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Kingdom of Italy (1848-1946) - Military Flags

Last modified: 2012-12-31 by rob raeside
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Regimental Colours

Infantry colours were the Italian flag - the tricolour with, in the centre of the white stripe, a red shield bearing a white cross, surrounded by a blue border, all surmounted by a crown. Each regiment bore a plain blue cravat with silver fringes; on this were attached any medals awarded to the regiment. Silver cords and tassels. The finial was a gilt hollow spear point with the Royal arms in the centre. The sheet was nailed to the staff, which was covered with blue velvet, with a spiral of nails with round gilt heads running up its length. There was nothing on the sheet or the cravat to indicate which regiment the colour belonged to. The sheet was 1.2 metres square; the staff 2.5 metres long.
Cavalry standards were similar in appearance, but 0.4 metres square, the staff 1.38 metres long.
Under Mussolini, engineers, supply etc carried small flags (gagliardetto, pl. -etti) especially in the colonies, but they were only introduced in 1923. A Red Cross flag for the hospital sounds reasonable.
Ian Sumner, 21 and 22 September 2006


Italian Air Force Flags

Pair Of Italian Air Force Flags Banners at eBay:
The smaller banner is about 2 x 3 feet with the highest quality embroidery. It bears the 1938 Italian National Arms and is mainly done in bullion with some color accents. The reverse has a fasces and Laurels. Other than a few tiny scattered stains the piece is in excellent condition, with no holes or tears. There is bullion fringe on three sides The original ties are present also.
The flag is about 6x5 feet and the hand embroidery is phenomenal and the detail exemplary. The front bears the National Arms and the reverse bears the same in negative. The condition is the same at the banner. Both bear the Madonna and Christ Child below the center "Fert". This one also has bullion fringe and the original ties.
William Garrison, 13 February 2008


First Colonial Brigade

Quatre barres flag with I
image submitted by Stephen Schwartz, 26 June 2007

This resembles a realignment of the common Catalan-Aragonese-Balearic "quatre barres."
Source: <www.wwii-collectibles.com>.
Stephen Schwartz, 26 June 2007

The language looks suspiciously like Italian- so presumably it was for somewhere like Abyssinia/Somalia.
James Dignan, 3 July 2007

I think it is Italian, a colonial formation based in Italian Somaliland before the Second World War. The red and yellow are just the distinctive colours of the formation (others used different colours), and not connected to Spain/Catalonia. There are some similar flags illustrated at <www.uniformi.org>, but the scans are so low resolution, I cannot make out all the captions clearly.
Ian Sumner, 3 July 2007

It is a pennant of the colonial troops during World War II. The units (detachments) of the colonial troops had these striped flags (stripes) vertical with several colors. The number refers to the number of the unit.
Alessandro Martinelli, 17 November 2007

It is a military colonial flag, of the First Colonial brigade in Eritrea. This kind of flags were often stripped, had bright colours with a Roman number indicating the battalion or the brigade. You can see several examples of them on these two web pages: <www.ilcornodafrica.it/fs-cart1.htm> and <www.ilcornodafrica.it/fs-cart2.htm>.
Roberto Breschi, 18 November 2007