Last modified: 2002-09-07 by ivan sache
Keywords: pennant | tirailleurs algeriens | crescents: 4 (yellow) | crescents: 4 (red) | hand (red) | hand of fatima | crown: imperial | lion (yellow) |
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Such a flag is not a standard as such, in the same sense as a regimental colour, but a fanion (the nearest English equivalent is perhaps battalion or company marker). It is used to mark the position of the unit, especially its commanding officer, on parade and in the field. They are only small, and were attached to a small staff which was placed in the muzzle of a rifle. The regulation sizes were 50cm x 40cm for a battalion fanion, 40 x 30 for a company fanion, and 34 x 27 for a platoon fanion (the latter can also be a triangular pennant 30 x 40).
The regulations of 1857 laid down the colours:-
When wartime expansion created extra battalions, these used fanions in the same sequence of colours, but with a central vertical white band down the sheet.
The devices were coloured by company (note that in the French army, companies were numbered consecutively through the regiment, and not the battalion):
![[Pennant of Algerian Tirailleurs]](../images/f/fr^dztir.gif)
by Jorge Candeias
Source: The World of Flags [cra90]
With red devices on a green sheet, this fanion belongs to the 4th Battalion, 14th Company of any of the regiments (3 until 1878, then 4; the changes in the 20th Century are just too complex to enumerate here).
The central device, the hand of Fatima, is a common device for Algerian units of the French Army. Fatima was the daughter of Mohammed - the hand represents good luck, or at least the warding off of bad luck. The hand on the fanion should be about 18cm high. In 1949, a regulation mentions that crescents pointing outwards are a sign of conquest, whereas crescents pointing inwards are a sign of surrender. Both the hand and the cresc