Flags

in the Warsaw Army Museum

Taken by me at the Warsaw Army Museum back in 2006.

There were about 30 flags for each of the WWI period, the 1919-1920 period and the inter-war period hung high up on the ceiling. Generally they tended to follow the same basic designs, though the post-war ones were clearly more ornate.

I took notes on and photos of most of the 1919-1920 ones but, as they are very close together, seeing the detail in some of them was impossible. Although I was allowed to take photos, I was not permitted to use a flash. Since they were in a dark ceiling, this was too much of a challenge for my camera and meant that the pictures really didnt come out too well. (It would take someone with an expensive camera and a tripod most of a day to get them properly, and even then the angle is always going to be bad.)

Still, I believe that the combination of the notes and photos, as crappy as they are, allows the most common elements to emerge.

The flags in Warsaw a 2.3 MB .zip file if you want all of them.

Explanation of Photos

The flags were being held horizontally, so they are sideways in the photos.

In the following notes, the obverse is described in the first line, the reverse in the next, and then a line noting the edging, the finial and the scarves knotted on the pole (these were particularly hard to get right). The photos are "a" for obverse, "b" for reverse and "c" onwards for supplementary pictures.

"Red" means basically the colour of the red portion of the modern Polish flag, with "scarlet" being a brighter tone. White, yellow and gold were hard to distinguish in many cases, and I would not swear I have them right. I have used the term "Madonna" to indicate the Virgin holding a child and the term "icon" to indicate when a picture is drawn in a very Orthodox style.

I often noted the wording I could see, but the angle of viewing means that the letters are only best guesses. Generally words were in capitals, though the leading letter was often larger. The flags were usually well enough made, but were entirely random in style, colouring, size and shape.

The Flags

WF01: 22nd Infantry Regiment:

Reverse shown.
» a white eagle with "22 P.P." (i.e 22nd IR) on red ground.
» an "icon" Madonna surrounded by stars straight onto white ground.
» gold tasselling, no finial, a small red scarf and small white scarf

WF02: Wilno Rifle Regiment

» a white eagle towards the top right and a diamond-shaped painting on the left halfway up which is surrounded by a yellow line and heavy yellow rays projecting from it, all on a material that looks like old blanket and is now a reddish-khaki colour, but was presumably redder originally.
» a colourful (but obscured) diamond shaped painting, edged thinly in yellow, on the same blanket-like material
» no edging but the end of the flag is knotted tassels, ball finial, no scarf

WF03: 33rd Infantry Regiment:

Quite a small flag, probably square
» eagle with laurels and a heavily embroidered edge.
» Madonna on whitish rectangle scattered with stars, trimmed in pale, on red ground.
» thin white edging with heavy gold tasselling, eagle in spearhead finial, red scarf with white writing and gold tasselling at the end

WF04: 6th Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment

This flag was unusually tall
» "6 kompania" over a very ornate eagle over "II baonu 27 p.p." all white on a deep red ground
» "za obrone" over a big rectangular painting (undecipherable) over "włodzimierz a-wol" (i.e. for the defence of włodzimierz) in a curve, all big white letters on a deep red ground.
» thin white edging with heavy gold tasselling, no finial, no scarf

WF05: 149th Kresowy Rifle Regiment

» a sacred heart emblem inside a square formed from ornate art nouveau trim, with white background
» white eagle on red circle on white background.
» on the obverse at least, edged in thin gold strip with red diamonds on it, tasselled gold; eagle in spearhead finial, white scarf with some writing on it

WF06: 37th Infantry Regiment

Reverse shown.
» a picture of a town plus three heraldic shields on a white ground
» red maltese on white, with "37"s inside large laurels in corners and writing on the red.
» gold edging, large eagle on rectangle finial, red and white scarf with gold tasselling on the end.

A slightly later version of the reverse of this flag can be seen on Wikipedia with honours for the Russo-Polish war.

