War flag
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A war ensign, also known as a military flag, battle flag, or standard,<ref>Template:OED</ref> is a variant of a national flag for use by a country's military forces when on land. The nautical equivalent is a naval ensign. Under the strictest sense of the term, few countries today currently have distinct war flags, most using a flag design that is also the state flag or general national flag for this purpose.
HistoryEdit
Template:See Template:Quote Field signs were used in early warfare at least since the Bronze Age. The word standard itself is from an Old Frankish term for a field sign (not necessarily a flag).
The use of flags as field signs apparently emerges in Asia, during the Iron Age, possibly in either China or India.<ref name = "EB1">flag. (2008). Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.</ref> in Achaemenid Persia, each army division had its own standard, and "all officers had banners over their tents".<ref>E. Pottier, Douris, London, 1909, p. 105 fig. 20, Plate XXV.b</ref> Early field signs that include, but are not limited to a flag, are also called vexilloid or "flag-like", for example the Roman Eagle standard or the dragon standard of the Sarmatians. The Roman Vexillum itself is also "flag-like" in the sense that it was suspended from a horizontal crossbar as opposed to a simple flagpole.
Use of simple flags as military ensigns becomes common during the medieval period, developing in parallel with heraldry as a complement to the heraldic device shown on shields. The maritime flag also develops in the medieval period. The medieval Japanese Sashimono carried by foot-soldiers are a parallel development.
Some medieval free cities or communes did not have coats of arms, and used war flags that were not derived from a coat of arms. Thus, the city of Lucerne used a blue-white flag as a field sign from the mid 13th century, without deriving it from a heraldic shield design.
Current war flagsEdit
Used by armed forces onlyEdit
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Army (land) use onlyEdit
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Former war flagsEdit
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See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Wise, Terence (1978) Military flags of the world, in color. New York: Arco Publishing. 184p. Template:ISBN. War flags of 1618–1900.
External linksEdit
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