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Bibliography: Corrections and comments on [zna99]

Alfred Znamierowski’s The World Encyclopedia of Flags: The Definitive Guide to International Flags,

Author’s corrections
All corrections by page number:
12 | 44 | 47 | 48 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 62 | 66 | 71 | 73 | 74 | 81 | 85 | 90 | 91 | 93 | 94 | 94 | 95 | 97 | 98 | 102 | 103 | 116 | 117 | 121 | 123 | 127 | 134 | 135 | 137 | 138 | 142 | 143 | 144 | 145 | 147 | 148 | 149 | 155 | 158 | 160 | 164 | 165 | 168 | 173 | 175 | 176 | 184 | 185 | 190 | 206 | 208 | 210 | 228 | 231 | 232 | 234 | 238 | 242 | 244 | 245 | 247 | 248 | unk.

See also:

Author’s corrections

The book looks very good, neverthesless I am unhappy that there are so many errors. Since I am the author, I owe an apology to the potential readers and an explanation why it happened. After receiving the color proofs I checked them carefully and sent to the editor a list of some hundred and twenty errors to be corrected. Unfortunately I did not receive any further proofs and until I received the copy of the book I was not aware that more than two dozen errors has not been vorrected, and the computer artist had added another one (on page 232 he has removed the flag of Ouarzazate and has put in its place remnants of the flag of East Flanders). There are seven other major errors — misrepresentations of some national and subnational flags, as well as more than a dozen minor errors in text, captions, and index.

Here is a list of flags which are shown incorrectly:

Page 57 - Francois Mitterand (the emblem should be golden yellow)
Page 103 - Civil ensign of Malta (the white border is missing).
Page 148 - South Holland (the royal flag of Scotland is shown).
Page 158 - Gagauzia (the three white stars are missing).
Page 165 - Palestine - (the civil flag of Spain is shown).
Page 176 - Taiwan (the Taiwanese jack is shown),
Page 228 - Portuguese Language Community (blue border is missing).

The errors on pages 103 and 228 were not spotted by me when I checked the color proofs. Nevertheless the artwork at the computer artist’s disposal was correct, and he is to blame for removal of the borders.

The errors in text which have not been correct are as follows:

Page 155 - Serbian Republic - should be 'National Flag', not 'State and National Flag.'
Page 185 - Tuvalu - should be 'Vaitupu' not Vaitupua.'
Page 206 - Curacao - should be 'Flag of the Islands' not 'Island'
Page 210 - captions above stamps - 'Amazonas' not 'Amazonias.'
Page 242 - captions - 'Anarchosyndicalists' not 'Anarchosyndacilists.'
Page 244 - captions - 'Welt-Handelsflotte' not 'welt-Handelsflotte.'

Also nine of my changes and additions to the index have been ignored, and one new error has been made (see Castiole under Catalonia instead of Castilla-Léon).

Alfred Znamierowski, on NAVA-news Vol. 32. No. 5, September/October 1999; quoted by Jarig Bakker

All corrections by page number

Editorial note: Listed are only typoes and other printing mistakes, and also vexillological errors widely recognized. Any other disputable and unsure information reported is discussed in the relevant page of this site.

