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France: Army corps and service pennants, 1933

Fanions de service

Introduction
Munitions Sections
Telegraph Sections
Post Sections
Umpires
Director of Army Services

See also:

Introduction

The commanding officer's and service pennants of the French Army, as prescribed by the 1933 regulations, are shown in a series of 20 plates, adapted from official models published in 1937, entitled Les uniformes de l'Armé françise, 1939-1940, edited by François Vauvillier (Paris, the author, 1989.
They are similar, with slight modifications, to the pennants used before 1933 and shown in Grand Larousse Illustré du XXe siècle, 1928.

Ian Sumner, 21 November 2000

Munitions sections

The pennant of the munitions sections is plain yellow for the infantry, blue for the artillery, and yellow with two red stripes for the joint artillery / infantry section. The size of the pennants is 0.65 m x 0.5 m.
The lantern is white, blue or blue, respectively.

Ian Sumner, 21 November 2000

Telegraph Sections

Telegraph sections pennant - Image by Ivan Sache, 21 November 2000

The telegraph sections pennant is in size 0.65 x 0.5 m, white with a blue border and a blue T in the middle.

Ian Sumner, 21 November 2000

Post Sections

Post sections pennant - Image by Ivan Sache, 21 November 2000

The Post sections pennant is in size 0.65 x 0.5 m, white with a green border and a green P in the middle.

Ian Sumner, 21 November 2000

Umpires (arbitres)

Umpire's pennant - Image by Ivan Sache, 21 November 2000

The umpire's pennant is in size 0.65 x 0.5 m, white with a red border.

Ian Sumner, 21 November 2000

Umpires might have been similar to what the modern US terminology would call observer/controler (or OC) - personnel belonging to the unit executing an excercise or proffesionals from specialized institutions who follow the course of the exercise as "neutral side" and are consulted in after action reviews for evaluation of the exercise.

Željko Heimer, 23 November 2000

A wargaming expert could probably explain why at some obscure level a modern controller fills a completely different role than the umpire of the 1930s, but I've been a controller (in command post exercises, not in the field) and believe that the positions are functionally the same. I suspect the terminology was changed because someone objected to the sporting connotations in English of the word "umpire" and wanted to convey that wargames are not really games.

Joe McMillan, 23 November 2000

Director of Army Services

The Director of the Army Services' pennant is in size 0.65 x 0.5 m, swallow-tailed, white with an orange stripe at top and bottom, the white section to be 20 cm wide. This flag was created on 15 March 1933.

Ian Sumner, 21 November 2000