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Flags for components of the Indian Army

Army Ordnance Corps
Corps of EME
Regiment of Artillery
Army Medical Corps
Northern Command
Other flags sighted at army bases:

See also:

Army Ordnance Corps

A Navy blue flag with a horizontal saxe blue band between two broader marron bands across the middle. These were the colours of King George IV and were first used by the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
Source: army website
Ivan Sache, 26 August 2001

Corps of EME

Ivan Sache, 26 August 2001

The Corps of EME was created in 1943 and its role is 'achieve and maintain the operational fitness of electrical, mechanical, electronic and optical equipment of the Army'. Official meaning of the colours is: Oxford blue, devotion to duty; Golden yellow, magnanimity and intellect; Scarlet, aggressiveness valour and sacrifice. The flag is apparently 5:8, vertically divided blue-yellow-red-yellow-blue (30:15:10:15:30)
Source: army website
Ivan Sache, 26 August 2001

Regiment of Artillery

Ivan Sache, 26 August 2001

A 2:3 rectangular flag, horizontally divided red-Navy blue. Red and blue represent the flash and the smoke of the gun according to gunners' folklore. In fact, red has been common to all combat arms (infantry, armour and artillery). The blue was taken from the ribbon of the 'Star of India' which had been incorporated in the artillery crest. The original colour was light blue but since a similar colour was adopted by the Corps of Signals, it was changed to Navy blue to avoid confusion.
Source: army website
Ivan Sache, 26 August 2001

Army Medical Corps

Ivan Sache, 26 August 2001

A 2:3 rectangular flag, horizontally divided dull cherry-black-old gold (11:2:11). The colours were adopted by the Indian Army Medical Corps in 1944, as representative of the three amalgamated components. In 1953, the colours were retained as flag colours. The flags should be made of bunting cloth. Colour flag is 2' x 3' with flag mast 15' high; flag is 4' x 6' with flag mast 20' high or more. Dull cherry was the colour of the Royal Army Medical Corps and is the colour of Medical Services of many other countries. It is associated with positive health, succor, and freedom from disease. Black was the colour of Indian Hospital Corps. It is associated with formless state of creating birth and death. Old Gold was tyhe colour of Indian Medical Services, which existed before 1943. It is the symbol of Sun God Aesculapius, the God of Medicine.
Source: army website
Ivan Sache, 26 August 2001

Northern Command

Ivan Sache, 25 August 2001

A horizontally divided red-black-red flag with a yellow emblem in the middle. The shield version of the flag was painted on the front hood of the trucks which blocked us for more than one hour.
Ivan Sache, 25 August 2001

This is Northern Command, one of five of the highest geographical divisions of the Indian Army. All use the horizontal red-black-red with a yellow device. The yellow arrow here is obviously the compass needle pointing north.
T. F. Mills, 25 August 2001

Other flags seen at Army Bases

Strangely, the Indian national flag seems not to be used in military basis. I saw it only in schoolyards of government schools. Below are described some of the flags I have been able to see properly from the bus. Identification of the units was in most cases not possible for the reasons given above.
Ivan Sache, 25 August 2001

What you have sent are "formation" and "arm of service" signs, used chiefly for vehicle recognition, and designed in way that is not meant to be intuitive to the casual observer. I am not really acquainted with Indian colour schemes, so the rest is just speculation. I believe most Indian schemes are still derived from the British. T. F. Mills, 25 August 2001

257th Transit Camp

Ivan Sache, 25 August 2001

A horizontally divided red-yellow flag. The flag was also painted as a swallow-tailed flag on road signals, but I do not know the difference of meaning, if any, between the rectangular and the swallow-tailed flags. The flag I saw flying in the barracks yard was definitively rectangular.
Ivan Sache, 25 August 2001

Vehicles in Basgo

Ivan Sache, 25 August 2001

A horizontally divided dark green-red-light blue-red-dark green flag. Basgo is a strategic place located between the two highest passes of the Leh-Kargil road. It was once the capital of one of the small kingdoms which fought against each other for the control of Ladakh.
Ivan Sache, 25 August 2001

Possibly the Air Defence Artillery?
T. F. Mills, 25 August 2001

Unit in Kargil

Ivan Sache, 25 August 2001

A horizontally divided yellow-dark green-white-dark green-yellow (1:2:1:2:1) flag. Kargil is a military hot spot and was about to be seized during the last winter attack by Pakistan. It is really not the place where to ask questions about Army, so I cannot say more about the flag I saw there.
Ivan Sache, 25 August 2001

Yellow and green is probably arm of service (what, I don't know), and the white stripe is probably an obscure code signifying that this particular unit belongs to a unit bigger than a division.
T. F. Mills, 25 August 2001