WF07: 12th Infantry Regiment:

A longer than usual flag on a stripey pole.
» an "icon" madonna in a square with writing around on an embroidered white ground.
» a white eagle with "Bóg i Ojczyzna" (God and Fatherland) above in gold, on a red ground
» thin gold edging with tasselling on the end only, eagle over rectangle finial, red-faced-white (?) scarf

WF08: 20th Infantry Regiment

Obverse shown.
» a naïve madonna on white; "20"s shoved right into the corners, surrounded by laurels
» eagle on quite a dark red, gold "20"s in the corners surrounded by white laurels
» no edging, spike over ball finial, small red and white scarf

WF09: 76th Infantry Regiment:

The photos are too obscure to be worth much

» in the centre a large shield with an eagle on the left and a knight on the right, surrounded by red embroidery on a red background.
» the virgin on a blue rectangle, with a thin gold edge, on an embroidered red background.
» no edging, sharp spike instead of finial, no scarf

WF10: 28th Infantry Regiment:

Again photos are too obscure due to lack of light and very hard to even get a good look at.

A very small flag, probably square.
» some messy gold on red stuff .
» madonna or similar, and again messy gold on red.
» perhaps some thin gold edging, no finial, a scarlet scarf, with white near the pole.

WF11: 6th Infantry Division:

This flag may well be square, or is otherwise small. The picture is the obverse.
» a sacred heart emblem inside thorns with white background
» white eagle on red circle on white background.
» no edging, ball finial, no scarf

WF12: 1st Podhole Rifle Regiment:

» an "icon" madonna in a gold square, trimmed with gold and with something like fleurs-de-lys poking out of the corners; all on a red background.
» gold eagle on red
» thick gold edging, eagle on book (?) finial, white scarf with writing between laurels (?) on one side

WF14: 53rd Kresowy Rifle Regiment:

This flag seems to be square. The picture is the reverse.
» white eagle on red ground, with "53" in laurels in the corners
» an "icon" madonna in a box on a white ground. The box is outined with white and red lines that extend past the edges a bit.
» edged in red and white, making it look like there is a red line inside the edge, the finial is a sharp spike, the wide and long scarf is red-faced-white

WF15: 205th Infantry Regiment

» a picture of St Francis, or someone similar, on a pale blue ground.
» a red maltese cross on white. In gold in each corner is "205" surrounded by laurels. In the top area it reads "205" above "pułk" above "piechoty" (i.e. 205 Regiment of Infantry); in the left it has "honor i"; in the right it has "ojczyzna" (i.e. Honour and Fatherland); in the bottom it has "jana" above "kilińskiego" (i.e. named for Jan Kiliński).
» gold tasselling, eagle finial, red and white scarves ending in gold tasselling.

WF16: 1st Legion Infantry Regiment: this is quite a small flag.

» a white eagle on red ground is surrounded by two concentric rectangles, the outer one nearly at the flags edge and the inner ones lines extending so as to meet the outer one. In the squares formed by this in the corners are balls. (I'd guess that the lines and balls are gold)
» a gold madonna in a circle is on a white ground which includes the outline of a maltese cross. The top box has "wilno"; the left has "19" with a "J" above and to the right; the right has "19" with some obscure letter above and to the left; and the bottom has "wiel" and then below that "kamoc" (i.e Easter Sunday).
» gold tasselling, no finial, thin red scarves.

WF17: 12th Podhole Lancers Regiment

» "icon" madonna in box on white ground (my notes indicate "z bogiem za ojczyznę" (i.e. God of the Fatherland) appears on the flag somewhere, probably the obverse, above and below the madonna)
» eagle on laurel
» perhaps thin gold edging, eagle on ball finial, blue scarves trimmed in dark red (?)

WF18: 202nd Infantry Regiment

» noted as identical in style to 201st IR (below) but perhaps a more scarlet ground.
» eagle on laurel
» gold tasselling, eagle on rectangle finial

WF19: 201st Infantry Regiment

» "201st Pułk" (i.e. 201 Regiment) over eagle over "strzelców pieszych" (i.e Rifle Infantry) presumably all gold, on red ground
» "wojsko polskie" (i.e Polish Army) presumably gold on red ground
» gold tasselling, eagle on rectangle finial, no scarf

