Last modified: 2014-03-10 by pete loeser
Keywords: ufe | unidentified flags | 2013 |
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Below is a series of images of flags that have been provided to FOTW; some we have recognized, and some we have been unable to recognize. If you can help us identify any of these flags, please let us know! Contact the: UFE Editor.
Identification Key:
= Positive ID (Positive Identification)
= Tentative ID (Tentative Identification)
= Some Speculation Positive ID
This is the Burgee of the Royal Galway Yacht Club and located on it's proper page.
Image from Aristobulo Lima, 19 October 2013
Do you know what this flag is, I saw it outside a church in Brazil.
Aristobulo Lima, 19 October 2013
I regret I do not recognise this flag. Can you provide any background information about this flag - did you see it yourself, and if so, in what location?
Rob Raeside, 19 October 2013
I'm not quite sure, but I saw this flag in front of a church in a small town in Northeast Brazil. Nobody in town knew what the flag was. It wasn't the flag of the city, it was not the state flag, and neither was it a flag of Brazil. The locals told me that the priest would know the meaning of the flag, but he was not there when I was.
Aristobulo Lima, 22 October 2013
Photo taken 25 October 2013, Image by Pete Loeser & Tomislav Todorovic, 27-28 October 2013
While watching the 6 O'clock News coverage (25 Oct 2013) of the newest Occupy sponsored (encouraged?) protest in Oakland, California, I spotted a strange flag being flown there. It appeared to be an Anarcho-Syndicalists Flag with the addition of a black power fist in the red diagonal stripe. The protester seemed to be waiving it at a group of uninterested Oakland police who were standing by as the protesters marched from the front of the Oakland Marriot Hotel to a nearby police station. The press has named the demonstration the "Urban Shield Protest" because apparently there is a police convention (seminar?) being held at the Marriot discussing the issue of urban protest and violence and ways to protect the public and it's property.
Anyway, does anybody recognize this flag or know or a group using it?
Pete Loeser, 25 October 2013
Positive ID
#47a
#47b
Photos from Kim Dunstan, 28 October 2013
I’m involved with a naval history web site as a contributor and I’m having difficulty finding out the meaning of the pennant in the attached photo (#47a). Could it be number 26 which is the duty runway or a ‘restricted flying’ pennant? (my guesses).
The photo, circa 1950, shows the control tower at the Royal Australian Navy Air Station at Nowra, Australia. The pennant appears to be two white crosses on a dark field. The only thing like it on your web site is a Number 6 pennant which has black crosses on a white field in the 1913 section.
I’ve been in touch with quite a few people who were in the RAN Fleet Air Arm at the time but nobody has the answer, also trawling through the web has not provided the answer, except I saw a similar pennant in a photo (#47b) featuring a Canadian Navy Wren standing next to a flag pole dressed with flags.
Kim Dunstan, 28 October 2013
This is "corpen" or "course pennant", a Royal Navy signal flag in use until the NATO system was adopted in 1950. At sea it was used to signal the order to turn in succession, or wheel. On land it probably had a non-standard local meaning. The corpen may have been flown to indicate "gliding in progress". The symbol for this in airfield signal squares is a horizontal white bar with two small vertical cross bars. Split in two, this would be two white crosses. See Double White Cross. (Click on "Read more about the more modern Signal Area" at bottom of page for photograph.)
David Prothero, 29-30 October 2013
Latest from Kimberley Dunstan, who sent the question: "The ‘gliding in progress’ suggestion is an idea that hadn´t occurred to me, however I don´t think there was any gliding conducted at the air station at that time and the weather looks unsuitable for gliding. But I will keep that in mind. A friend of mine says he saw a similar pennant in a photo of a WW2 RN air station in Ceylon which suggests it has a very specific naval application."
David Prothero, 2 November 2013
I got a lead from an old navy friend who told me the information would be found in the A.P.(N) 76 Regulations for Fleet Air Arm. Checking with the FAA Museum at Nowra, I received the following reply:
"Found in the AP. Part 5 - Under Aerodrome visual signals, was the following description: 'A double white cross Interpretation: gliding is in progress or winged targets are being operated. Aircraft are not to taxi or take off without special permission. Landing is prohibited except to those aircraft which are making special visits or are forced to land in emergency or are operating from the aerodrome.'"
As this description is from an authoritative source, I think we can consider the mystery solved. It was also helpful receiving your copy of the 1937 Seamanship Manual colour plates. The fact the pennant was discontinued after 1950 probably explains why nobody recognised it.
Kim Dunstan, 13 November 2013
Some Speculation
Image from William Garrison, 30 October 2013
Hopefully you can identify the attached flag, supposedly of some unknown Hamas flag, but the "eagle" logo seems to be that of Egypt or Syria.
William Garrison, 30 October 2013
This image is a Reuters photo take on June 13, 2007. Back then, there was discussion of the flag. The discussion can be found as "Unidentified Possible Police or Security-Forces' Flag."
Andy Shelton, 3 November 2013
Image from William Garrison, 30 October 2013
Hmmmm, yellow Hizbollah flag in background. The Green flag seems to have image of Iraq border, with a Lebanon flag. Maybe an ISIS variety?
William Garrison, 30 October 2013
The image was taken on July 21, 2006. It, and others from the same march, can be found at Getty Images. The caption of the photo is: "Baghdad, IRAQ: Armed members of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's armed movement, Mehdi Army, carrying assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades and waving Lebanese and Hezbollah flags parade through the Baghdad Shiite district of Sadr City 21 July 2006. More than 300 Mehdi Army militiamen paraded in solidarity with Lebanon's Shiite militia of Hezbollah currently battling Israel in southern Lebanon." The photo credit should read "WISSAM AL-OKAILI/AFP/Getty Images."
I presume the green flag represents al-Sadr's Mehdi Army. It, like Hezbollah, is a Shia group. It would be in conflict, not alliance, with a Sunni group like ISIS.
Andy Shelton, 3 November 2013
Positive ID
Image from Esteban Rivera, 5 December 2013
Could someone please identify the first flag from left to right
Esteban Rivera, 5 December 2013
Must be the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
Nachum Lamm, 5 December 2013
And what about the second one from right to left? Looks like Pakistani flag with the field repainted into blue.
Tomislav Todorovic, 5 December 2013
Positive ID
This is the German Signal flag Rot (Red), once used on World War II Army training manuvers. It is now located with the German Signal Flags.
Image from Thanh-Tâm Lê, 28 December 2013
On the not often updated English-language version of the chuvash.org website, one can still see a picture from 2010 with a (to me) unknown flag in the background. It definitely does not look like the Chuvash
national flag in any of its variants. Would you have an idea of what it stands for?
Thanh-Tâm Lê, 28 December 2013