Army general (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)

This article is about the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Kingdom of Serbia "Army general". For the equivalent OF9-rank in anglophone countries, see General.

Army general - Armijski đeneral
Country	Yugoslavia Serbia
Service branch	Army and Air force
Rank	Three star equivalent to Four-star rank
NATO rank code	OF-9
Formation	Zakon o ustrojstvu vojske from 1901. and 1929.
Abolished	1946
Next higher rank	Vojvoda
Next lower rank	Division general
Equivalent ranks	Admiral (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)

Army general (Serbian: Armijski đeneral) was a rank of the Kingdom of Serbia and later Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It dated in Serbia before 1901 but as it was created in Kingdom of Serbia who has given statehood to Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1918 it was passed along other insignia and military ranks to newly named state. It was as a high rank for Kingdom of Yugoslavia generals, inferior only to the Vojvoda. Kingdom of Yugoslavia army generals commanded army's, group of army's and held position of Deputy Commander in Chief of the Yugoslavian Armed Forces, Chief of the Air force of the Yugoslav Royal Army and Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Royal Army.

Promotion

This rank was usually given to senior officers of the Ministry of Defense and General Staff and also to promoted division generals under Law on the Organization of the Army and Navy from 1929. and Decree on army formations from 1936. It was used for army and air officers while navy had it own rank of Admiral that was equal to army general. In order to be promoted to army general a officer had previously to have finished higher Military Academy (Serbia), had successfully commanded with divisional area or similar division formation one year and as division general commanded at least one year or had a position more important then division commander at least a year and it had highest military degrees and it is capable of highest command. military career served at least 3 years as brigade general.

List of generals

At beginning of war in 1941. Kingdom of Yugoslavia had 12 active army generals:

• Milorad Petrović commanded 1st Army Group (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)
• Petar Nedeljković commanded the 4th Army (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) under 1st Army Group
• Milutin Nedić commanded 2nd Army Group (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)
• Dragoslav Miljković commanded 2nd Army (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) under 2nd Army Group
• Milan Rađenković commanded 1st Army (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) under 2nd Army Group
• Milan Nedić commanded 3rd Army Group (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)
• Ilija Brašić commanded 3rd Army (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) under 3rd Army Group
• Jovan Naumović commanded 3rd Territorial Army (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) under 3rd Army Group
• Vladimir Cukavac commanded 5th Army (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)
• Dimitrije Živković commanded 6th Army (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)
• Živko Stanisaviljević commanded Coastal Army area
• Dušan Simović commanded Royal Yugoslav Army Air Force and later was Chief of the General Staff (Yugoslavia)

Other notable army generals:

• Milan Milovanović (general) first Chief of the General Staff (Yugoslavia)
• Milan I of Serbia

Comparative to other army ranks

Kingdom of Serbia and Kingdom of Yugoslavia rank of army general is comparable to NATO OF-9 level and equivalent to the UK and US ranks of general; It was given to Chief of the General Staff and commanders of army or army groups that usually had few division under them. Divisions in Kingdom of Yugoslavia particularly after 1930 had been 27-28000 strong and thus similar to some other army's corps. Usual Italian infantry division like 64th Infantry Division Catanzaro at time of WWII had less then 7000 soldiers and US infantry division in 1943 consisted of 14,253 officers while Soviet rifle division at same time had 9375 man. British division numbered 12772 man. All this illustrate how big was Yugoslavia division formation compared to others thus responsibility of 3 star Yugoslavia army generals was same as in other countries 4 star generals.