A war ensign , also known as a military flag , battle flag , or standard , is a variant of a national flag for use by a country's military forces when on land. The nautical equivalent is a naval ensign . Under the strictest sense of the term, few countries today currently have distinct war flags, most using a flag design that is also the state flag or general national flag for this purpose.
5-616: Battle Flag may refer to: War flag or battle flag, a flag typically used by sovereign territories and flown by military forces Confederate Battle Flag , of the Confederate States of America "Battle Flag" (song) , by Pigeonhed, 1997; remixed and recorded by Lo Fidelity Allstars and Pigeonhed, 1998 Battle Flag , a book in The Starbuck Chronicles series by Bernard Cornwell See also [ edit ] Battle ensign ,
10-491: A war flag to be used when a ship enters combat Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Battle Flag . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_Flag&oldid=1158617238 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
15-548: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages War flag Sound trumpets! Let our bloody colours wave! And either victory, or else a grave. Field signs were used in early warfare at least since the Bronze Age . The word standard itself is from an Old Frankish term for a field sign (not necessarily a flag). The use of flags as field signs apparently emerges in Asia, during
20-624: The Iron Age, possibly in either China or India. in Achaemenid Persia , each army division had its own standard, and "all officers had banners over their tents". Early field signs that include, but are not limited to a flag, are also called vexilloid or "flag-like", for example the Roman Eagle standard or the dragon standard of the Sarmatians . The Roman Vexillum itself is also "flag-like" in
25-538: The sense that it was suspended from a horizontal crossbar as opposed to a simple flagpole. Use of simple flags as military ensigns becomes common during the medieval period, developing in parallel with heraldry as a complement to the heraldic device shown on shields. The maritime flag also develops in the medieval period. The medieval Japanese Sashimono carried by foot-soldiers are a parallel development. Some medieval free cities or communes did not have coats of arms, and used war flags that were not derived from
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