Last modified: 2020-08-29 by pete loeser
Keywords: ufe | unidentified flags | 2020 |
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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:
Images from Matt Garczynski, 23 June 2020
I recently came across this flag, and while looking into shipping company flags I came upon your name. Any idea what this flag represents? I know it's German and I believe either World War II or pre-World War II.
Matt Garczynski, 23 June 2020
Just "spit balling" here (speculating). Using a translator, I get the text on the hoist to mean the following:
FAHMENRICHTEK
founded 1869 Cologne 8
Perhaps the "8" refers to a district of Cologne and Fahmenrichtek might, therefore, (besides being a shipping company) be the name of the flag manufacturer, a yacht club, or even a sport's club started in Cologne in 1869?
Pete Loeser, 27 June 2020
FahnenRichter (lit. Flag Judge/Referee), a company founded in 1869 and still in business, is the flag manufacturer.
Ivan Sache, 27 June 2020
Image from Pete Loeser, 16 July 2020
I found this picture in a folder I had cleverly named "photos" on my computer. The original source is unremembered, but the unusual Mexican flag looks religious in nature and possibly from a celebration in the United States? Does anybody recognize the flag or the event?
Pete Loeser, 16 July 2020
It looks like a Cristero flag.
Jean-Marc Merklin, 17 July 2020
Not so unusual, I think. I guess in the centre is a replica of the image of Our Lady of Guadelupe (Virgen de Guadelupe). According to Whitney Smith (German edition p.74) her image had been the 1st national flag of Mexico, according to our page for just some eight weeks in 1810.
The Virgin is a replacement of the Actek Goddess Tonantzin. The Spanish conquerors removed all Actek symbols by Christian ones. Though having been abolished very quickly, the white flag with the image had never been forgotten. Pope Benedict XIV said about the Virgin, that God never acted in this way to any other nation. The Virgin, talking Nahuatl, appeard to a indigene peasant named Juan Diego in 1531 on top of a hill north of Ciudad de Mexico. Her image was wondrously stamped on his coat, which is already kept in the basilica of Dolores Hidalgo. Beneath the Virgin is a little angel. The colours of its wings are the current national colours of Mexico. The words are not reported, who talks Nahuatl?
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 18 July 2020
(#19b)
(#19c) Cristero Rebellion Flags
Images from Pete Loeser, 18 July 2020
Very similar to the Cristero flags indeed, but missing the text Viva Cristo Ray (Live Christ Our King) and y Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (and Our Lady of Guadalupe), and the Mexico Coat of Arms below the lady, that are normally associated with those revolutionary flags.
Notice the first (#19b) shows the Mexican Shield/Coat-of-Arms 1968 to present while the second (#19c) shows the Mexican Shield/Coat-of-Arms 1823-1864 (readopted 1867-1881), making it much more accurate because it was drawn by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán.
I'm thinking that this current flag is not meant to be revolutionary in character at all, as the short-lived Cristero Rebellion Flags of 1926-1929 versions were, but was made for religious celebrations and parades instead.
Pete Loeser, 18 July 2020
It is a Mexican religious flag and can be used by citizens as a devotion to both God and Country. These are also sold as tourist flags, as I found one in San Antonio a few years ago. It does have the Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) in the center in the colors of the Mexican flag (with some accents) and it does not contain any text. As for when this flag can be flown, from what I have seen here in the USA, it is used during demonstrations or during cultural events. As for this specific photo, I could not find a source of it but this flag is very much real and very much common.
Zachary Harden, 18 July 2020
My guess is that it is a flag made to represent Mexican heritage. It has the colored stripes of the Mexico flag and the Virgin of Guadalupe that was on the banner carried by Father Hidalgo. I have seen numerous variations of this - made in China.
Rick Wyatt, 18 July 2020
It is interesting that the Cristeros flag is not currently featured on FOTW-ws (yet) and hopefully it will after this thread is uploaded, but the flag query that started this conversation is IMHO, a religious parade flag (very common in catholic countries), which are used when special religious occasions occur, such as Easter (Holy Week) or even the commemoration of any festivity for that matter (i.e. a Saint's Day, or even the Virgin of Guadalupe festivity, which is celebrated on December 12).
