Norway - Coastal Artillery

Norge, Noreg

Last modified: 2000-01-21 by phil nelson
Keywords: norway | rank flag | coastal artillery | pennant |
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• Coastal Artillery
• Fortress Commanders
• Commodore
• Commander, Senior Grade
• Commander, Coastal Artillery Fortress
• Pennant of Mine Units

See also:

• Norway
• Historical Flags
• Historical rank flags
• Officer Rank Flags

Coastal Artillery

The Coastal Artillery was set up as a separate service under the Army in 1899. From 1933 it was linked to the Navy, which it has been since, except the 1953-57 period when it was again under the Army.

In the 1914 soldier's handbook the Inspector General of the Coastal Artillery is shown to have a white flag charged with red-white-blue-white-red diagonal stripes running from the bottom hoist to the top fly. There is a red star in the upper hoist corner. The flag is repeated in the handbooks for 1917, 1923 and 1928, but is not in the navy handbook of 1965. The German navy flag book of 1939 has a note saying that the red star appears if the Inspector General is a Major-General, but that it is without the star if he is a Brigadier or Colonel. This is not noted in my Norwegian sources. The flag was 3:4 in proportions (the coloured stripes in ratio 3:2:4:2:3). The flag is no longer in use.

Commanders of the fortresses Oscarsborg (controlling the approach to Oslo) and Vardöhus (in the north, close to Russia) fly a special pennant that is white with horizontal stripes in the national colours. The pennant is 1:2 in proportions, and the relationship between the stripes at the hoist is 9:3:2:4:2:3:9 (according to the 1939 German navy flag book). Red stars indicate the rank of the commander.

Commodores have three stars, two set side by side on the top white panel and one set in the bottom white panel.

A Commander Senior Grade has two stars set side by side in the upper white panel.

Commanders a single star in the top white panel. These pennants are still in use.

In the inter-war period there was also a pennant for lower officers commanding mine units of the Coastal Artillery. This was white with a short swallowtail and broad vertical bands in the national colours. It appears in the 1923 soldier's handbook (but not in the earlier editions I have access to). It is no longer in use.

SOURCES:

Handbok for menige. "Blaboka", Horten, 1965

Norsk soldatbok, Fredrikshald, 1923

Norsk soldatbok, Oslo, 1928

Soldatens bok, Kristiania, 1914

Flaggenbuch, Berlin, 1939

Munksgaard, Jan Henrik: "Militaere kommando- og rangflagg i Norden. Norge",