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Army Unit Flags 1953-62 (Taiwan)

Last modified: 2020-07-31 by ian macdonald
Keywords: army | taiwan | army units | corps | division | brigade | regiment | battalion | company |
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Overview

Note that when drawing the images I have taken some liberty regarding the sizes of the accouterments (fringes, white strips, small flags, tassels, finials) relative to the flags themselves.
The dimensions are given in as length x breadth (the opposite to standard Western vexillological practice). This is done deliberately to remain faithful to the official specifications.
Miles Li, 31 July 2014


Army Group 1954-62

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 23 August 2014

Dimensions: 100cm x 87.5cm, plus 12cm yellow finge. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 9cm x 62cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a small triangular flag, 34cm x 27cm, yellow with the letters 'jun tuan' (army group) in black. (Presumably the pole is red, with a white bronze spearhead finial 20cm long and a white bronze pike base 15cm long.)
Miles Li, 23 August 2014


Corps

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 24 August 2014

Dimensions: 95cm x 83.1cm, plus 12cm yellow fringe. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 9cm x 60cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a small triangular flag, 28cm x 21cm, yellow with the letter 'jun' (corps) in black. The pole is red, 230cm long in total, 12cm circumference, with a white bronze spearhead finial 20cm long and a white bronze pike base 15cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014


Division

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 24 August 2014

Dimensions: 90cm x 78.8cm, plus 12cm yellow fringe. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 9cm x 58cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a small triangular flag, 27cm x 20cm, yellow with the letter 'shi' (division) in black. The pole is red, 230cm long in total, 12cm circumference, with a white bronze spearhead finial 20cm long and a white bronze pike base 15cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014


Brigade

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 23 August 2014

Dimensions: 85cm x 74.4cm, plus 12cm yellow fringe.. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 9cm x 58cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a small triangular flag, 26cm x 19cm, yellow with the letter 'lü' (brigade) in black. The pole is red, 230cm long in total, 12cm circumference, with a white bronze spearhead finial 20cm long and a white bronze pike base 15cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014


Regiment

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 23 August 2014

Dimensions: 80cm x 70cm, plus 12cm yellow fringe. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 9cm x 58cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a red tassel, 20cm long. The pole is red, 210cm long in total, 12cm circumference, with a white bronze spearhead finial 20cm long and a white bronze pike base 15cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014


Battalion

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Miles Li, 24 August 2014

Dimensions (Battalion): 75cm x 65.6cm. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 8cm x 58cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a red tassel, 17cm long. The pole is red, 200cm long in total, 10cm circumference, with a white iron spearhead finial 17cm long and a white iron pike base 14cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014


Company

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Miles Li, 24 August 2014

Dimensions (Company): 70cm x approximately 61cm. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 7cm x 54.3cm, next to the hoist. Above the flag is a red tassel, 17cm long. The pole is red, 200cm long in total, 10cm circumference, with a white iron spearhead finial 17cm long and a white iron pike base 14cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014


Army Hospital/Medical Troops

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Miles Li, 26 August 2014

Dimensions: Correspond to the flag for units of equivalent size. Aboveit is a square flag, 20cm x 20cm, white with a red cross at the centre.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014

The official specification states that its size corresponds to the flag for units of equivalent size, but with a small square flag 26cm each side, white with a red cross, above the flag. However that would make the small flag too large relative to the main flag to be practical. Therefore I believe it is a typo error, the small flag should therefore be 16cm each side, the same size used on a number of ROC Army flags since the 1930s.
Miles Li, 25 August 2014

The dimension of the small square flag above the Army Hospital/Medical Troops flag was indeed revised in 1953, not a typo.
At beginning I supposed the same with Miles, but when I reviewed the original draft in the official archives, I found the number "16" altered to "26" with a red pencil by a duly authorized officer. However, there was not any record to explain why the small flag needed to become larger.
Akira Oyo, 25 August 2014

I don't know. You'd provably need a bigger staff, but maybe they had a reason for this. Maybe the white cross flag had to stand out more than it would as a 16 cm flag.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 25 August 2014

Thank you Peter Hans for the corrected image. I have re-posted it here, under my original file name, with the grey background removed.
Akira Oyo, 26 August 2014

Then the draft originally said it was 16x16. So, this was how it was proposed, but at some point this was changed. Is there a way to find out whether it was a new proposal or whether it was changed when adopting the flag? (In the latter case, would there be an explanation recorded somewhere? Who did adopt all those flags?)
Then that "duly authorized officer" changed it to 26. Is that enough of a change to make it official? Or should there have been a new document at some point?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 26 September 2014

The official specification says "2 decimeters 6", so at first I was not sure the 6 means 6 centimeters or was just a typo mistake. However given the evidence from Akira Oyo we can say with certainty it was indeed 26cm.
As for the reason for the increase from 16cm to 26cm, my speculation is that it was done to make the Red Cross (an internationally recognized protection sign) more visible in battlefield.
Miles Li, 27 September 2014


Airborne Troops

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 24 August 2014


Armored Troops

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 24 August 2014


Fort Commander

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 24 August 2014

Dimensions: 90cm x 78.8cm, plus 12cm yellow fringe. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 9cm x 58cm, next to the hoist. Above it is a triangular flag, 27cm x 20cm, yellow field with the word "san" (parachute), "zhuang" (armor) or "sai" (fort) in black at the centre. The pole is red, 230cm long in total, 12cm circumference, with a white bronze spearhead finial 20cm long and a white bronze pike base 15cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014


Military Academy

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Akira Oyo and Miles Li, 25 August 2014


Army Schools

[Taiwan Army Flag]
image by Miles Li, 25 August 2014

Dimensions: 95cm x 83.1cm, plus 12cm yellow fringe. The name of the unit is written in black on a white strip, 9cm x 58cm, next to the hoist. Above it is a red tassel, 20cm long. The pole is red, 230cm long in total, 12cm circumference, with a white bronze spearhead finial 20cm long (the official specification said 30cm long, but this was probably a typo error) and a white bronze pike base 15cm long.
Miles Li, 15 August 2014