Esteban Rivera, 18 July 2020
Just as I suspected, the flag submitted by Pete is indeed a commemorative flag. The original image is located here. (source)
The news article is titled "MEXICANOS DE LOS ÁNGELES CELEBRAN INDEPENDENCIA DE SU PAÍS" (LA Mexicans celebrate their country's independence) and it was uploaded on September 6, 2008. Mexico's independence day is observed on the 16th of September of every year. This festivity is known to Mexicans as the Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores), back when local Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang his church bell in the ciy of Dolores (now Dolores Hidalgo honoring the priest), Guanajuato and gave the call to arms that triggered the Mexican War of Independence, on September 16, 1810.
Esteban Rivera, 18 July 2020
Image from Corey Farrow, 16 June 2020
This flag was found at a garage sale in 2019 located in Akron, Ohio. The purveyor did not have any more information regarding the flag. I am unsure of the correct orientation.
Corey Farrow, 16 June 2020
I'm not sure this is even a flag, but a puzzle it is.
Pete Loeser, 18 July 2020
I can't recall when we've seen this one before, but I doubt that it's a flag. Since it's pinned on one side only, maybe Corey can look at the reverse for any information on its "flaginess". I doesn't seem to be hemmed, but maybe there is something else to redeem it.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 19 July 2020
#21d
#21e
#21f
Images from Adrienne, 19 July 2020
I wonder if you'd be able to identify these funnels or logos of (what I think could be) shipping lines or ship management companies?
These are all found on various pieces of crockery (mugs, plates, bowls) that we salvage off of ships that have been scrapped.
Adrienne, Nautical Antiques & Tropical Decor, 18 July 2020
I agree that these pieces are probably shipping line crockery, but I cannot identify any of them myself. I did check an extensive collection of shipping line funnels and flags that I have looking through the C, H, F and G areas for the two pieces with letters, and found nothing in over 3600 shipping lines beginning with these four letters, so I can say that these are not well-known shipping lines!
Rob Raeside, 19 July 2020
We're talking about ships that have been scrapped. At that point it's quite likely that the entire history of the ship was known. Taken from these ships are pieces of crockery, the purpose of which pieces are most likely known as well. Yet, somehow, these pieces end up with no documentation at all, and not even the magic word and the promise of trying to do better.
In fact, in the shop the pieces seem to have countries of origin, whereas here they don't. It would be nice to get all available information. It would also be nice to have a saucers with the emblem in full view rather than one creamer with the emblem disappearing around the bend; if there is a reason to name one piece a "sake cup", that would also be information. Sure, it may be that all that eventually leads to nothing. But why slim down the odds?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 18 July 2020
Image from Klaus-Michael Schneider, 31 July 2020
I took this snapshot in Kidderminster in Summer 1999. The flag looks similar to the county flag of Dorset, but the fimbriation of the cross is "not perfectly red". Can anybody assist
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 31 July 2020
Image from Eugene Ipavec, 31 July 2020
So I have a question regarding a fictional coat of arms from the 1953 romantic-comedy musical "Call Me Madam," which is set mainly in a small European duchy called Lichtenburg. (presumably a portmanteau of Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.) The duchy's arms appear in a number of scenes; they are featured on a flag in one scene, though that particular flag is defaced with a text (in English, clearly meant for the movie's domestic audience.) But a graphic of this flag without text also appears on the door of the royal limousine in a later scene, which seems pretty official.
The flag is red with the coat of arms. These are presumably fictional, but they seem to be authentically heraldic enough that they might have been adapted from some real model. I'm curious if anyone recognizes them? They are divided per pale: azure two golden stars above a crown above three red and two azure stripes, and burgundy a golden eagle displayed under one golden star. The baroque shield is ornate and supported by two lions rampant regardant, the left doubly crowned and the right with a black "fat" cross pattée hovering above its head. Another crown surmounts the shield. (All four crowns are of an identical "antique" type.)
This is the best graphic I could extract from the movie.
Eugene Ipavec31 July 2020
Dexter base displays the lesser arms of Öldenburg, if the sinister half displays an harpye with a mullet, it is a modification of an Eastern Frisian chieftain, I guess Cirksena. But as it is fictitious, it doesn't really matter.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 31 July 2020
Image from Dave Oberholtzer, 19 August 2020
I would love to see if you could help me ID a flag my great uncle, who had Purple Heart, earned after storming Normandy and brought home with him. He told me to always keep it and told me a crazy story on how he got it. But I can't seem to find the exact flag anywhere. If I remember right I want to say it was Nazi military police flag, but I could be way off. He has been gone for well over 20 years and I'm getting older and forgetful too.
