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Spain: Army flags, 1940-1945

Flag and arms of Spain, 1945-1977 - Images by Luis Miguel Arias, 4 July 2003

National flag
Today's use of the flag

See also:

National flag

A flag regulation issued on 11 October 1945 and published one day later slightly modified the coat of arms introduced on 2 February 1938 by General Franco.

The arms were Quarterly, 1. and 4. Quartered Castile and León, 2. and 3. Per pale Aragón and Navarre, in base Granada. The shield surmounted by the Catholic Monarchs' coronet. Behind the eagle's head is a yellow disc and motto "VNA GRANDE LIBRE" [One Great Free (country)], between the wings and the tail is a batch of arrows and a yoke. The pillars are basically the same as before, but are crowned with two different crowns, and the bands with motto "PLVS VLTRA" [(There is) More Beyond (the Gibraltar Strait)] have just one part in front of the pillar and two behind. The waves under them are stylized in a different way. The arms stretch into the red stripes of the flag.

No other state flag was in use in the Franco's era after the Civil War. The "civil" version, without arms, was frequently displayed in schools and other buildings.
The flag continued being used after Franco's death (20 November 1975), a similar version with only minor changes in the coat of arms being approved in 1977.

Emil Dreyer, Željko Heimer, Jaume Ollé & Santiago Dotor, 3 October 1998

The newspaper El País published in Summer 1999 a series titled "Main characters of the 20th century." Issue 18, page 423, speaks about sports under General Franco's regime; to illustrate the subject it shows a picture of Real Madrid football team in May 1960, holding a flag apparently before or right after a match - perhaps after winning its fifth European Cup that year. Even though the flag is being held on a horizontal plane, instead of a standard flag it is a version apparently intended to be displayed vertically, as the coat of arms has its vertical axis parallel to the fly and not to the hoist. Also, the centrepoint of the coat of arms is in the middle of the flag, and not offset to the hoist as usually. The size of the coat of arms is such that it fits inside the yellow stripe. Approximate dimensions 2 m x 3 m.

Santiago Dotor, 14 September 1999

Today's use of the flag

Erroneous flag in modern use - Image by Jesúsus Manuel Aceves, 27 November 1998

Right-wing supporters and football fans use nowadays several incorrect variants of the flags adopte in 1977, including the following mistakes:

The coat of arms is offset to the hoist, as happens with the current flag. Only military colours and rank flags - both square ) have a centred coat of arms.
The scroll around the eagle's neck should be red, not a Spanish tricolour.
The Pillars of Hercules should be at the sides of the eagle, not lying on its wings; the left one should have an imperial crown, the right an open royal crown.
The eagle should be "membered gules", that is with red claws, instead of black (scarcely visible in the images, though)
The ribbons around the Pillars of Hercules should be red instead of yellow
Smaller coat of arms, only slightly exceeding the size of the yellow stripe
The red ribbons holding the yoke and the arrows seem to be incorrectly depicted

Santiago Dotor, 27 November 1998