File:Denmark-Navy-OF-7 (1880-1951).svg, Sleeve insignia File:Denmark-Navy-OF-9 (1882-1951).svg, ... File:Generic-Navy-12.svg, ... Naval Rank Flag of Denmark - Vice Admiral.svg, ?–1979 Naval Rank Flag of Denmark - Admiral.svg, 1979–present

References

Citations Bibliography * * * * * * * {{cite web, author1=Ministry of Defence, author1-link=Ministry of Defence (Denmark), title=Historik, url=https://forpers.dk/hr/Pages/Historik.aspx, website=forpers.dk, publisher=Forsvarsministeriets Personalestyrelse, access-date=8 April 2021, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222185850/https://forpers.dk/hr/Pages/Historik.aspx, archive-date=22 February 2019, language=da, date=9 January 2017 Royal Danish Navy admirals Military ranks of Denmark

History

Insignia

Rank insignia

See also

References