Last modified: 2010-09-03 by antónio martins
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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:
The errors in text which have not been correct are as follows:
Alfred Znamierowski [zna99b], quoted by Jarig Bakker
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.
«The Historika Museet» should be either
«Historiska Museet» or «The Historiska Musee».
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 02 May 2003
Illustration explanation wrong: Claims rank flag is flown at stern.
Jan Oskar Engene
The last sentence on the page isn’t finished.
Mark Sensen
Civil flag of Ethiopia should be: former civil flag of Ethiopia.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
Swastika flag: Claimed to be German civil ensign
1933-1935, should be 1933-1945.
Jan Oskar Engene
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
Black-white-red combined the colors of Prussia and the Hanse
cities, not of Prussia and Brandenburg.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
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
Flag of Napoleon I: «This flag was again in use
from 1852 to 1970,..» Latter year clearly wrong.
Jan Oskar Engene
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
Francois Mitterand (the emblem should be golden yellow).
Alfred Znamierowski
Figure "Emperor of Austria-Hungary (1894-1915)" is mirrored.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
Norwegian royal flag, wrong illustration (blade of
axe must be white).
Jan Oskar Engene
Iceland swallow-tailed flag: wrong proportions.
Jan Oskar Engene
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
Current customs flags: Danish customs flag not
current, but old version.
Jan Oskar Engene
Norwegian post flag: wrong proportions.
Jan Oskar Engene
«Battle flag of the Confederacy States of America» should be
«Battle flag of the Confederate States of America».
John Ayer, 11 May 2003
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
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
«Iran cross» should be «Iron cross».
Mark Sensen
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.
Željko Heimer
Egypt war ensign since 1984, not since 1973.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
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.
Željko Heimer
Norwegian jack: wrong proportions.
Jan Oskar Engene
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.
Željko Heimer
Figure: not all the German rank flags are still in use (e.g.
Grossadmiralsflagge, as there is no Grossadmiral).
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
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
Norwegian rank flags: wrong proportions, wrong captions.
Jan Oskar Engene
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
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
Error in text, year 1921 attributed to Aland flag, correct year is 1954.
Jan Oskar Engene
’Saardam’, should be ’Zaandam’. (This error was already reported by Jan Melssen
on the BeNeVex-list.)
Mark Sensen
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).
Željko Heimer
Civil ensign Austria-Hungary: the fly half of the bottom stripe
should be green, not dark greyish.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
National flag of Ethiopia (without star) should be "former
national flag".
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
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
East Germany, civil ensign: abolished 1973 (not 1990).
Jan Oskar Engene
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
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
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
«Karl Knuttson» should be «Karl Knutsson». «Nylãndska Jaktklubben» should be
«Nyländska Jaktklubben». «Helsinfors Dagblat» should be «Helsingfors Dagblad».
Jan Oskar Engene
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
Austria: all States (Bundesländer) use simple bicolors/tricolors as civil flag;
the state flags show the arms
(see here).
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
Bavaria: why is the «Rautenflagge» not mentioned and/or shown?.
Mark Sensen
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
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
Germany (Bremen): civil flag is without arms
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
Germany (Hesse): shown is the state flag, civil flag is without arms.
Marcus Schmöger, 16 July 2000
«blue lion of Schleswig» should be «blue lions of Schleswig».
Jan Oskar Engene
«Groningen’[..] Ommerland’s» should be «[..] those of the Ommelanden».
Mark Sensen
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
South Holland (the royal flag of Scotland is shown).
Norman Martin and Alfred Znamierowski
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
Hebrides “national flag”: non-existent.
Jan Oskar Engene
Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, Hebrides: do not enjoy limited autonomy.
Jan Oskar Engene
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
Serbian Republic — should be «National Flag», not
«State and National Flag».
Alfred Znamierowski
Driester should be Dniester.
Jan Oskar Engene
Gagauzia (the three white stars are missing).
Alfred Znamierowski
Chuvashia: purple colour wrong.
Jan Oskar Engene
Abkhazia: wrong proportions given (2:2).
Jan Oskar Engene
Palestine — (the civil flag of Spain is shown).
Alfred Znamierowski
Turkmenistan: Wrong date for flag modification.
Jan Oskar Engene
Malaysia: Lebanon [instead of Labuan] named as federal territory.
Jan Oskar Engene
Brunei: wrong colour? (white = cream).
Jan Oskar Engene
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
Taiwan [national flag] (the Taiwanese jack is shown),.
Alfred Znamierowski
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
Tuvalu — should be «Vaitupu» not «Vaitupua».
Alfred Znamierowski
Greenland: wrong proportions.
Jan Oskar Engene
«Kalaalit Nunaat» should be «Kalaallit Nunaat».
Jan Oskar Engene
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
Brazil: 1989 wrong date for establishment of the federal republic.
Jan Oskar Engene
Captions above stamps — «Amazonas» not «Amazonias».
Alfred Znamierowski
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
East Flanders: Illustration = Unofficial version, never adopted.
Jan Oskar Engene
Part of the flag of East Flanders as the flag of Ouarzazate in Morocco.
Norman Martin and Alfred Znamierowski
Amsterdam: the saltires shouldn’t be stretched.
(See here.)
Mark Sensen
Amboinese proportions shown are wrong, should be 2: 3.
Proportions of the stripes should be 1:1:1:6.
Mark Sensen
captions — «Anarchosyndicalists» not «Anarchosyndacilists».
Alfred Znamierowski
Rikshird: illustration upside down; caption should read «Rikshirden».
Jan Oskar Engene
captions — «Welt-Handelsflotte» not «welt-Handelsflotte».
Alfred Znamierowski
«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
«Nordisk Flaggselskab»: Name of society incorrect.
Finland and Iceland left out, old flag (1973-87) shown.
Jan Oskar Engene
Nederlandse Vereniging voor Vlaggenkunde: the flag is shown upside-down
«Verenigung» should be «Vereniging».
Mark Sensen
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
Anything below this line was not added by the editor of this page.
