^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Army Unit Flags 1935-53 (Chinese Republic/Taiwan)

7:8
image by Miles Li, 26 August 2014

Army Flag
Corps
Division
Brigade
Regiment
Battalion
Company
Armored Troops
Specialist troops
Transport and Transportation Troops

See also:

Army Flag

The pole is red, with a ball finial (presumably white bronze, according to the official drawing), but no pike at the base.
[Note that for this series the proportions and dimensions are stated as length x width, as per official regulation, not the Western practice of width x length.]
Miles Li, 14 August 2014

I would say that giving full dimensions as length x width is pretty universal. Does anyone have a counter example of a culture where this is done differently?
Ratios on the other hand I'm less sure about; Would they always be smallest : largest, or hoist : fly?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 01 September 2014

Corps

image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 26 August 2014

Dimensions: 95cm x 83.1cm. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 9cm x 60cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a small triangular flag, 22cm (base) x 22cm (hoist), yellow with the letter 'jun' (corps) in red. The pole is red, 230cm long in total, 12cm circumference, with a white bronze spearhead finial 20cm long and a white bronze pike base 15cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014

Division

image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 26 August 2014

Dimensions: 90cm x 78.8cm. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 9cm x 58cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a small triangular flag, 21cm (base) x 21cm (hoist), yellow with the letter 'shi' (division) in red. The pole is red, 230cm long in total, 12cm circumference, with a white bronze spearhead finial 20cm long and a white bronze pike base 15cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014

Brigade

image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 26 August 2014

Dimensions: 85cm x 74.4cm. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 9cm x 58cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a small triangular flag, 20cm (base) x 20cm (hoist), yellow with the letter 'lü' (brigade) in red. The pole is red, 230cm long in total, 12cm circumference, with a white bronze spearhead finial 20cm long and a white bronze pike base 15cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014

Is this right: Almost all the dimensions keep getting smaller, but the white strip on the brigade flag is the same dimensions as on the division flag? I wonder why.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 15 August 2014

complied by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 20 August 2014 based on images by Akira Oyo and Miles Li

These three flags are the same , except for there size: Each smaller unit has a flag with slightly smaller dimensions. From Corps to Division, this is also true for the size of the white strip. From Division to Brigade, however, the strip keeps the same size (according to these values). I wonder why.
I have difficulty to recognise this in the gifs, as in each the resolution is different: The images are all the same height, of course, but they represent flags of different height. So I tried to make a set of flags of the same resolution by rescaling. (I used the triangular flags for the scaling, as we know its 54 pixels height/width had to be 22cm, 21cm, and 20cm.)
If not for anything else, the image could serve to demonstrate the differences in height.
But since the resolution should be the same for each flag, here, the white strips of Division and Brigade should also be the same size. It doesn't look like the picture shows them the same, though, so could someone check where things went wrong?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 20 August 2014

It is true that I took some liberty regarding the sizes of the small flags, strips, etc. when drawing my images. I will correct these images once I finish the series in a few days' time. The question is should I redraw them according to the relative sizes of the flags, or should the flags all be 216px wide as per FOTW standard?
Miles Li, 21 August 2014

In my opinion, it's better for all images (NOT flags) to be 216px wide and all flags according to the relative sizes.
Akira Oyo, 21 August 2014

As it has been pointed out, some of the images I have drawn recently are not precise - indeed I have taken some liberty regarding the the dimensions of the small flags, strips, etc. when drawing the images. There are also a couple of different suggestions as to the preferred sizes of the images themselves... since I have only a couple more posts before this series is done with, for the sake of image uniformity I will post the rest of the images 'as is'; after that I will get into the task of correcting / improving / refining theimages concerned.
Miles Li, 21 August 2014

But then the question becomes: In this specific case, do the smaller two models really have strips of the same size, or is that a typo?
Draw the images with the flags at 216, I would say. You could do a series image like the one I did to give an impression of relative sizes.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 21 August 2014

I did the same set again, though without the poles as they weren't in the pictures this time. Indeed, this time the strips of the Division and the brigade are almost equal in size (not exactly, but that may be caused by rounding the centimetres of the flag heights to whole pixels.)

