Men-at-Arms • 270
Wehrmacht
Brian L Davis • Illustrated by Malcolm McGregor
Series editor Martin Windrow
FLAG TERMINOLOGY
COLOURS
EMBLEMS
PARADING
THE NATIONAL WAR FLAG
ARMY FLAGS
ARMY STANDARDS
KRIEGSMARINE FLAGS
LUFTWAFFE FLAGS
THE LEGION CONDOR
BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE PLATES
When describing the details of a flag it is assumed that it is flying from a staff on the left as viewed; the side of the flag which faces the observer is called the ‘obverse’ and the other side the ‘reverse’. However, it should be noted that this method employed to ‘read’ a flag does not apply in the case of regimental flags and standards used by the German armed forces. Traditionally the German military have always referred to the obverse and reverse of their Colours as the ‘left side’ and ‘right side’ respectively. This practice is the result of the position in which the flag or standard is held in relation to the bearer. For the purpose of describing a German military flag or standard it is assumed that the staff is held in front of the bearer with the flag flying over his head towards the rear. The right side of the flag (normally referred to as the reverse) is on the bearer’s right side, and the flag’s left side (the obverse) is on the bearer’s left side. This method has been used throughout this book with the exception of the Reichskriegsflagge, the flag for the Hoch-und Deutschmeister Regiment and the standard for the SA Regiment ‘Feldherrnhalle’.
Certain terms used in this work may require explanation:
Active & Inactive: Normally refers to the rays of a star or sun symbol, illustrated with undulating curves in an ‘active’ fashion or in a stiff and ‘inactive’ manner.
Banner: A square or rectangular heraldic flag with a design usually painted or embroidered; it is carried suspended from a cross bar fixed to an upright pole.
Canton: The portion of a flag, generally rectangular in shape, occupying the upper corner nearest the hoist. The canton often, but not necessarily, covered a quarter of the flag’s area.
Colour(s): Refers to the ceremonial flags and standards of the armed forces. In the plural can also signify the whole suite of flags worn by a ship – a warship’s ‘Colours’ are its ensign, jack and pennant.
The Nuremberg ‘Flag Hall’. Throughout the annual period when the Party Congress was in progress, military units taking part in the various military events held at Nuremberg were able to leave their unit Colours on display under armed guard in a special temporary ‘Flag Hall’.
Device: An emblematic or heraldic drawing, design or figure.
Emblem: State or national; a design of heraldic or other symbols used by some states or nations to fulfil the function of a coat-of-arms.
Ferrule: A protective metal cap or shoe fitted over the lower end of a staff.
Field: The basic area of a flag; it also refers to the colour of a flag.
Finial: A cast or carved ornament, such as a spearhead, placed at the top of a staff.
Flag: In general any piece of cloth attached along one vside to a staff or halyard, intended to fly freely in the wind. Flags are divided by their shape into several categories: rectangular or square flags, swallow-tailed, triangular flags, pennants. Flags which are intended for general use in all weathers are made of bunting which was originally a loose woven, light woollen cloth (now usually reinforced with man-made fibre), Unit flags and standards intended for ceremonial use are generally made of silk. The proportions of a flag are described as the ratio of the length to the breadth: for German flags whose length was twice the breadth it was shown as 1:2. In German military usage unit flags (Fahnen) were square in shape and were in general carried by foot troops.
Fly: The part of the flag farthest from the staff or mast.
Hoist: The part of the flag nearest to the staff or mast.
Motto: A word or phrase, sometimes in a classical language, inscribed on a scroll accompanying a coat-of-arms or state emblem.
Pole: A wooden or metal upright to which is attached, or from which is flown, a flag. Term used in this work to refer to non-portable flag poles.
Scroll: A long narrow riband normally displayed above or below an emblem and inscribed with a motto.
Staff: A wooden upright to which is attached the flag cloth. Term used in this work to refer to a portable item.
Standard: Strictly speaking a flag which ‘stands by itself’. In modern usage standard has come to mean practically the same as ‘banner’. In German Army usage a standard (Standarte) referred to the swallow-tailed flag carried by cavalry and motorised troops and certain motorised detachments of foot troops, The SA formation ‘standarte’ is what would normally be referred to in English as a banner.
Swallow-tailed flags: Flags which have a triangular section cut out of the fly in order to make them ‘forked’. Can be referred to as a ‘burgee’. German Army standards had a 25cm-deep section cut out of the fly of the standard-cloth in a special shape known as a ‘hussar cut’.
The decision to reintroduce unit Colours for the armed forces of the new Wehrmacht involved many problems. No unit flags and standards had been produced since before 1914. Those flags that survived the Great War and Germany’s subsequent revolutionary violence were, although held in esteem, considered unsuitable to represent the new military units. In many cases it was felt that their designs did not reflect the influence of the new political movement in Germany.
