Staff (military) in the context of "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht"

The Army Service Forces was one of the three autonomous components of the United States Army during World War II, the others being the Army Air Forces and Army Ground Forces, created on 9 March 1942. By dividing the Army into three large commands, the Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall, drastically reduced the number of officers and agencies reporting directly to him. The Army Service Forces brought together elements of five different components of the Army: elements of the War Department General Staff (WDGS), especially its G-4 division (responsible for logistics); the Office of the Under Secretary of War; the eight administrative bureaus; the nine corps areas, which became service commands; and the six supply arms and services, which became known as the technical services. The Army Service Forces was initially known as the United States Army Services of Supply but the name was changed on 12 March 1943, as it was felt that the term "supply" did not accurately describe the broad range of its activities. The Army Service Forces was abolished on 11 June 1946 and most of its functions were taken over by the War Department General Staff.

For most of its existence, the Army Service Forces was commanded by General Brehon B. Somervell, with Lieutenant General Wilhelm D. Styer as his chief of staff. After Styer left for the Pacific, he was succeeded by Major General LeRoy Lutes on 18 April 1945. Brigadier General Lucius D. Clay was the Deputy Chief of Staff for Requirements and Resources, and as such he was responsible for the development of the Army Supply Program, the operation of the Lend-Lease program, and liaison with the War Production Board concerning the allocation of raw materials. Although he had his own logistics staff in the G-4 division of the War Department General Staff, it was to Somervell and Styer that Marshall turned to for advice on logistical matters, and it was Somervell who attended the important wartime conferences.

The praefectus castrorum ("camp prefect") was, in the Roman army of the early Empire, the third most senior staff officer of the Roman legion after the legate (legatus; the commanding officer) and the senior military tribune (tribunus laticlavius; the executive officer), both of whom were from the senatorial class.

The camp prefect was the senior enlisted advisor at a command and quartermaster; responsible for military logistics and requisition (training, equipment procurement and maintenance, and construction of the camp, etc.), acting liaison between the legate and the centurions, but could command the legion whenever the senior commanders were absent. The post was usually held by a soldier promoted from the centurionate, having already served as a chief centurion (primus pilus) of a legion, and was therefore open to ordinary, plebeian citizens. Prefects of this rank, for example Sextus Vibius Gallus, were awarded prizes (dona) to mark their achievements.

The Chief of the General Staff (Ukrainian: Начальник Генерального штабу, romanized: Nachalnyk Heneralnoho shtabu, abbr. Ukrainian: НГШ, romanized: NHSh), or CGS, is the head of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the military staff of the Forces. He is appointed by the President of Ukraine.

Since a decree by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 28 March 2020, the posts of Chief of the General Staff and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces have been separate. Previously the Chief of the General Staff also served as the Commander-in-Chief when a civilian was the Minister of Defense (before 1 January 2019 it was not a requirement that the Minister of Defense be a civilian).

In the field of military theory, the operational level of war (also called operational art, as derived from Russian: оперативное искусство, or operational warfare) represents the level of command that connects the details of tactics with the goals of strategy. In other words, it involves creating, through successful tactics in the theater of military operations, the conditions needed for strategic success.

In U.S. Joint military doctrine, operational art is "the cognitive approach by commanders and staffs—supported by their skill, knowledge, experience, creativity, and judgment—to develop strategies, campaigns, and operations to organize and employ military forces by integrating ends, ways, and means". It correlates political requirements with military power. Operational art is defined by its military-political scope, not by force size, scale of operations or degree of effort. Likewise, operational art provides theory and skills, and the operational level permits doctrinal structure and process.

The German General Staff, originally the Prussian General Staff and officially the Great General Staff (German: Großer Generalstab), was a full-time body at the head of the Prussian Army and later, the German Army, responsible for the continuous study of all aspects of war, and for drawing up and reviewing plans for mobilization or campaign. It existed unofficially from 1806, and was formally established by law in 1814. The first general staff in existence, it was distinguished by the formal selection of its officers by intelligence and proven merit rather than patronage or wealth, and by the exhaustive and rigorously structured training which its staff officers undertook.

The Prussian General Staff also enjoyed greater freedom from political control than its contemporaries, and this autonomy was enshrined in law on the unification of Germany and the establishment of the German Empire in 1871. It came to be regarded as the home of German militarism in the aftermath of World War I, and the victorious Allies attempted to suppress the institution. It nevertheless survived to play its accustomed part in the German rearmament and World War II.

The Six Days Campaign (10–15 February 1814) was a final series of victories by the forces of Napoleon I of France as the Sixth Coalition closed in on Paris. As was said by his contemporary enemy, the Austrian general Johann von Nostitz-Rieneck, this campaign demonstrated Napoleon's tactical mastery "to the highest degree."

When the Napoleonic army was preparing to strike at Blücher's Russo-Prussian Army of Silesia, the latter's headquarters underestimated this threat. The Army of Silesia was stretched out on the march towards Paris. Its Russian corps commander Osten-Sacken had already made contact with the advanced Napoleon's units on 8 February, but did not report to Blücher, while its chief of staff Gneisenau made another blunder, namely, he believed that Napoleon's full movement from Villenauxe to Sézanne was only a reconnaissance after the leading French cavalrymen, who had come into view, retreated. A Russian officer arrived at Blücher's headquarters late on the 9th and reported to him and the staff that the army was under threat from the south, while on the night of the 10th intelligence discovered Napoleon himself already at Sézanne. Early on the 10th Napoleon attacked the central corps of the Army of Silesia, which was at Champaubert. Thus the Six Days Campaign began.

Staff college (also command and staff college and War college) trains military officers in the administrative, military staff and policy aspects of their profession. It is usual for such training to occur at several levels in a career. For example, an officer may be sent to various staff courses: as a captain they may be sent to a single service command and staff school to prepare for company command and equivalent staff posts; as a major to a single or joint service college to prepare for battalion command and equivalent staff posts; and as a colonel or brigadier to a higher staff college to prepare for brigade and division command and equivalent postings.

The success of staff colleges spawned, in the mid-twentieth century, a civilian imitation in what are called administrative staff colleges. These institutions apply some of the principles of the education of the military colleges to the executive development of managers from both the public and private sectors of the economy. The first and best-known administrative staff college was established in Britain at Greenlands near Henley, Oxfordshire and is now renamed Henley Management College.