Ethiopian Flags...1935-36?

[Happy Wanderer]

Gents,

I'm looking to nail down the correct flags for Haile Selassie's army 1935-36.

I wonder if I can get any info on what is right...if someone can help.

A google search brings up a myriad number of flags.

I found a pennant that is Red-Yellow-Green. Apparently the pennant has the red on top, not green...is this correct?

http://www.darcfoundation.org/ethiopian-flags.html





Then the main flag without ornamentation. It would appear to be Green-Yellow-Red...but I have seen the reverse?...what is the right colour combination?..I think Green-Yellow-Red, but want to be sure.




Lastly, the Flag with the St George Dragon on it looks like this...but is this correct?



This one has the Green-Yellow-Red coloration...are the motifs is correct?....who used this standard by the way?


Were there any other Ethiopian flags used by Haile Selassie and any of his forces that people know off?

It is a case that the answers will help get a commercial quality set of Ethiopian Flags done and we want to get the information correct...any help MUCH appreciated.

Regards

Happy W

[cuprum]

Picture of Ethiopian painter:



Close-up:

http://www.geschiedenis.nu/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/battle-of-adwa-1896.jpg

[Happy Wanderer]

Hi cuprum

Thanks very much. Sort of confirms the Green-Yellow-Red.

Cheers

Happy W

[cuprum]

Link works.
I think the problem in security settings of your computer.
Try to "search for images" on Google or a search on this link.

[lou passejaire]

from osprey MAA 309 

[Arlequín]

Lou's pipped me to the post with the St. George's one.  

The Ethiopian flag is one of the oldest in the world, although apparently yellow used to be the top-most colour at one time. The Lion of Judah symbol is the 'imperial' one (so I guess it might appear on the Imperial Guard's flags), while St. George appears on others, hence Lou's photo.

The 3 pennant style is apparently 19th Century, but might be a nice way of distinguishing 'tribal levies', especially as some of the leaders were both old and conservative. More accurately perhaps a plain 'national flag' would be easy to make in quantity, as Cuprum's picture shows.

There is mention of a flag with white top and bottom and red centre in some articles that reference Herbert Vivian's visit in 1900, where he saw one flying from a border guard post. Sometimes the Ethiopian Cross is mentioned too. Medals issued by Emperor Menelik to British soldiers also had a white-red-white ribbon and the medal itself featured the aforesaid crosses. Best guess from me is that these colours represent the Church of Ethiopia, which had the Emperor as its spiritual head. In the photos Lou provided, you can see one to the right in the bottom photo.

I would imagine that each tribe/region had its own type though (and indeed the white and red one might be one of them), but the green-yellow-red one is the national one.

The second photo also shows bi-parti flags, if it's any help yellow, green, red or blue would combine with white on these, all having significance to Ethiopians in a variety of ways. My best guess is that these were personal standards of tribes/chieftains.

High-ranking Ethiopians also had a monogram, usually using Amharic abbreviations of their name: http://www.angelfire.com/ny/ethiocrown/flags.html

[Happy Wanderer]

Thanks Guys,

That's great info. I had overlooked the Osprey pic and Arlequin's description of other flags is intriguing.

OK.

So if we making up a set of flags for the Ethiopian forces in the 1935-36 period what would you have?...I come up with three types.

1.Basic Green-yellow-Red flags.

2. Haile Selassie's Imperial St.George Dragon flag and lion on obverse.

3. A set of pennants like the ones described and  the ones described by Arlequin?...the White-Red (with cross)-White...any idea how this would look..there's a challenge?

I knocked up this prototype of that sort of Red-White-Red with a cross in it...what do you think?



...these details are sort of important as I want to get these flags right...as they may be made commercially available.

Cheers

Happy W

[Arlequín]

I think you can only go by what you can see... from the two photos we can see a limited range of flags with very little decoration. The Mahel Safari flag appears to have the St. George piece on white applied over the national flag.

The second picture shows the white-red-white in the hands of uniformed men... for the rest anything seems to go.

These guys are arbenoch from 1941, with a two colour flag, but no description of colours.



Same again, but plain national flag with two colour one alongside it.



In both cases the darker colour occupies a smaller area than the lighter colour.

This collection of Abyssinian toy soldiers may not be the best source, but as they got the uniform details right, maybe they got the flag right too?



The red patch in the centre looks like it either bore the Star of David in yellow, or more likely the three-pointed star which was Haile Selassie's chosen symbol.