A field army (also known as numbered army or simply army ) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps . It may be subordinate to an army group . Air armies are the equivalent formations in air forces , and fleets in navies . A field army is composed of 80,000 to 300,000 soldiers.
10-686: The Eighth Area Army ( 第8方面軍 , Dai-hachi hōmen gun ) was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II . The army was formed on 9 November 1942, becoming effective on 26 November at Rabaul as part of the Southern Army . The army was disbanded in September 1945. The Japanese 8th Area Army was formed on November 16, 1942 under the Southern Expeditionary Army Group for
20-417: A headquarters, and usually controls at least two corps, beneath which are a variable number of divisions . A battle is influenced at the field army level by transferring divisions and reinforcements from one corps to another to increase the pressure on the enemy at a critical point. NATO armies are commanded by a general or lieutenant general . Military star ranking#Four-star Military star ranking
30-455: 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 . A one-star rank is usually the lowest ranking general or flag officer . In many Commonwealth countries, the one-star army rank of Brigadier is considered the highest field officer rank. A two-star rank is usually
40-612: The Potomac , Army of the Niemen or Aegean Army (also known as the Fourth Army). The Roman army was among the first to feature a formal field army, in the sense of a very large, combined arms formation, namely the sacer comitatus , which may be translated literally as "sacred escort". The term is derived from their being commanded by Roman emperors (who were regarded as sacred), when they acted as field commanders . While
50-476: The Roman comitatensis (plural: comitatenses ) is sometimes translated as "field army", it may also be translated as the more generic "field force" or "mobile force" (as opposed to limitanei or garrison units). In some armed forces, an "army" is or has been equivalent to a corps-level unit . Prior to 1945, this was the case with a gun ( 軍 ; 'army') within the Imperial Japanese Army , for which
60-612: The formation equivalent in size to a field army was a hōmen-gun ( 方面軍 ; 'area army'). In the Soviet Red Army and the Soviet Air Forces , an army was subordinate in wartime to a front (an equivalent of army group ). It contained at least three to five divisions along with artillery, air defense, reconnaissance and other supporting units. It could be classified as either a combined arms army (CAA) or tank army (TA); and while both were combined arms formations,
70-408: The former contained a larger number of motorized rifle divisions while the latter contained a larger number of tank divisions . In peacetime, a Soviet army was usually subordinate to a military district . Modern field armies are large formations which vary significantly between armed forces in size, composition, and scope of responsibility. For instance, within NATO a field army is composed of
80-413: The second lowest ranking general or flag officer . A three-star rank is usually the third highest general or flag officer . A four-star rank is usually the highest or second highest ranking general or flag officer . A five-star rank is usually the highest ranking general or flag officer . This rank is usually a field marshal , general of the army , admiral of the fleet or marshal of
90-617: The specific task of opposing landings by Allied forces in Japanese-occupied Solomon Islands and New Guinea . It had its headquarters at Rabaul , New Britain and saw considerable combat in the Solomon Islands campaign , Bougainville campaign and New Guinea campaign . Field army Specific field armies are usually named or numbered to distinguish them from "army" in the sense of an entire national defence force or land force. In English ,
100-523: The typical orthographic style for writing out the names field armies is word numbers , such as "First Army"; whereas corps are usually distinguished by Roman numerals (e.g. I Corps) and subordinate formations with ordinal numbers (e.g. 1st Division). A field army may be given a geographical name in addition to or as an alternative to a numerical name, such as the British Army of the Rhine , Army of
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