WF20: 80th Infantry Regiment

» "honor I ojczyzna" (i.e honour and fatherland) in gold above a gold crown above an eagle on the left and knight on the right (I had seen this emblem elsewhere in Poland)
» Mary in a box with (religious?) writing in gold above and below, on a white background.
» thin gold edging + tasselling, spear point over eagle/knight emblem (?) in circle, no scarf

WF21: 10th Infantry Regiment:

A smallish flag probably square.
» Jesus in a large vertical rectange box on white ground, with writing around
» red maltese cross on white, with an eagle in a red circle edged laurels and the number "10" in laurels in the corners and gold writing on the cross bits.
» thick (gold?) edging on obverse only + tasselling, eagle on rectangle finial, small white silk scarf.

WF22: Grudziadz Rifle Regiment:

This was a small flag, which I didn't take notes on.
» a dark eagle (white embroidery?) on laurels with writing curving beneath on a red ground, with a shield in the top right corner
» reverse uncertain
» thick gold edging, gold eagle on ball finial, gold tasselled cord.

WF23: 80th Infantry Regiment

» a religious emblem in gold in the centre – a chalice over crossed cross and anchor (?) – and gold writing and decoration around on scarlet ground, with definitely "1920" noted
» gold field with hard to decipher embroidery (?) in basically the same colour
» gold (?) edging, small eagle over ball finial, no scarves

WF24: Golancza Company

» didnt take notes on this, but the obverse is an embroidered white eagle on red ground, with black writing above.
» reverse uncertain
» white edging, point over ball finial, no scarf.

WF25: 6th Wielkopolska Rifle Regiment:

A very small flag, probably square.
» a red maltese cross on white (perhaps yellow), with a white eagle in the centre on a laurel base.
» a small gold maltese cross on gold (sic) ground with writing around it.
» no edging, small point finial, bright red scarf (perhaps faced white)

WF26: 1st Wielkopolska Rifle Regiment: a smallish flag.

» a white eagle on red ground, with 4 small shields in the corners and one on the top and some cipher of the date across the bottom in black "19 ?? 19".
» a small maltese cross in gold on a white (?) ground
» thin goldish edging, eagle finial, long red-faced-white scarves with writing and another in white with blue stripes by the edge.

WF27: 12th Wielkopolska Rifle Regiment:

A very small flag, probably square.
» a red maltese cross on white, with a white eagle in the centre (with black body?)
» gold writing (presumably on a red ground) with a shield emblem.
» no edging, eagle finial on ball, no scarf

WF28: 4th Silesian Insurgents Regiment

» didnt take notes for this, but the obverse is a white eagle on red ground, with writing above and below and a thin darkish line forming a rectange around this. The writing is presumably "Za wiarę, wolność i ojczyznę" (i.e. for faith, freedom and fatherland).
» reverse is uncertain.
» very thin white edging (?), ball finial, no scarf

WF29: Zaglebie Infantry Regiment:

» didnt take notes for this, but the obverse appears to be a white eagle on burgundy (almost purple) ground.
» reverse is uncertain
» no edging, ball finial, red/white scarf.

WF30: Airforce of the Wielkopolska Army:

» didnt takes notes for this, but the obverse is clearly a white winged emblem on red ground.
» reverse is uncertain
» no edging, no finial, no scarves

WF31: the collected flags for the 1919-1920 period hanging from the ceiling.

This shows just how much variation in size and shape there was.

WF32: a picture entitled "The Decoration of the Standard of the 1st Krechowiecki Lancer Regiment".

Although the episode probably dates to the inter-war period, it shows that at least some flags were parti-coloured red and white along the lines of the national flag. A couple of examples (outside 1919-1920) had this pattern.

WF33: an inter-war cavalry guidon.

This shows the Polish eagle as well as the official regimental colours.

WF34: inter-war trumpets

showing the variety of decorations, many using motifs similar to the flags but others using the regimental colours.

WF13: 101st Soviet Rifle Regiment

This flag is not hung from the ceiling, but is on the wall behind one of the cabinets W40a. Only the obverse can be seen. It is a very faded red, with a small white star in the centre with a very rough hammer and sickle on the star. Below that can be seen part of the units name "101ый Стреи~~ Ролк".