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Poland - Navy flags

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War Ensign
Flag of the Navy
Banner of Polish Navy 1946-1955
Merchant ensign
Sign of Commander of Ship
Auxiliary vessels ensign since 1993
Auxiliary vessels ensign 1955-93
Flag of the Commander of the Navy
Flag of the Commander of the Navy (uncrowned eagle)
Admiral's flag
Admiral's flag (uncrowned eagle)
Vice Admiral's flag
Vice Admiral's flag (uncrowned eagle)
Rear Admiral's flag
Rear Admiral's flag (uncrowned eagle)

See also:

War ensign

by Adam Kromer, from his website.

The war ensign is a white over red bicolor, swallow tailed with two tails, on the white stripe is a red shield with a white eagle with a yellow crown.
Nathan Augustine, 5 December 1995

The above is the current polish war ensign (---/--*). Its a 10:21 swallowtail (90 degrees triangle cut off), equal horizontal bicolor white over red, with the state coat of arms centered on the white stripe (swallowtail part not included in the centering). If I recall correctly, I took this info from Crampton, but I'm not sure.
António Martins, 23 October 1998

In the polish flags there is a large confusion regarding the naval and war ensigns. My idea is that it is one and the same thing, but there are different descriptions there. Am I missing something?
Jorge Candeias, 7 Apr 1999

"Naval ensign" and "war ensign" mean the same thing, i.e. the national flag or a variant thereof for use by a nation's navy. Poland's naval ensign is a swallowtailed version of the national flag with the state arms on the top (white) stripe. Perhaps the confusion arises because Poland also has a distinctive naval jack.
Tom Gregg, 7 Apr 1999

According to Alfred Znamierowski the naval ensign uses an eagle with black lines, but all the other flags, including the rank flags, use eagles with grey lines. In practice many non-naval ensign flags also use black lines.
Graham Bartram, 10 Sep 1999

Flag of the Navy

by Adam Kroger, 4 Sept 2000, from his site.

This flag is entitled: FLAGA MARYNARKI WOJENNNEJ . See also: Air Force and Air Defence Flag, Flag of the Army.
Jarig Bakker, 4 Sept 2000.

This flag is shown in The World Encyclopedia Of Flags (Znamierowski, p. 83). The insignia is actually a representation of the cap badge. TWEOF shows similar flags for the Polish Army and Airforce, both red with a representation of the appropriate cap bage. According to TWEOF, all three were adopted in 1993.
Tom Gregg, 23 Apr 2000

Does anyone know how these are used? They don't look like they'd be flown over military installations (and we know Polish AF bases have the airfields flag), and the one for the Navy certainly is neither the ensign nor the jack. So are they parade flags of some kind?
Joe McMillan, 23 Apr 2000

The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland (Siły Zbrojne Rzeczypospoliej Polskiej) consist of three Forces:
- The Land Army (Wojska Lądowe)
- The Air Forces and Air Defence (Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej)
- The Navy (Marynarka Wojenna)
All these Forces have flags,established by Sejm 19 February 1993. These flags (pl^army, pl~navy and pl^air) are neither ensigns nor jacks. They are flown over military units on the holiday of each Force.
Grzegorz Skrukwa, 16 Sept 2000

Banner of Polish Navy 1946-1955

by Adam Kromer, from his website.

The banner of the Polish Navy in 1955 was never used, instead it was used as flag of Coastal Units of Polish Navy 1961-1990.
Adam Kromer.

Merchant ensign

The merchant ensign is like the war ensign without the swallow tail. This is still an alternate flag for Poland, except during the comunist regime (1945-1990) the eagle had no crown.
Nathan Augustine, 5 December 1995

The merchant ensign was an alternate flag in the sense of being a political statement. Before 1990, the ensign (with the crowned eagle) was popular among Polish emigrees who flew it to demonstrate their opposition to the communist regime.
Greg D. 6 December 1995

The polish civil ensign is the state flag of Poland.
Jan Zrzavy, 16 January 1998

The Flagchart shows the civil ensign with the coat of arms (ratio 5:8, by the way). The same is said in [smi80], even if that is a bit old. Smith indicated both flags (without coat of arms - civil, state and war flag, and with coat of arms - civil and state ensign) as alternates, which I believe mean that these are not the only possible designs for the purpose. I think both with and without are OK. Only the swallow-tailed war (naval) ensign is required to have coat of arms.
Zeljko Heimer, 4 September 1998

Sign of Commander of Ship

by Adam Kromer, from his website.

Auxiliary vessels ensign since 1953

[Ensign of Auxiliary Vessels [of the Navy]

by Adam Kromer, from his website.

Auxiliary vessels ensign 1955-93

by Adam Kromer, from his website.

Flag of the Commander of the Navy

by Adam Kromer, from his website.

Commander of the Navy: National ensign in 5:6 proportions with upright white foul anchor in lower center.
Joseph McMillan, 7 Oct 1999

Flag of the Commander of the Navy (uncrowned eagle)

by Adam Kromer, from his website.

Ensigns and jack

Recent editions of Jane's Fighting Ships show the Polish naval ensign as being almost the same as Smith's 1975 illustration, i.e. a horizontal bicolor, white over red, with the state arms centered on the white stripe. Smith gives proportions of 10:21 for this ensign and the illustrations in Jane's appears to be about 1:2. The only difference seems to be that the crown has been restored to the eagle's head. Military organizations being what they are, I imagine that the Polish naval ensign has been precisely described in some regulation or other. Anyway, this is probably the one Polish flag we can be fairly sure of.
Tom Gregg, 4 August 1997

Admiral's flag

by Adam Kromer, from his website.

Admirals' flags are a version of the national ensign in 5:6 proportions, with a shallow swallowtail. White stars in the lower hoist, set at an angle, indicate the rank.
Admiral: 3 stars in a triangle.
Joseph McMillan, 6 Oct 1999