The

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...

(WU) was a military alliance established between France, the United Kingdom and the three Benelux countries between 1948 and 1954. The flag of the Western Union, also referred to as the Western Union Standard, displays an unbroken chain of five rectangular links in the shape of an upside-down pentagon on a blue field, with a multicoloured border (red on the outside, gold, black and white) taken from the WU member states' flags.

Design

The flag displays an unbroken chain of five rectangular links in the shape of an upside-down pentagon on a blue field, with a multicoloured border (red on the outside, gold, black and white) taken from the WU member states' flags. The relative proportions of the border are approximatively: Red 3, each of the others 1. The total width of the border is approximatively half that of the depth of the flag. The number of links symbolises the Western Union's five members.Title: Flags of the World Medium: book Main author(s): H. Gresham Carr Edition (publisher: place): Frederick Warne and Co.: London and New York (United Kingdom) Language: English Edition date: 1961 Previous edition: ar57Pages: 329 Format: 24×16 cm Remarks: revised edition

History

The flag was first seen in October 1949. The flag might also have been introduced and used as a command flag of Commander in Chief Admiral of the Fleet Rhoderick McGrigor during

Exercise Verity Exercise Verity was the only major training exercise of the Western Union (WU). Undertaken in July 1949, it involved 60 warships from the British, French, Belgian and Dutch navies. A contemporary newsreel described this exercise as involving "t ...

in 1949, the only major exercise held by the organisation. The flag was also flown on a car belonging to

Bernard Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence an ...

, Chairman of the Commanders-in-Chief Committee. A photo of the flag is shown in the book entitled ''Badges on Battledress'' by

Howard N. Cole Lieutenant-Colonel Howard Norman Cole (22 March 1911 – 3 May 1983) OBE TD F.R.Hist.S DL was a serving officer in the British Army during the Second World War and was an author of books on military subjects. Life Cole was born in Peckham in ...

(Aldershot, Gale & Polden, 1953). The original caption states: 'NCOs of the Corps of Royal Military Police displaying the Western Union Standard which incorporates the badge of the Headquarters, Western Europe Commanders-in-Chief'. It doesn't say where the photo is taken, although it might just be Fontainebleau.

Modification

The flag ceased to be used upon the creation of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

's Headquarters, Allied Land Forces Central Europe (AFCENT) in August 1953, at which point one extra link was added to the emblem, symbolising the United States. Similar to the Western Union, AFCENT was based in Fontainebleau, France. AFCENT was later developed into

Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS) is a NATO command with its headquarters at Brunssum, the Netherlands. It was established in 2004 from previous commands as part of NATO's continuing command structure reductions in the face of a then-dim ...

(JFCBS).

References

External links

Flag of the Western Union
Flags of the World {{Flags of International Organization Western Union (alliance)

Military flags

Design

History

Modification

See also

References

External links