GERMANY CURRENT MILITARY FLAGS TWO

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY

COMMAND PENNANTS FOR ARMY COMPANIES & BATTALIONS

The German Army (Heer) employs a simple system of flags and pennants to identify unit commanders and mark the locations of their headquarters. Triangular pennants in the arm-of-service color (Waffenfarbe) with horizontal and vertical black bars respectively are used for battalion- and company-sized elements. (Pennants for engineer companies have a white bar since the Engineer Waffenfarbe is black.)

With a few exceptions, these Waffenfarben are the same as those used by the Wehrmacht during World War II. All types of infantry now have rifle green as their distinguishing color, whereas during the war white denoted regular infantry, grass green denoted panzer grenadiers, and rifle green denoted mountain infantry and light infantry. (White is now the Waffenfarbe for Army bands.) When Air Defense Artillery was made a separate branch, it was given "coral red" as its Waffenfarbe to distinguish it from the Field Artillery with its traditional red color. Nuclear-Biological-Chemical (NBC) Defense troops use "Bordeaux red" (purple) and Technical Troops (supply, maintenance, ordnance, transportation, etc.) use cornflower blue.

Due to the post-Cold War reorganization of the Bundeswehr, certain Army units—military police, medical and technical troops—have been transferred to the new Joint Service Command (Streitkräftebasis). However, these units still use their traditional command pennants.