page 12: «The Historika Museet» should be either «Historiska Museet» or «The Historiska Musee».
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 02 May 2003
page 44: Illustration explanation wrong: Claims rank flag is flown at stern.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 47: The last sentence on the page isn't finished.
Mark Sensen
page 48: Civil flag of Ethiopia should be: former civil flag of Ethiopia.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 48: Swastika flag: Claimed to be German civil ensign 1933-1935, should be 1933-1945.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 48: Black-red-gold was the German national flag and civil ensign just for a short period from 1848, not until 1866 (there was simply no German nation state).
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 48: Black-white-red combined the colors of Prussia and the Hanse cities, not of Prussia and Brandenburg.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 49: FAP is Freiheitliche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (this Neonazi group was banned several years ago, so the flag is probably not in use anymore).
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 56: Flag of Napoleon I: «This flag was again in use from 1852 to 1970,..» Latter year clearly wrong.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 56: Royal flag of the Netherlands (1815-1840) although the arms on a plain white flag is shown on some old flag charts, the royal flag showed the arms on the national tricolor from 1816 till 1908 (when the present design was adopted). Source: [tre71] (p.30).
Mark Sensen
page 57: Francois Mitterand (the emblem should be golden yellow).
Alfred Znamierowski
page 58: Figure "Emperor of Austria-Hungary (1894-1915)" is mirrored.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 62: Norwegian royal flag, wrong illustration (blade of axe must be white).
Jan Oskar Engene
page 66: Iceland swallow-tailed flag: wrong proportions.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 71: The flag labeled «Governor of German colonies» really is the Service flag for the Foreign Office. The intended flag has the same eagle(the imperial eagle of 1888) slightly smaller and with no white disk or crown: the uncrowned eagle appears completely within the white stripe of the national flag.
Norman Martin
page 73: Current customs flags: Danish customs flag not current, but old version.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 74: Norwegian post flag: wrong proportions.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 81: «Battle flag of the Confederacy States of America» should be «Battle flag of the Confederate States of America».
John Ayer, 11 May 2003
page 85: Air force flag of the Netherlands the design mentioned (adopted 1948) was changed in 1964 when the Military Order of William was replaced by a flying eagle under a crown. (See here).
Mark Sensen
page 85: The text states: "...and Colombia have the air force emblem in the centre", but the picture shows the air force flag with the roundel, not an air force emblem.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 90: «Iran cross» should be «Iron cross».
Mark Sensen
page 91: War ensign of Croatia (1941-1945) — wrong the 'U' in ornament (that I'll call "wattle") was never positioned in the Croatian tricolour the way as shown there. The civil flag had the shield in the white stripe only and the wattle in canton. The civil ensign had only the wattle in canton and no shield (see below). The naval (i.e. war) ensign was banner of arms – chequy gules and argent of 25 in ratio 2:3. Although, some materials by Neubecker (used by Emil Dreyer in his article in Banderas, quoted since on several places, among others in the Flagmaster and on my pages) show the flag of 1944 similar to the design shown here in [zna99] but with the coat or arms (shield+wattle) offset towards hoist. Except for the source quoted there is no “local” (i.e. official gazettes and similar official material) that would support that 1944 designs of Neubecker so they are, at least said, somewhat doubtful. On the other hand, who is to say what was really used by Croatian navy of the time? Not that I have a huge library, but I have not been able to see image of some Croatian warship of the time with the flag clearly visible. I remember seeing some b/w movies showing civil ships that notably use the simple unadorned Croatian tricolour in spite that the «wattled" version was prescribed.
Zeljko Heimer
page 93: Egypt war ensign since 1984, not since 1973.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 94: On page 94 there is description, quote: «The Croatian jack 1941-1945 was an armorial banner, charged with the badge of the ruling Ustasha.» Only flag that partially resembles the described item is the flag of Poglavnik, shown on page 58, but in any case, the description is quite wrong.
Zeljko Heimer
