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Turkey: Naval rank flags

The bomb
Fleet Admiral's flag
Naval Forces Command flag
Admiral's flag
Vice Admiral's flag
Rear Admiral - Upper Half's flag
Rear Admiral - Lower Half's flag
Group Commander's pennant
Commodore's broad pennant
Captain's flag
Battalion Commander's pennant
Masthead pennant

See also:

The "bomb"

The basic charge of several Turkish rank flags is a "bomb" (fide Album des Pavillons [pay00]). A bomb is a kind of 20-pointed star with points of different length, with the sequence <long-small-medium-small-long> repeated four times.
The graphic construction of the bomb is given in Flaggenbuch (1939) [neu92], with the following details:
- diameter of the long rays: 40;
- diameter of the medium rays: 34;
- diameter of the small rays: 24.
The inner diameter of the bomb, not specified, could be 20. It seems that a small ray points upwards, followed clockwise by a medium ray, then by a small one and a long one, etc.
Comparatively, the bomb in Album seems to be somewhat bigger, slightly differently designed, and somewhat skewed toward the edges of the flag.
The bombs in the swallow-tailed flags in Album are relatively bigger than those in square flags, whereas in Flaggenbuch all the bombs are of the same size.
Therefore, we show here the flags as they are represented in these two sources.

Ivan Sache & Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

The images in Album are taken from BR20 (1958 release), confirmed by Album des Pavillons (1990 and 1923 releases). The design of the bomb was also confirmed by an illustration in a special page of Naval Forces (December 1997) on the Turkish Navy.

Armand Noël du Payrat, 18 April 2003

Fleet Admiral's flag

Fleet Admiral's flag, as shown in Album des Pavillons (left) and in Flaggenbuch (captioned "Great Admiral") (right) - Images by Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

According to the Turkish General Staff website, the flag of the Fleet Admiral (Bëyëk Amiral) is a square red flag with five white bombs, one in each corner and one in the middle.
Flaggenbuch (1939) [neu92] shows a similar flag for the Great Admiral, with the following construction details:
- Flag size: 140;
- Distance from the geometrical center of the flag to geometrical center of a bomb: 55;
- Construction of the bomb: as described above.

Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

Naval Forces Command flag

Naval Forces Command flag - Image by Miles Li, 7 May 2008

According to the Turkish General Staff website, the Naval Forces Command flag is a square red flag with four white bombs, one in each corner, and a white fouled anchor in the middle. An obsolete version of this flag includes a crescent.

Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

Admiral's flag

Admiral's flag, as shown in Album des Pavillons (left) and in Flaggenbuch (right) - Images by Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

According to the Turkish General Staff website, the flag of an Admiral (Oramiral) is a square red flag with four white bombs, one in each corner.
In Flaggenbuch (1939) [neu92], the construction details are the same as for the flag of the Great Admiral.

Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

Vice Admiral's flag

Vice Admiral's flag, as shown in Album des Pavillons (left) and in Flaggenbuch (right) - Images by Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

According to the Turkish General Staff website, the flag of a Vice Admiral (Koramiral) is a square red flag with three white bombs, placed one over two.
In Flaggenbuch (1939) [neu92], the construction details are the same as for the flag of an Admiral, the upper bomb being placed on the vertical median of the flag.

Željko Heimer, 18 April 2003

Rear Admiral - Upper Half's flag

Rear Admiral - Upper Half's flag, as shown in Album des Pavillons (left) and in Flaggenbuch (right) - Images by Željko Heimer, 18 April 2003

According to the Turkish General Staff website, the flag of of a Rear Admiral - Upper Half (Tumamiral) is a square red flag with two white bombs, placed vertically in the middle of the flag.

Željko Heimer, 18 April 2003

Rear Admiral - Lower Half's flag

Rear Admiral- Lower Half's flag, as shown in Album des Pavillons (left) and in Flaggenbuch (right) - Images by Željko Heimer, 18 April 2003

According to the Turkish General Staff website, the flag of of a Rear Admiral - Lower Half (Tugamiral) is a square red flag with one white bomb placed in the middle of the flag.

Željko Heimer, 18 April 2003

Group Commander's pennant

Group Commander's pennant, as shown in Album des Pavillons (left) and in Flaggenbuch (right) - Images by Željko Heimer, 17 April 2003

According to the Turkish General Staff website, a Group Commander's pennant is a red triangular flag with a white bomb placed in the middle of the flag.

Željko Heimer, 17 April 2003

Commodore's broad pennant

Commodore's broad pennant, as shown in Album des Pavillons (left) and in Flaggenbuch (right) - Images by Željko Heimer, 18 April 2003

According to the Turkish General Staff website, the flag of a Commodore is a red swallow-tailed flag with two white bombs placed vertically in the middle of the flag.

Željko Heimer, 18 April 2003

Captain's flag

Captain's flag - Image by Miles Li, 7 May 2008

According to the Turkish General Staff website, the flag of a Captain (Albay, sometimes mistranslated as "Colonel" because both ranks are known as Albay in the Turkish language) is a square red flag with a white fouled anchor, unless appointed as a Commodore.

Miles Li, 7 May 2008

Battalion Commander's pennant

Battalion Commander's pennant - Images by Miles Li, 7 May 2008

According to the Turkish General Staff website, the flag of a Battalion Commander is a red triangular pennant with a white fouled anchor.

Miles Li, 7 May 2008

Masthead pennant

Masthead pennant - Image by Željko Heimer, 24 April 2003

According to Album des Pavillons [pay00], the masthead pennant is a red triangular flag with a white crescent and star near the hoist. Album does not give the proportions of the pennant, but show them as, approximately; 1:20. Flaggenbuch (1939) [neu92] provides four official sizes, that are probably still valid, with distance to the Mondumkreises vom Liek* indicated, as:
- 10 x 180 cm; moon at 17 cm;
- 12 x 460 cm; moon at 30 cm;
- 14 x 640 cm; moon a at 48 cm;
- 18 x 1,280 cm; moon at 65 cm.
Accordingly, the proportions of the pennant range from 1:18 to just over 1:70.

* Liek here stands obviously for what we would call the hoist. The original image showes a kind of crossbar from which the pennant is hoisted. Anyway, the distance is, I suppose between the hoist and the point of the crescent closest to the hoist (and not the center of the moon or the center of the entire white symbol.
Mondumkreis is indeed the minimum circle within which the crescent is contained.

Željko Heimer & Santiago Dotor, 24 April 2003