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Turkey: Naval rank flags - General officers

The "bomb"
Admiral of the Fleet
Admiral
Squadron Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Rear Admiral

See also:

The "bomb"

The basic charge of several Turkish rank ensigns is a "bomb" (fide Album des Pavillons [pay00]). A bomb is a kind of 20-pointed star with points of different length, with the sequence <long-small-medium-small-long> repeated four times.
The graphic construction of the bomb is very detailed in Flaggenbuch (1939) [neu92], with the following construction details:

diameter of the long rays: 40;
diameter of the medium rays: 34;
diameter of the small rays: 24.

The inner diameter of the bomb is not indicated, it could be 20. It seems that a small ray points upwards, followed clockwise by a medium ray, then by a small one and a long one, etc..

Comparatively, the bomb in Album seems to be somewhat bigger, slightly differently designed, and somewhat skewed toward the edges of the flag.
The bombs in the swallow-tailed flags in Album are relatively bigger than those in square flags, whereas in Flaggenbuch all the bombs are of the same size.
Therefore, we have decided to show the flags as they are represented in these two sources.

Ivan Sache & Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

The images in Album are taken from BR20 (1958 release), confirmed by Album des Pavillons (1990 and 1923 releases). The design of the bomb was also confirmed by an illustration in a special page of Naval Forces (December 1997) on the Turkish Navy.

Armand Noël du Payrat, 18 April 2003

Admiral of the Fleet

Admiral of the Fleet's flag, as shown in Album des Pavillons (left) and in Flaggenbuch (captioned "Great Admiral") (right) - Images by Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

According to Album des Pavillons [pay00], the flag of the admiral of the fleet is a square red flag with five white bombs, one in each corner and one in the middle.
Flaggenbuch (1939) [neu92] shows a similar flag for the Great Admiral, with the following construction details:

Flag size 140
Distance from the geormetrical center of the flag to geometrical center of a bomb: 55;
Construction of the bomb, see above.

Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

Admiral

Admiral's flag, as shown in Album des Pavillons (left) and in Flaggenbuch (right) - Images by Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

According to Album des Pavillons [pay00], the flag of an admiral is a square red flag with four white bombs, one in each corner.
In Flaggenbuch (1939) [neu92], the construction details are the same as for the flag of the Great Admiral.

Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

Squadron Vice Admiral

Squadron Vice Admiral's flag, as shown in Album des Pavillons (left) and in Flaggenbuch (captioned "Vice Admiral") (right) - Images by Željko Heimer, 16 April 2003

According to Album des Pavillons [pay00], the flag of a Squadron Vice Admiral is a square red flag with three white bombs, placed one over two.
Flaggenbuch (1939) [neu92] shows the same flag, but as a Vice Admiral's flag. The construction details are the same as for the flag of an Admiral, the upper bomb being placed on the vertical median of the flag.

Željko Heimer, 18 April 2003

Vice Admiral

Vice Admiral's flag, as shown in Album des Pavillons (left) and in Flaggenbuch (captioned "Rear Admiral") (right) - Images by Željko Heimer, 18 April 2003

According to Album des Pavillons [pay00], the flag of of a Vice Admiral is a square red flag with two white bombs, placed vertically in the middle of the flag.
Flaggenbuch (1939) [neu92] shows the same flag, but as a Rear Admiral's flag.

Željko Heimer.18 April 2003

Rear Admiral

Rear Admiral's flag, as shown in Album des Pavillons (left) and in Flaggenbuch (captioned "1st Class Commodore") (right) - Images by Željko Heimer, 18 April 2003

According to Album des Pavillons [pay00], the flag of of a Rear Admiral is a square red flag with one white bomb placed in the middle of the flag.
Flaggenbuch (1939) [neu92] shows the same flag, but as a 1st class Commodore's flag.

Željko Heimer, 18 April 2003