page 94: Norwegian jack: wrong proportions.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 95: The «jack of Croatia» of the same period [1941-45]. By the decisions issued in the official gazette that was the war ensign, but in the Neubecker’s 1944 material it is also found named as the jack. As said before, there is no local material (found as yet?) to support this 1944 series.
Zeljko Heimer
page 97: Figure: not all the German rank flags are still in use (e.g. Grossadmiralsflagge, as there is no Grossadmiral).
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 98: Current rank flags — the Netherlands: the designs shown were in use until short after in 1956 the stars were rotated 90 degrees, nowadays one point is pointing upwards. Also the points should be like a solid Magen David (hope you know what I mean, see here.)
Mark Sensen
page 98: Norwegian rank flags: wrong proportions, wrong captions.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 102: Swedish civil ensign (1844-1905): union badge with wrong proportions Norwegian civil ensign: illustration wrong: lion facing the wrong way; years incorrect (should be 1814-1821).
Jan Oskar Engene
page 103: Civil ensign of Malta (the white border is missing). The errors on pages 103 and 228 were not spotted by me when I checked the color proofs. Nevertheless the artwork at the computer artist’s disposal was correct, and he is to blame for removal of the borders.
Alfred Znamierowski
page 103: Error in text, year 1921 attributed to Aland flag, correct year is 1954.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 116: 'Saardam', should be 'Zaandam'. (This error was already reported by Jan Melssen on the BeNeVex-list.)
Mark Sensen
page 117: The Croatian civil ensign was shown (as claimed by 1944 Neubecker). All suspicions from above text remain. In my opinion, here the national flag would be more suitable (that is, it would be enough to add the shield in the middle).
Zeljko Heimer
page 121: Civil ensign Austria-Hungary: the fly half of the bottom stripe should be green, not dark greyish.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 123: The flag of the United Arab Republic (1958-61) and Egypt (1961-1972) is also the flag of Syria (1980-today).
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 121: National flag of Ethiopia (without star) should be "former national flag".
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 127: East Germany, civil ensign: abolished 1973 (not 1990).
Jan Oskar Engene
page 134: Faeroes: text wrong: flag not “recognized” by local parliament 1931 (though a flag incident at parliament building took place that year). Name of country in the national language (Faeroese) missing.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 134: Norway, text in italics wrong. Flag adopted by Royal resolution of13 July 1821 (17 July is the date of a proclamation specifying in which waters the flag could be used). The flag was in unrestricted usage from1838 until 1845 when the union badge was introduced, and then again from 15. December 1899 (one year after the Royal resolution on the flag act of 1898 was published in the gazette). Since 1899 the state flag and ensign have been triple swallow-tailed, the war flag and ensign have been triple swallow-tailed (that is without the union mark) since 1905.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 135: Finnish state flag/ensign: wrong proportions Aland Island: Text in italics wrong: Flag not in use since 1921, flag's status as civil ensign is omitted (text may give impression that flag is only used on land).
Jan Oskar Engene
page 135: «Karl Knuttson» should be «Karl Knutsson». «Nylãndska Jaktklubben» should be «Nyländska Jaktklubben». «Helsinfors Dagblat» should be «Helsingfors Dagblad».
Jan Oskar Engene
page 137: Poland, state flag: Assertion that «this is the only state flag in the world that is not used by all of the government authorities» is not correct.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 138: Austria: all States (Bundesländer) use simple bicolors/tricolors as civil flag; the state flags show the arms (see here).
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 142: Bavaria: why is the «Rautenflagge» not mentioned and/or shown?.
Mark Sensen
page 143: Germany: the picture shows the state flag, which was never used before 1919 (the legend reads "introduced 23 March 1848"; this refers to the simple triband).
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 143: Germany: the tricolor of black-red-gold was actually not replaced by black-white-red in 1867 as flag of the German Federation (Deutscher Bund), but the newly created Norddeutscher Bund adopted the black-white-red flag.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 143: Germany (Bremen): civil flag is without arms
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 143: Germany (Hesse): shown is the state flag, civil flag is without arms.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
page 145: «blue lion of Schleswig» should be «blue lions of Schleswig».
Jan Oskar Engene
page 147: «Groningen'[..] Ommerland's» should be «[..] those of the Ommelanden».
Mark Sensen
