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Royal Yugoslavia (1918-1941): Ensigns

Naval ensign
Financial Control ensign
Harbour Police ensign
Reserve Naval Officer's ensign
- First flag (1922)
- Second flag (1937?)
Honour Naval ensign

See also:

Royal Yugoslavia (1918-1941)
- Laws on the flags at sea (with index of the flags)

Naval ensign

by Zeljko Heimer

The naval ensign (literally "war flag", ratna zastava, since in Serbian there is no specific word for an ensign) is prescribed in article 1 of the 1922 law.

The flag is horizontally divided blue-white-red, with the national coat of arms off-set to the hoist. The ratio of the flag is 2:3. The vertical axis of the coat of arms is placed half the flag height from the hoist. The height of the coat of arms (not icluding the orb and cross atop the crown) is half the flag height.

Neubecker (1939) [neu39] gives for the height of the orb and cross an additional 1/30 of the flag height but that is certainly a value "from practice" since the law does not prescribe it. Neubecker also gives the total crown height as 5/30 and the shield height 11/30 of the flag height.

The coat of arms is set so that the upper border of the shield lies on the border between the blue and white stripes of the flag. The 11 unit high shield would therefore overlap the red stripe for 10% of its width (that is 10 units).

The 1937 law did not change this flag.

Zeljko Heimer, 12 November 2003

Financial Control ensign

by Zeljko Heimer

The financial control ensign (zastava jedinica financijske kontrole) is prescribed in the 1937 law. The flag is horizontally divided blue-white-red with the national coat of arms placed in the blue stripe near the hoist.

The height of the coat of arms is 3/10 of the height of the flag and its vertical axis is set at 1/8 of the flag length from the hoist.

Zeljko Heimer, 16 November 2003

Harbour Police ensign

by Zeljko Heimer

The harbour police ensign (literally "flag of the harbour police", zastava lucke policije) is prescribed in article 4 of the 1922 law.

The flag is horizontally divided blue-white-red, with a two blue anchors crossed in saltire in the middle of the white stripe. The ratio of the flag is 2:3.

The law does not determine the anchor size. Flaggenbuch 1939 [neu39] gives the height of the emblem as 90% of the height of the white stripe.

I have no idea how much this special state ensign was used in practice. Probably only the largest posts had ships.

The 1937 law did not change this flag.

Zeljko Heimer, 12 November 2003

Reserve Naval Officer's ensign

First flag (1922)

by Zeljko Heimer

The reserve naval officer ensign (literally "flag for reserve naval officers", zastava za rezervne pomorske oficire) is prescribed in article3 of the 1922 law.

The flag is horizontally divided blue-white-red, with a white fouled anchor surmonted with the yellow royal crown in the blue stripe near the hoist. The ratio of the flag is 2:3.

The law determines the distance between the hoist and the anchor as 1/3 of the height of the blue stripe, and the width of the anchor to be equal to that also. It does not say anything about the height of the emblem.

It would be interesting to find out if this special ensign was ever warranted. The Ministry fo Traffic was responsible (by the 1922 law) to produce rules for the granting of the ensign and probably had a register of granted warrants.

Zeljko Heimer, 12 November 2003

Second flag (1937?)

by Zeljko Heimer

Flaggenbuch [neu39] shows the emblem entirely yellow (as prescribed in the 1937 law) but sets it a bit further from the hoist (20% more). This possibly follows the 1937 law (or one inbetween).

Zeljko Heimer, 16 November 2003

Honour Naval ensign

by Zeljko Heimer

Unconfirmed design

The honour naval ensign (pocasna ratna zastava) is prescribed in the 1937 law. It was granted to certain naval ships as a symbol of merit. The source for the 1937 law (Acovic) does not describe the flag, but it is highly probable that the flag included the greater national coat of arms instead of the lesser one in the usual naval ensign.

Zeljko Heimer, 16 November 2003