Last modified: 2019-08-06 by alex danes
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image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 8 September 2005
When the Aero-show took place in 1993 in Paris the flag manufacturer wanted to know about the new flag of Romania. I had just received the message that the Romanian parliament had decided to show the
coat of arms in the flag. So I informed the manufacturer. He handed that design to another manufacturer, and he produced that flag. And in Paris all the Romanian flags had the
coat of arms in it. A week later I was informed that the parliamentary decision was deleted (for several reasons, one was the costs). But it was too late. The flags flew, and soon I received the information from several vexillologists that Romania had a new flag.
Ralf Stelter, 27 June 1999
One book with the Romanian coat of arms-bearing flag is Harenberg Lexikon
der Gegenwart, Aktuell'94, although the '99 edition has the flag without the
coat of arms. Two websites also show this flag:
here and
here.
J. Patrick Fischer, 9 September 2005
This Romanian flag with full coat of arms is labeled "erroneous" which would
be true from an official government standpoint. However, such flags are produced
in Romania and are publicly displayed by at least one political party,
especially during election time.
Clay Moss, 21 September 2006
The Wikipedia page for the
Romanian flag
makes reference to the "war flag". I do not think that it is right here. This is
a common mistake or source of confusion among vexillologists especially when
translating from language to language. The war flag as defined per FIAV codes is
the flag used as the national flag by the military on land. The war flag shown
on the above-mentioned Wikipedia page is not that, it would be called in English
rather a military colour(s). Such colours are used ceremonially only as the flag
signifying the army (navy, air force etc. or the whole military) as a unit and
exists in principle only in one single example. The war flag as defined per FIAV
terminology is not of such kind, but rather the flag that is used by the military
everyday on their installations, hoisted on the military headquarters buildings,
in the barracks hoisted ceremonially every morning and similarly. The Wikipedia
war flag is certainly not of that kind, the "usual" Romanian tricolour is used
for that purpose in Romania, I believe. There are numerous examples of such
flags in the military depots.
Željko Heimer, 21 September 2006
I've taken my time studying photos of Romanian military ceremonies and reading official recommendations for this, mainly those linked from the Wikipedia page. They're in Romanian but I can translate the relevant ones, particularly this one: http://www.mapn.ro/traditii/drapellupta1.htm .
From what I've seen, there are two types of "war flags" (let's call them that
for a while longer). One type is the one showed at the above URL. The picture is
terrible, but you can find a Romanian description on that page and some English
translation on the Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_flag#Battle_flag_and_standards.
There isn't one war flag but 3. They vary in that the coat of arms and the
insignia at the flag corners change with the type of army: crossed swords for
the land units, an anchor for navy units, some navigation instruments for the
air units. There are many pictures showing these flags being used during
military ceremonies. However, I should note, if that's worth anything, that I've
seen pictures of Romanian units in Iraq and Afghanistan and they had plain
Romanian flags, not these flags.
There is another type of flag, which Wikipedia claims is used only indoors
and only at specific ceremonies. Again, there are 4 flags, not one, and the land
unit flag (red) is shown there. The general staff is yellow, the air units flag
is light blue, the navy flag is dark blue. I've seen a picture showing all four
flags together at a ceremony, I'll try to locate it again.
The URL above also clearly states that ships all use the regular Romanian flag,
no matter if they're military or civilian ships.
So both types are "military colors" and not war flags, if I understand you
correctly?
Ciprian, 24 September 2006
You understand Željko correctly Ciprian, and he is perfectly right that the
flags described are indeed military colours and to describe them as "war flags"
is to misuse the term. There is one point I would make however, and this is that
a war flag can and is often used by the naval forces of a country as well as by
the army, and so may be used on both land and sea.
Christopher Southworth, 24 September 2006