Dave Oberholtzer, 19 August 2020
Not every flag from Germany is affiliated with National Socialism. If the contributor had read the inscription, it would be obvious, that it is a bannerette of a veteran's association, in this case of the King's Own Hussars, thus probably Prussian due to the cypher, which might be FWI, i.e. Friedrich Wilhelm I. It probably is the Aachen branch of a greater nationwide organisation.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 22 August 2020
Natürlich! To complement Klaus-Michael's answer: The text reads "Association of ex- Royal Hussars". The monogram of the flag allows the identification with the Hussars Regiment King Wilhelm I (1. Rheinisches) No. 7. (Proof #1) and (Proof #2) and (Proof #3)
The flag is most probably a commemorative flag used by veterans from this Prussian regiment. It has absolutely nothing to to with military police, the Third Reich, the Second World War or the Normandy campaign.
Ivan Sache, 22 August 2020
It is clear that your Uncle's flag is the commemorative flag of a group of World War I veterans from the city of Aachen. They served in the Prussian 7th Hussars "King Wilhelm I" division (Husaren-Regiment König Wilhelm I [1. Rheinisches] Nr.7) which was formed in March of 1815, in Bonn, Germany, first as part of the VIII Army Corps, but later redeployed to the IV Army. Historically the Hussars were light cavalry of the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1867 to 1918, and in World War I, they were part of the Central Powers army that marched through Luxembourg, Belgium and into France before being stopped outside Paris (the Miracle of the Marne) and then backed into the infamous trench lines of the Great War. There everybody stayed for the rest of the war until the armistice in 1918 ended the bloody stalemate. The Hussar regiment itself was disbanded with the demobilization of the German Army after World War I, but there were obviously veteran's organizations formed and one such was located in Aachen after the war.
Now in 1944 there was a major battle fought by American and German forces in and around Aachen, Germany, in October. It was called the Battle of Aachen, and do you know if your uncle was there? If he was, that could possibly connect the veteran's group flag and your uncle. You mentioned a crazy story your uncle shared about how he got the flag, but didn't share it with us, could you do so now?
Pete Loeser, 22 August 2020
Image located by Bill Garrison, 22 August 2020
The caption on this flag reads: "Iraq's counter-terrorism forces raided the base of Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and arrested several of its members" dated 6 January 2020. (source)
Bill Garrison, 22 August 2020
photo
mock-up
Image and mock-up from Chris Launchbury, 24 August 2020
My family (British) has some maritime history and a couple of years ago we discovered an old sack containing three old naval flags. Two of these flags are Royal Navy ensigns, and we are confident they belonged to a relative during the 1910s. However, we also found what appears to be a ship's house flag which we are unable to identify. I have searched online, accessed online museum resources, and even contacted the Royal Maritime Museum Greenwich, but so far the shipping company appears evasive. This flag may be from the same period as the others, but could also be from a relative during the 1920s or 1930s.
Another additional bit of info about the flag is that it could have links with Argentina, as this was one of the possible routes the Merchant Navy relative in the 30s/40s had links with, but we're not sure.
Chris Launchbury, 24 August 2020
This is not a flag I can identify. I have a database of shipping line flags with over 750 starting with H - it's not there. I checked the D and I entries too, no luck.
Rob Raeside, 24 August 2020
Photo from Michael Stogsdill, 25 August 2020
I recently acquired a pennant style flag that I believe is a yacht club flag. I searched through the yacht club flag list on your site and could not find one like it. It is a very high quality made flag by Seaborn Canvas. This flag was found in Ann Arbor, MI. Maybe someone else may recognize its origins, but I was unable to identify it.
Michael Stogsdill, 25 August 2020
I am afraid I don't recognize this flag either - I checked our entire US yacht club section and did not see it. For the record, printed on the header are the manufacturer's details: SEABORN CANVAS, 1931 N Gaffey (F), San Pedro CA 90731
Rob Raeside, 25 August 2020
Image by Pete Loeser, 26 August 2020
I did this quick speculated drawing so I could do an image search, but no luck. I post it in case it will be helpful to another flag sleuth.
Pete Loeser, 26 August 2020