page 147: Limburg proportions 1:2 are wrong, should be 2:3. (Note that this is also erroneous in Whitney Smith's books!) 'Yellow and red are the colours of [..]' should be 'The four colours are taken from [..]' (only the arms of Horn has just yellow and red).
Mark Sensen
page 148: South Holland (the royal flag of Scotland is shown).
Norman Martin and Alfred Znamierowski
page 148: Utrecht proportions 9:13 are wrong, should be 2:3. (Note that this is also erroneous in Whitney Smith's books!) (Note that Dutch flags are 2:3 unless other proportions are specified.).
Mark Sensen
page 149: Hebrides “national flag”: non-existent.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 149: Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, Hebrides: do not enjoy limited autonomy.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 155: Bosnia-Herzegovina — Serbian rep. the C's are pointing to the cross, shouldn't they be pointing the other direction (like on the arms of the Serbian flag on p. 117)?.
Mark Sensen
page 155: Serbian Republic — should be «National Flag», not «State and National Flag».
Alfred Znamierowski
page 158: Driester should be Dniester.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 158: Gagauzia (the three white stars are missing).
Alfred Znamierowski
page 160: Chuvashia: purple colour wrong.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 164: Abkhazia: wrong proportions given (2:2).
Jan Oskar Engene
page 165: Palestine — (the civil flag of Spain is shown).
Alfred Znamierowski
page 168: Turkmenistan: Wrong date for flag modification.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 173: Malaysia: Lebanon [instead of Labuan] named as federal territory.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 175: Brunei: wrong colour? (white = cream).
Jan Oskar Engene
page 175: Indonesia: I'm not sure about the official name Sang Dwiwrna. In the constitutions she’s called Sang Merah Putih (Exalted Red White). Constitution 1945 BAB XV, Pasal 35 «Bendera Negara Indonesia ialah SANG MERAH PUTIH» ("Bendera" = "flag"; "Negara" = "state") Constitutions 1949 and 1950 BAB XV, Bagian III, Pasal 3: «Bendera kebangsaan Republik Indonesia [Serikat *)] ialah bendera Sang Merah Putih".('Serikat' {=United} not in Const. of 1950).
Mark Sensen
page 176: Taiwan [national flag] (the Taiwanese jack is shown),.
Alfred Znamierowski
page 184: Tokelau: As far as I know this flag was never adopted. At least, that was (if I recall correctly) the answer Jos Poels received from the locla authorities. (See: here, which also shows the design of the proposal/unnofficial flag as I've seen it slightly different position of the stars and palm tree).
Mark Sensen
page 185: Tuvalu — should be «Vaitupu» not «Vaitupua».
Alfred Znamierowski
page 190: Greenland: wrong proportions.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 190: «Kalaalit Nunaat» should be «Kalaallit Nunaat».
Jan Oskar Engene
page 206: Counter correction! The caption in the book, «Flag of the Island», is correct, since the uninhabited Klein Curacao is regarded as part of the main island.
Mark Sensen
page 208: Brazil: 1989 wrong date for establishment of the federal republic.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 210: Captions above stamps — «Amazonas» not «Amazonias».
Alfred Znamierowski
page 228: Portuguese Language Community (blue border is missing). The errors on pages 103 and 228 were not spotted by me when I checked the color proofs. Nevertheless the artwork at the computer artist's disposal was correct, and he is to blame for removal of the borders.
Alfred Znamierowski
page 231: East Flanders: Illustration = Unofficial version, never adopted.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 232: Part of the flag of East Flanders as the flag of Ouarzazate in Morocco.
Norman Martin and Alfred Znamierowski
page 234: Amsterdam: the saltires shouldn’t be stretched. (See here.)
Mark Sensen
page 238: Amboinese proportions shown are wrong, should be 2: 3. Proportions of the stripes should be 1:1:1:6.
Mark Sensen
page 242: captions — «Anarchosyndicalists» not «Anarchosyndacilists».
Alfred Znamierowski
page 242: Rikshird: illustration upside down; caption should read «Rikshirden».
Jan Oskar Engene
page 244: captions — «Welt-Handelsflotte» not «welt-Handelsflotte».
Alfred Znamierowski
page 245: «Vereenigte Nederlandsche Oost Indische Compagne» should be «Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie»; «Nederlandsche Geoctroyeerde West Indische Compagnie» should be «Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie»; «WGC» should be «GWC»; «Horn» should be «Hoorn»; «Eikhuizen» should be «Enkhuizen».
Mark Sensen
page 247: «Nordisk Flaggselskab»: Name of society incorrect. Finland and Iceland left out, old flag (1973-87) shown.
Jan Oskar Engene
page 248: Nederlandse Vereniging voor Vlaggenkunde: the flag is shown upside-down «Verenigung» should be «Vereniging».
Mark Sensen
page unk.: The G-G of the Federation of Rhodesian and Nyasaland is incorrect. The field should be the standard dark blue as found in the flags of other G-Gs elsewhere in the "Empire/Commonwealth" at that time.
David Prothero, 23 Mar 2003