battle flag?

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someone25
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battle flag?

Post by someone25 »

is there any special flag order for ships: "ready to battle" (klar schiff zum gefecht) ???
i dont mean national battle flags on the end of battleships...
i mean (i dont know how to tell) the flags above the ships...

:?: thnx
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RF
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Re: battle flag?

Post by RF »

someone25 wrote:is there any special flag order for ships: "ready to battle" (klar schiff zum gefecht) ???
i dont mean national battle flags on the end of battleships...
i mean (i dont know how to tell) the flags above the ships...

:?: thnx
I was under the impression that the flag signals would correspond to direct orders, such as to open fire and on what target. This evidently was the system used at the Denmark Strait battle.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
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Terje Langoy
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Post by Terje Langoy »

Jod Dora? :think:

Are the flags your thinking of a kind of battle alert-signal prior to engagemets? I'm not sure if I understand your question completely...
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Ulrich Rudofsky
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Post by Ulrich Rudofsky »

In the WW2 Kriegsmarine: Open fire or Commence Firing or Permission to Fire is "Jot Dora" JW
http://kbismarck.com/flags.html
Unofficially, it also meant permission to "light up your cigarettes" or "pour the brandy".

"Ran an den Feind!" (Nelson's "Engage the enemy more closely!" Is "Z" (Zet or Zeta) is like the red "Bravo" now...double-tailed". It was also flown as "ZZ". "Z" plus a white flag with a red cross meant "Follow the Leader" - "Dem Fuehrer folgen". I wish I could find a copy of "Signalbuch der Kriegsmarine M. Dv. Nr. 150. Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine, Berlin 1940". I only have a few pages of of this Navy Administrative Regulations.

Jot Dora
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Ulrich
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Terje Langoy
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Post by Terje Langoy »

How was the British "commence fire" flag signals?

I recall that the signal flags "Shift target right" was hoisted aboard the Hood. I also recall that the Pow was the first to realize that Hood was engaging the wrong target. Did the Pow signal Hood by flag or radio upon this discovery or was the time gap between this and Hood's signals to small for Pow to notify Hood?
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RF
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Post by RF »

With regards to POW correctly identifying Bismarck and opening fire on her in disregard of Holland's orders, my understanding is that no signal to the flagship was necessary because Hood signalled to POW to shift ''one target right'' just prior to the ''two blue'' signal, upon execution of which Hood blew up.
The timescale between Leach and then Holland correctly identifying Bismarck would be about two minutes?
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
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Ulrich Rudofsky
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Post by Ulrich Rudofsky »

"2 blue" is shown on the HMS HOOD site http://hmshood.com/hoodtoday/cheney.htm
Those resemble "S" and number "2" in International Code.

[Royal Navy also had their own signal flags http://www.gwpda.org/naval/s0100000.htm, as did the Kriegsmarine http://kbismarck.com/flags.html . I don't know what was used here. I read somewhere that the RN generally used the International Code Flags during WW2, because they were operating with the Allies.]
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someone25
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Post by someone25 »

Ulrich Rudofsky wrote:In the WW2 Kriegsmarine: Open fire or Commence Firing or Permission to Fire is "Jot Dora" JW
http://kbismarck.com/flags.html
Unofficially, it also meant permission to "light up your cigarettes" or "pour the brandy".

"Ran an den Feind!" (Nelson's "Engage the enemy more closely!" Is "Z" (Zet or Zeta) is like the red "Bravo" now...double-tailed". It was also flown as "ZZ". "Z" plus a white flag with a red cross meant "Follow the Leader" - "Dem Fuehrer folgen". I wish I could find a copy of "Signalbuch der Kriegsmarine M. Dv. Nr. 150. Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine, Berlin 1940". I only have a few pages of of this Navy Administrative Regulations.

Jot Dora
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thats exactly what i searched for.... 1,5 years ago...

Thank you;)
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