Makes you appreciate those Blackadder Goes Forth episode titles even more #military #army #marinecorps #militaryhistory #soldier #corporal #sergeant #captain #colonel #usarmy #britisharmy #usmarines
source
Military Rank Origins
Related Story
9 comments
@Zajuts149
I always thought that corporal came from a soldier who was freed from doing manual labour. The German name of the rank, 'Gefreiter' at least alludes to this. In many armies, there are also 2 corporal ranks, with the lower being a vice/lance corporal. The French Army uses Corporal and Corporal Chef, which would be equivalent to the Italian Capo Corporale.
@MedEwok
The Romans were the first to use military ranks and if you study their army structure, it already resembles modern counterparts to a surprising degree. The rank names that came later are an interesting piece of linguistics (etymology).
@Red_Lion2000
the chevrons are upside down.