Paul Casberg, the well-known master painter and illustrator, was commissioned to design the new Army Colours, a commission which, in his own words, he considered to be ‘the most beautiful order I have ever received’. Considerable problems confronted Casberg in his quest to resurrect a skilled workforce necessary to undertake the detailed and specialised embroidery work. This type of work had, since 1914, been allowed to lapse. The women who had originally been engaged in the industry and should have been capable of producing the high degree of workmanship needed were no longer available in the numbers required; they had long since been dispersed, and their skills and knowledge had almost died out. The first task was therefore to discover surviving experts who, with their past experience, would be willing and able to train new blood to carry out the work.
When first considering designs for the new regimental Army Colours Paul Casberg contemplated introducing double-sided flags. After numerous tests and much discussion it was decided that this type of Colour would prove unsuitable. The wool-like filling necessary as a lining for the double-sided flag was found to be useless in wet conditions. The fabric of the flag would he susceptible to mildew, and when rolled the flag’s metallic threads could be damaged gradually from within by its own humidity. The decision was therefore taken that all unit flags were to be produced from a single piece of heavy-quality silk with their designs appliquéd and embroidered on both sides.
Paul Casberg, the artist and painter responsible for the design of many of the flags and standards featured in this book, as well as other military accoutrements, seen here at work in his studio.
The initial stage in the production of the silk embroidered flag was the tracing out of the design onto the material. These tracings served as the precise guidelines for the women responsible for the hand-embroidered needlework.
The silk flag-cloth was stretched on a wooden frame where it was worked upon by two skilled needlewomen working in unison, one to each side. The design was meticulously built up, and as each section was completed the flag-cloth was wound around the upper roller of the frame to keep the entire cloth taut and a avoid any distortion to the patterning.
Despite the introduction of the new National Socialist emblems, many design features of these new unit Colours and their accessories had their origins deep in German military history.
The overall size of the flags used by the Army and the Navy of 125cm square (Air Force flags being just 1cm larger) corresponded to the size of the former Army flags from the time of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The eagle featured in the centre of the field on the flags and standards of the three armed services all faced the staff – symbolically towards the enemy – thus avoiding the error perpetuated on the flags of the Frederickian period. The Luftwaffe and the Kreigsmarine respectively featured ‘inactive’ and ‘active’ white wedges, which although somewhat narrower were yet another aspect of former Imperial Army flags and standards. The State Police flags originally presented to the Landespolizeigruppe ‘General Göring’ – that later became the flags for the various battalions of the Regiment ‘General Göring’ and I Battalion, Parachute Regiment 1 – were closely modelled on the flags of the Prussian Army. The Prussian eagle in an attitude of flight, grasping a sword and lightning bolts, placed below a riband bearing the words ‘Pro Gloria et Patria’, were emblems hardly altered since the time of Frederick the Great. Even the Luftwaffe’s use of wreaths of silver laurel leaves recalled features originally used by the old army in green, silver or gold.
Putting the finishing touches to the embroidery work on the vertical frame prior to further work being carried out on the horizontal frame.
Not only were the size of these new flags, the choice of certain designs and the use of selected colours influenced by past military history; the staff itself, the fittings, the 74 nails used to fasten the flag-cloth to the wooden staff, the finial at the top of the staff, the streamers tied below it, and the ‘Bataillonsring’ all had their origins in earlier times.
When the regiments of the Imperial German Army marched to the front during the opening months of the First World War they carried with them their unit flags. This practice rapidly ceased; for the remainder of the war flags belonging to units on active service at the front were held for safekeeping in the offices of the commanding officers of the replacement battalions. If a unit was based on home soil then its flag was kept in the office of the battalion commanding officer.
In 1914 the old Imperial Army possessed 877 regimental flags, 105 standards, 337 Landwehr flags and 21 Landwehr standards. At the conclusion of the war and during the ensuing revolutionary period in Germany, before the establishment of the Reichswehr, the following Colours were lost to the Army: 51 regimental flags, 3 standards, 25 Landwehr flags and 2 Landwehr standards. On 21 November 1918 in the city of Posen (now Poznań, Poland) 65 flags and standards that belonged to distinguished units of the Imperial German Army were deliberately burnt in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Poles.
During the time of the Weimar Republic no new unit flags and standards were presented; only the Colours of the old Army were paraded. Not until 16 March 1936, on the anniversary of the reintroduction of universal military conscription, was it announced that unit flags and standards would once more be bestowed. The first of these new flags and standards were presented on 21 April 1936 to units of the new Luftwaffe.