Talk:War flag

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heraldry and Vexillology Portal

War flag is within the scope of the Heraldry and vexillology WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of heraldry and vexillology. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale. (FAQ).

[edit] Needs work

  • The illustration is of a naval ensign, not a war flag (used by an army) per se.
  • According to the British Army page, the UK doesn't in fact have a war flag: "The official flag of the Army as a whole is the Union Flag, flown in ratio 3:5."
  • The only other example given is Nazi Germany, a defunct state. Is there any country that actually currently has a "war flag" in the strong sense of this 2nd paragraph?
  • The introductory sentence is hard to interpret. What's a "sovereign territory"? A war flag is both "typically used" by such entities, but "flown" by military forces? What does that even mean? Is there some non-typical use?
  • No references are cited.

--ScottMainwaring 06:29, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

The Nazi battle flag was probably the best example, but I have updated the image to a Swedish example. However, if you are looking for a flag used on the battlefield which is distinctly different from the national flag, it looks like a pretty tough nut to crack. The Danish and Swedish war ensigns are definitely used at sea, but I don't know if the armies would use the swallow-tailed flags in a land battle (in the case of Denmark, last time we "checked" was in 1864). I am pretty sure the national flags were generally used then, and the swallow-tailed flags reserved for military buildings. It is a different story with the naval ensigns. China has a military flag, but I have no knowledge if it has been used on a battlefield. Austria-Hungary officially had a war flag, but the use of flags in that country seems to be a little disputed. Valentinian (talk) / (contribs) 21:43, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
I just remembered de:Reichskriegsflagge. Some of these insignia were used by both army and navy, but there can be little doubt that the Germans actually used these flags on the battlefield. Could any of these be an idea? Valentinian (talk) / (contribs) 08:21, 28 October 2006 (UTC)