France: Honour jacks

Last modified: 2008-09-13 by ivan sache
Keywords: jack: honour | cross: lorraine (red) | lanyard pennant | war cross | fourragere |
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• FNFL jack
• Lanyard pennants

See also:

• France
• France: Naval flags

FNFL jack

FNFL jack and its construction sheet - Images by Željko Heimer, 13 September 2001

A flag was introduced in 1943 as a jack for the vessels serving in the FNFL (Forces Navales Françaises Libres). It continued to be used by those vessels after 1945, and is now flown as a jack, in place of the French ensign, by ships bearing the same name.

Official specifications were issued by the Direction Centrale du Commissariat of the French Navy in April 1987 and approved 29 May 1987.
The flag is 100 x 150 units in size, the lozenge touches the medians of each edge. The cross of Lorraine is 80 unit high, centered on the flag, with bars of 10 units in width. The lower crossbar is 50 unitlong and its upper edge is aligned with the horizontal bisecting line, the upper crossbar is 35 unit long, set so that there are 14 units between the two crossbars.

Christopher Southworth, Armand du Payrat &Željko Heimer, 2 May 2004

Lanyard pennants

"lanyard" is used here as David Prothero's translation of French fourragère, a twisted wool lanyard that crew of these ships wear on the shoulder as reconnaissance of the decoration that the ship (or the ancestor of same name) received.

Armand du Payrat, 24 September 2001

The fourragère has the colour of Légion d'Honneur (red), Médaille Militaire (yellow) or Croix de Guerre (War cross, green or sky blue), and is worn on the left shoulder. Since 1916, it has been a collective badge attributed to military units having received more than one mention in dispatches (citations à l'ordre de l'Armée).
The lanyard pennants have a semi-circular fly and overall proportions of 2:5. They are charged near the hoist with a Croix de Guerre. The field colour-cross colour combination depends on the number of mentions and the operation category, as follows:

Number of citations		Theater of operations
	1914 - 1918	1939 - 1945	Overseas operations
2-3 (Croix de Guerre)
4-5 (Médaille Militaire)
6 (Légion d'Honneur)