I ask because Winnie at various times 9during WWII) wore an admiral’s uniform, and general’s uniform, and an air marshal’s uniform. As far as i know, he was a civilian as prime minister He had held rank during the first World war-i believe that he was a major in the army. So how did he get awy with wearing all those uniforms? Also 9bonus question0: what soet of uniform did hitler wear? as far as i know, his highest rank was a corporal.
The three main uniforms Churchill wore were as:
Hon. Air Commodore
Colonel of the 4th Hussars (a position to which he was appointed in 1941, this being his old regiment)
Elder Brother of Trinity House (which is not a naval office but which provided him with a uniform he could wear at sea)
“Get away with” would imply that Churchill had no right to wear them, Ralph, and sort of imposes the American civilian/military distinction standard on British affairs. He was twice First Lord of the Admiralty, was counted by the Navy as “one of theirs,” and as Minister of Defence no doubt had some justification for asserting the rank. Someone expert in British military codes would have to decipher what exactly his right or lack of it might be.
As an active soldier, however, he was a veteran of three wars: the skirmishes with the Afghans in what is now northern Pakistan, then part of British India; the Boer War; and World War I. During the latter he was named a Brigadier General but owing to political intrigues during the post-Gallipoli period of disgrace had to accept command of a Battalion as Lieutenant Colonel.
I think it was an NDSAP Political uniform.
Nazi Regalia (Ballantine, Jack Pia) has a chart in the back of the book that shows equivalent ranks. For example:
British/U.S. Army: Field Marshal/General of the Army
German Police: No equivalent
NDSAP: Reichsleiter Hauptbefehlsleiter
SS: Reichsführer
German Army: Generalfeldmarschall
So I’m guessing that Der Führer is the ‘rank’ of the leader of the NDSAP (and all other organisations).
Churchill was a Lieutenant-Colonel (6th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers) in the Territorial Army at the end of WWI. (Cite).
He was made Lord Warden and Admiral of the Cinque Ports in September 1941 (Cite), but wasn’t formally invested in this position until 1946.
He was made an honorary Air Commodore (of 615 Squadron) in the Auxillary Airforce at some time during WWII (Cite) - I’m afraid I’ve not been able to find a precise date.
Hitler’s “entitlement” to uniform was derived from his leadership of the paramilitary SA (“brownshirts”) - he also declared himself commander-in-chief of Germany’s armed forces when he assumed autocratic rule on the death of Hindenberg, although Goering was the highest-ranking officer in the German military.
Wasn’t he a war correspondent during the Boer War? Did Churchill enter the army after he was First Lord of the Admiralty in WWI?
He was, but he also managed to wrangle a commission and served with Buller.
After the Gallipoli disaster he resigned from politics, re-joined the military and went to fight in the trenches. After serving on the front for a while he went back to the government, took the job of sub-minister of Armaments (I think) and started to promote several logistical and technological improvements, including the tank (a concept suggested to him by his friend H.G Wells).
Fairly close to precisely right. Details: Whether or not Gallipoli “would have worked” will probably never be known." It inadvertently paved the pathway to power for the commander of the Turkish defenders, Mustafa Kemal, later Kemal Ataturk. It was mismanaged by the commanders on scene quite badly.
Churchill was held at fault for the problems, including the resignation of Admiral Fisher, First Sea Lord (essentially the top military post of the Admiralty), and asked to resign and take the sincecure title of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. However he chafed at having essentially no power to influence the conduct of the war, and resigned this to go into the Army.
As Alessan noted, he eventually was named Minister of Munitions during the war, and then served as Secretary of War and Air in the postwar period.
Intriguingly, though, he championed the tank as First Lord of the Admiralty before and early in the war, conceiving it as a way of “building a land warship” – not a far cry from what it actually developed into.
Churchill’s technical skills were limited to assessing the relative values of various ways of designing warships (at which he was an acknowledged expert on a par with the best naval architects) but his imagination was alive to ways to improve the art of making war by technical innovation. In this he was greatly aided by his lifelong friendship with physicist Frederick Lindemann, Lord Cherwell.
Some more information: Churchill was educated at Sandhurst (Britian’s rough equivalent of West Point) and joined the Oxfordshire Hussars (cavalry) upon graduation. He was the eldest son of a famous Lord, MP, and Cabinet member Randolph Churchill, and his equally famous wife Jenny (rumored to have had affairs with HRH Edward VII) and the grandson of Randolph’s father the Duke of Marlborough, himself a descendant of the famous First Churchills.
With that background, he (like many other British gentlemen of the time) moved fluidly between the Army, the House of Commons, and other gentlemenly occupations as he saw fit. Sometimes his flip-flops between journalism and military duty infuriated his superiors, who saw him as an adventurer. Well, he was, and the British have always grudgingly admired him for it.
A list of his abilities and adventures simply beggars the imagination:
- Sandhurst graduate
- Cavalry officer
- Famous polo player who helped his regiment win the Indian championship
- Journalist
- Informal observer of the Spanish-American War, courtesy of connections with
his uncle, Jenny Jerome’s father - Hero of the Boer War for escaping from the Boers and making a dash
through enemy territory to freedom - MP
- First Lord of the Admiralty at the start of WW I and WW II
- Lt. Colonel in charge of a regiment in Belgium at the end of WWI
- Chancellor of the Exchequer (a rather bad one, though)
- Prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction
- Airplane pilot
- accomplished bricklayer who built many of his own buildings at Chartwell
- accomplished and critically acclaimed painter
- Personal friend of Edward VIII
- Twice Prime Minister of the UK
He did love to collect uniforms, but as far as I know he never wore one he wasn’t entitled to wear. In letters to FDR, he referred to himself as a “former Naval person”.
One of the people I would love to meet somewhere, someday, despite his many faults.
You even forgot one; Churchill was not only a prolific author, but in fact won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
So he did! According to my almanac, Sir Winston won the prize in 1953.
Well, that’s my new fact for the day.
Joseph Stalin also wore a vaguely military uniform…but I don’t believe that he ever had been an army officer. Dictators often seem to prefer military uniforms-I have seen Hitler dressed in a business suit, but he seemed also to prefer military regalia.
He could wear any uniform he wanted in WWII as far as I am concerned. His idea for the temporary ports,Mullberries, and the actual building and installing them made the buildup after the initial landings possible. Without those ports we would have had great difficulty supplying forces big enough to go on an capture permanent ports which were essential to maintaining an army on the continent.
Stalin was a political commissar in the Red Army during the civil war.
Churchill also participated in what’s been called the last British cavalry charge in history at the battle of Omdurman (Sudan) in 1898.
http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/churchill.html
So, during his lifetime, he personally participated in the advance of weaponry from the cavalry horse to nuclear weapons. (In his second term as Prime Minister, the UK had the atomic bomb, any use of which would have been under his authority.)
Wouldn’t the last British cavalry charge actually be the Battle of Beersheba in 1917? Or do ANZACs not count?
Stalin felt he needed a uniform for his meeting with the Allied officers at Yalta. According to Inside the Court of the Red Tsar he rejected the first (caped!) design as looking like a doorman and told them to try again. The final result made him look like a cross between a bandleader and an ice cream vendor.
In any case, it was a unique uniform for a unique position, ‘Boss.’
I’ve always wondered about that bizarre get-up. He looks like he’s about to raise his arms and ask the band to strike up Roll Out The Barrels.
I’ve seen that described (as on the Wikipedia article) as the last big cavalry charge ever, British or not.
Also noted in documentaries was that it was perhaps Churchill’s knowledge of Gallipoli and the problems involved in the landings that made him prepare meticulously for D-Day.