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Sweetdust202 — German Troop Colour - Finnish Jaeger

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Published: 2022-05-13 09:26:53 +0000 UTC; Views: 6914; Favourites: 33; Downloads: 9
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Description Hello there! 

This is the Truppenfahne (/Troop Colour) for the light infantry.

The Army knows two types of flags, typical square Colours as seen here and standards/banners. The difference being that in the German Army, the Reichsheer, Colours are only to be born by non-motorized units. Banners are flown by all motorized/mechanized units and the cavalry. 
After the Anschluß, the merger of the Archkingdom of German-Austria with the rest of the German Reich the decision was made for the introduction of new military flags. The famous artist and illustrator Paul Casberg was tasked with designing the flags while keeping traditions but fashioning them as new all-German flags and not simple Prussian or Austrian flags. Despite the new design the elements have deep roots in all-German military history.

German Colours consist of a square cloth with a side-length of 125cm (49.2125984253 inches (the imperial system is fun...)) which are nailed to a polished, black oak staff with 74 nails. The the staff measures three meters (/118.11024 Inches) in length and its top is decorated with the Iron Cross inside of an stylized spear-tip.

The underlining design of Colours and Banners is the same; it consists of a Iron Cross taking up the middle of the flag and itself bearing the German national coat of arms of the Reichsadler (/Eagle of the Realm) on a golden backing surrounded by a wreath of silver oak leaves held together by a golden band. Situated in the four corners of the Iron Cross are local coat of arms of the unit to which the flag belongs to. The 172cm long and 4,6cm wide flag ribbon (/Fahnenband) consists of silver aluminium braid with the German national colours of Black-Red-Gold to the sides and end with 18,2cm long silver aluminium tassels (Ger.: Quasten). These flag ribbons simply denote the national belonging, other ribbons can be awarded as campaign streamers / battle honours and would then be unique to that particular flag.
In this the flag ribbons of the army and the air-force are the same, however army flags also had metal badges decorated with oak leafes over the tassels which show the German Eagle with the shorter half of the ribbon showing the date of 2. Februar 962 and the the longer half the 28. Juni 1936. The former is the date of the coronation of Otto I., the Great with which the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was founded, (despite the title of the Holy Roman Emperor being created in 800 with the coronation of Charlemagne(/Charles the Great),) being regarded as the "Old Reich" and the starting point for the German State. The latter date is the modern Day of German Unity on which all central-European German territories united. The date was chosen to connect the Unification to  the integration of Elsaß-Lotheringen/Alasce-Lorraine into the German Empire on the 28th June 1871.
The flag is lined with aluminium threads of 4,5cm in length and the flag cloth is always is the Waffenfarbe, the Branch of Service Colour. 


This flag's cloth is of medium-green colour, denoting it as a Colour for a non-motorized (Gebirgs-)Jäger-Battalion. The Jäger or literally "Hunter" is the traditional name for German light-infantry. German mountain troops are called Gebirgsjäger(/Mountain Hunters), perform the same fuctions as regular Jäger and therefore bear the same Waffenfarbe and Flags. The German Paratroopers, the Fallschirmjäger (=literally Parachute-Hunters) also see themselfes in the tradition of the Jäger.

 This particular battalion of Jäger is stationed in Greifswald, Prussian province of Pomerania. Their Colour however does not bear any Pomeranian, Prussian or even German coat of arms for that matter. The reason behind that special flag is that its unit the III.(Jäger-)Battailon Infanterie-Regiment 92 ,,Finnische Jäger" (III. Jaeger-battalion Infantry-Regiment 92 "Finnish Jaegers") is rather special. It takes up the traditions of the   27. Königlich-Preußischen Jägerbataillons (Finnische Jäger) (= 27th Royal-Prussian Jaeger-battalion ("Finnish Jaegers/Hunters")) which was formed during the First World War and was made up of a good portion of Finnish volunteers. These were trained by the German Empire to fight for Finnish independece, after which they formed the basis for the Finnish Armed Forces. Many former members became the Finnish officiers and generals of the Winter War. The Finnish government established the Jägerkreuz/Jääkäriristi (=Hunter's Cross) as an award for former members of the 27. Königlich-Preußische Jägerbataillon. It consisted of an Iron Cross made of silver ontop of which a golden "27" surrounded by a green laurel wreath was situated. 
Examples: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnisch…
commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/F…

The Jääkäriristi is one of the two elements which take the place of the unit's local coat of arms; it's visible in the bottom-right and top-left corner of the Iron Cross. The top-right and the bottom-left corner show the Coat of Arms of the Finnish State surrounded by pine branches. 

With the unique design comes a unique position for the III.(Jäg.-)Bat. I.-R. 92 ,,Finnische Jäger" and that doesn't just mean it's status as a elite unit, meaning only career soldiers are authorized to join.  Upholding the traditions of the Finnish Jaegers was meant to strengthen the traditionally already good relations with the Finnish armed forces. Every new Colour of the Jäger is awarded by the Finnish Head of State and during every diplomatic visit of Finnish officials the unit is present with their colour. Usually this would be part of the duties of the Wachtregiment Großdeutschland (=Guard-Regiment "Greater Germany") which usually handles diplomatic affairs. However the Jäger-Colour flies next to the Flag of the Regiment Großdeutschland and the Army section of the diplomatic attachment is made up of members of the ,,Finnische Jäger", the Navy and Air-Force sections are made up of the Wachregiment. Lastly should Finnland ever be attacked the whole unit rests it's service in the German Armed Forces and will be transfered to Finnland to fight as Finnish soldiers. This only applies to the ,,Finnische Jäger" and not to any other unit nor the German state as a whole. 

 
Jäähyväiset und Weggetreten!


Elements are taken from Wikipedia-Commons.
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Comments: 2

BlusterAster12 [2022-06-18 14:53:33 +0000 UTC]

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Sweetdust202 In reply to BlusterAster12 [2022-08-06 17:05:02 +0000 UTC]

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