International Military Colors & Flgs

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International Military Colors, Standards & Flags, 1801 - Present

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ZFC0451 - United Kingdom 5th Royal Veteran's Reserve Regiment, Napoleonic Wars, 1802-1819. This post 1801 British Infantry Color can be distinguished from its predecessors by the diagonal, so-called St. Patrick's red counter-changed cross in the canton. Used between 1802 and 1819, carried by the 5th Royal Veteran Battalion.


ZFC0417 - France - National Guard Color 15th Battalion, 1870. Its inscriptions and distinctive finial can identify this flag, from the De Young Museum. Following the defeat of the French Army in the 1870 war with Prussia and the creation of the radical Commune in Paris, the regular Army was replaced by a National Guard.


ZFC3122 - Spanish Colony, Cuban 4th Btn, 2nd Co, Havana Volunteers, Cuban Militia Color, Spanish American War, 1898. The Cuban Volunteers were troops raised in Cuba after the first for Cuban independence in 1868. Used against the rebels, they were drawn from Cuba's lower classes and were accused of harsh tactics.


ZFC3179 - Chinese Imperial Army, Forbidden City Designating Flag - Boxer Rebellion, 1900, Capture by 14th US Infantry. This pennant was previously represented as a flag associated with the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, or "Boxers." A preliminary translation of the ideograms has led to an alternative conclusion on the flag.


ZFC1425 - Czechoslovakia Calvary Presentation Guidon - "Jana Husi," 1920 - 1939. This is a silk presentation guidon from the Czechoslovakian Army of the so-called First Czech Republic. The guidon is inscribed in red on the upper white stripe with the words, "Venuje pěší pluk Mistra Jana Husi." On the lower red stripe, "CSR" is inscribed in white.


ZFC3266 - United Kingdom. Royal Artillery, Camp Flag, WWII, 1944-1947. A Royal Artillery camp flag of Battery C of the Light Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Regiment of the Royal Artillery. Although batteries of the Royal Artillery do not carry flags - the gun is considered the symbol of the unit - their camps were often marked with flags like this example.


ZFC1271 - United Kingdom 6th Airborne Division, (Pegasus) Headquarters Guidon, WWII, 1944. This Pennant came directly from the Estate of U.S. Army General Matthew B. Ridgway. The insignia of the British 6th Airborne Division features the winged horse Pegasus beneath Bellerophon, slayer of monsters and, according to Greek myth, the first airborne warrior.


ZFC1123 - Albania, Partisan (Communist) National Liberation Front, Militia Flag, WWII, 1944. In 1945, at the end of World War II, an American soldier traded two cartons of Lucky Strike cigarettes for this flag. This flag is made partially of damask material that once adorned the windows of a wealthy family in Eastern Europe.


ZFC2569 - Imperial Japan, Military Aviation School, Unit Color, WWII, 1945. This Japanese organizational color conforms to the general style of Imperial Japanese regimental flags. Japanese army colors bore purple fringe, so the significance of the golden yellow fringe and the insignia on this flag remain unknown.


ZFC1242 - Pakistan Royal Artillery Center Flag - Post Partition of India, 1947. This Royal Pakistani Artillery Centre flag was the fourth flag in the Zaricor Flag Collection. The method of construction of this flag is consistent with the haste with which the Artillery branch of the newly formed Pakistani Army was created.


ZFC3399 - Viet Cong 307th Battalion of the 273rd Regiment, Vietnam War, 1966. This fringed cotton Vietcong Battalion color is embroidered with the unit number "307" and the Vietnamese slogan "Quyet Thang" or "Resolved to Win." The flag is a war trophy taken in combat from the Viet Cong.


ZFC0579 - Vietnam People's Liberation Army Color, Captured by Co. B, 187th RCT, 101st Airborne, Vietnam War, 1968. This flag was made in anticipation of a successful "liberation" of Saigon and was taken by counter forces. The flag, from the Tet offensive, was kept as a trophy by Corporal William Street.


ZFC3058 - United Kingdom, Parachute Regiment, Camp Flag, Falklands War, 1982. This is a Parachute Regiment Camp Flag from the war in Falkland (Malvinas) Islands between the UK and Argentina in 1982.


ZFC2475 - China -Communist Youth League Flag from the Sino-Vietnamese Conflict, 1987. This is a presentation flag of the Communist Youth League of China (CYL). This flag is a silent witness to the history of a conflict almost unknown in the west.


ZFC0504 - Taliban Artillery Regimental H.Q. Color, taken Nov. 2001, Jalalabad, Afghanistan. This Taliban flag was recovered from the rubble of what is believed to be the regimental commander's office of the headquarters of the Taliban Army in Jalabad, Afghanistan. It was recovered in November 2001 by independent filmmaker Jim Burroughs.