Three unit flag drawings scaled and combined:

complied by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 03 October 2014 based on images by Akira Oyo and Miles Li

Same, but with poles:

complied by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 03 October 2014 based on images by Akira Oyo and Miles Li

Now that it appears this is the intention, I come back to the original question: Why would these two have stripes of the same width?
I also reconstructed the pole from the measurements and the imagery in the previous images, to have a look of how large these flags were. I have assumed that the "white bronze pike 15cm long", which is mentioned after the finial, is the bottom end of the pole. To give a sense of scale: The top edge of the middle size (Brigade) flag is approximately at 1.85 cm. Note that since the poles are all the same size, for the large size flags, the larger top flags actually push down the main flag a bit.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 03 October 2014

More ROC Army flags

The following flags were basically the same as those from 1953 to 1962, except that these were in the waffenfarbe of the unit:
Infantry - red
Cavalry - yellow
Artillery - blue, with 2cm white frame around the KMT flag at the centre
Engineers (and Motorized Troops) - white
Signals - light grey
Logistics - black
Military Police - light red (i.e. pink)
Miles Li, 15 August 2014

Regiment

Infantry

Infantry Regiment
image by Miles Li, 27 August 2014

Infantry Regiment, fringed variant
image by Miles Li, 27 August 2014

Cavalry

image by Miles Li, 28 August 2014

Cavalry Regiment, fringed variant
image by Miles Li, 28 August 2014

Dimensions: 80cm x 70cm. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 9cm x 58cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a red tassel, 20cm long. The pole is red, 210cm long in total, 12cm circumference, with a white bronze spearhead finial 20cm long and a white bronze pike base 15cm long.

The official specification stipulated that infantry and cavalry regimental flags should be presented by the Military Commission, whereas that of the other army flags should be procured by the unit chiefs themselves. Somewhat confusingly, the official specification also stated that infantry and cavalry regimental flags "when presented from above" should have 12cm yellow fringe, implying some infantry and cavalry regimental flags did not have fringes. I have created both versions here.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014

Artillery

Artillery Regiment
image by Miles Li, 28 August 2014

Engineers (and Motorized Troops)

Engineer (and Motorized Troops) Regiment
image by Miles Li, 28 August 2014

Motorized Troops (交通, 'Communications' in old-fashioned English translation) was originally a catch-all technical branch dealing with military signals, motorized and mechanized warfare, as well as some armored trains. Throughout the 1930s most of these functions were spin-off into separate branches, and what remained of Communications became essentially motorized troops.
Miles Li, 16 August 2014

Signals

Signals Regiment
image by Miles Li, 28 August 2014

Military Police

Military Police Regiment
image by Miles Li, 29 August 2014

Battalion

Infantry Battalion
image by Miles Li, 27 August 2014

Battalion: Dimensions: 75cm x 65.6cm. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 8cm x 58cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a red tassel, 17cm long. The pole is red, 200cm long in total, 10cm circumference, with a white iron spearhead finial 17cm long and a white iron pike base 14cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014

Company

Infantry Company
image by Miles Li, 27 August 2014

Company: Dimensions: 70cm x 61cm. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 7cm x 54.3cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a red tassel, 17cm long. The pole is red, 200cm long in total, 10cm circumference, with a white iron spearhead finial 17cm long and a white iron pike base 14cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014

Armored Troops

In 1937 Armored Troops became a separate branch within the Chinese Army. Its flags were the same as those of other branches adopted in 1935, but with the waffenfarbe of silver grey.
(On Akira Oyo's original Wiki drawing the silver grey is a very light shade of grey. I have to respectfully disagree with him, since all the waffenfarbe charts regarding the late 1930s Chinese Army available on the internet show Armored Troops with a darker shade of grey than the light grey of Signals.)
Miles Li, 16 August 2014

Armored Brigade (1950-53)

image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 29 August 2014

The name (not in the correct calligraphic style on this image) 'Army Armored Troops Brigade' is written in black on the white strip next to the host.
Miles Li, 16 August 2014

Armored Regiment (1937-53)

image by Miles Li, 29 August 2014

Armored Battalion (1937-53)

image by Miles Li, 29 August 2014

Armored Company (1937-53)

image by Miles Li, 29 August 2014

Specialist troops

Specialist troops, not being branches of their own, did not use flags with a waffenfarbe. Instead they used infantry-type flags (without fringe), each with a small square flag above bearing an insignia of some sort.
Dimensions: Correspond to the flag for units of equivalent size. It is a square flag (16cm x 16cm), white with the letter 'pao' (cannon), 'ji' (machine), 'po' (close-in), 'te' (special) or 'jiao' (education) in red at the centre.
Miles Li, 18 August 2014