PRUSSIA INFANTRY REGIMENTS PAGE ONE

KINGDOM OF PRUSSIA

COLORS OF INFANTRY REGIMENTS

1740-1806

Images Added March 2006

Infantry Regiments 4, 41 & 45

Notes

King Frederick II—known to history as Frederick the Great—ascended the throne of Prussia in 1740. Shortly thereafter he began to issue colors of a new pattern to the line infantry regiments of the Prussian Army.

Under the new regulations, each regiment received two flags per battalion. The first battalion carried the king's color or Leibfahne and one regimental color or Regimentsfahne, while the second battalion carried two Regimentsfahnen. The Leibfahne had a white field and the Regimentsfahne had a field in the distinguishing color of the regiment. In the center of both colors was a circular tablet bearing the crowned Prussian eagle under a scroll inscribed Pro Gloria et Patria (For Glory and Fatherland), all within a wreath surmounted by the royal crown. The corners were decorated with crowned royal cyphers (FR for Fredericus Rex) The colors of the wreath, crown and cyphers could be either gold or silver. Unusually, Prussian infantry colors were longer at the hoist than on the fly, measuring 140 by 120 centimeters. Cords and tassels were silver and black. The colors were made of silk, with insignia painted on.

During the Seven Years War (1756-63), Frederick raised a number of second-line infantry regiments to garrison towns and fortifications. They were not intended for field service and so were granted no colors, but as the war wore on, lack of men forced Frederick to employ these garrison regiments as regular infantry. Accordingly they were granted colors. Garrison Regiments Nr. 1 and Nr. 2 received colors of the normal infantry pattern, but for the rest a new design was introduced, 140 centimeters square with just the royal cypher within the wreath.

The colors of the regular infantry regiments remained virtually unchanged from 1742 until catastrophic defeat at the hands of Napoleon in 1806 all but destroyed the once-proud Prussian Army. When new flags were issued to the reconstituted army beginning in 1811-12, their design was based on the Frederician pattern, but with a number of modifications.

Credit: These drawings are based on images and information from Napflags, the outstanding Napoleonic flags site of Alan Pendlebury, and from Ian Croxall's excellent Warflag site. For each regiment, the Leibfahne is shown on the left and the Regimentsfahne on the right