Uniforms and insignia of the Schutzstaffel (including concentration camp staffs) were granted Waffen-SS ranks and, in 1944, any "Allgemeine-SS" who served in an area that commanded SS combat troops, was granted a Waffen-SS commission. Another uniform insignia change occurred in April 1942 with the creation of the rank "SS-Oberstgruppenführer". This necessitated an insignia change for SS generals and all SS generals at this time began wearing "Wehrmacht"-style gold shoulder boards; "Oberführers" wore the shoulderboards of an army "Oberst" ("colonel") just as "Standartenführers" did. The sole exception was Heinrich Himmler who continued to wear the silver braided shoulderboard with oak leaves of his rank as "Reichsführer-SS". At
Army General (Soviet rank) shoulder straps were changed from a four star to a single, larger star and the army logo (making them visually similar to the marshal shoulder strap). Likewise after 1974 they were permitted to wear the marshal's star necklace. Before 1943, "army generals" wore five stars on their collar patches ("petlitsy"). Since 1943, they have worn four stars on their shoulder straps. From 1974 they wore a single large star with a ground forces emblem. In 1997 their Russian successors returned to the four-star insignia. In 2013 the single large star returned as the insignia for the rank of "army general"