Flag identification help - WWII

[southern*sweet*tea]

Any ideas? Obviously no way to tell the color. I thought at first it was Free France, but Free France was a shield and cross. This is more like a windowpane.  All I know is it was somewhere in Europe, 1942-43.

[futurecyborg]

Seems Italy 

[wesk_36]

Looks similar to this one;

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/savoia-old-italian-flag-wwi-wwii-53-54-x-37-00

[inhawaii]

Dang it!  I wanted to be the first to "buzz in".   LOL

[southern*sweet*tea]

Maybe it is Italy. That was my first thought, but I wouldn't have thought an Italian flag would be along with a UK and American flag since Italy was part of the Axis. (the American flag is hanging to the far right, it's just cropped out.)

The photo is of  school children, a program of some sort.   Interesting.

It would help if I knew where the photos were taken obviously, but none of them have any writing or identification on them.

[maxine*j]

Are you sure of your 1942-`1943 date?   If that's the flag of the Kingdom of Italy, it was in use from 1861 to 1946, so perhaps the photo was taken before WWII.  If you showed the children, someone might be able to date the clothing or some other visible object.   I know very little about the Italian experience of WWII.  Is it possible they are Italian war orphans and/or DPs who ended up in an Allied country? 

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[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I believe technically Italy signed an Armistace in Sept 1943, with only part of Italy (the northern part, I think) still under Mussolini/fascist control. So, this could well be somewhere in Italy, probably in late 1943 or later.

[nuclearomen]

it could be Italian, however the flag Italy used was the official state flag of Italy used by Italian armed forces during WWII. The tri-colour flag with the emblem of the former Royal House of Savoy was the first national flag and lasted for 85 years until the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946. You flag is very close, but the emblem is slightly not correct, notice the Italian flag had a think black boarder around the emblem which was not square it was pointed at top two corners and rounded at the bottom two... which means the flag your asking about is not the Italian armed forces flag at all. 

  

[clemowbooks]

My dad was in Italy at the end of the war-- they were still being shot at. The Americans were just ahead of them on the ground, Dad was an RAF  radar operator.

If  British and an American troops passed through a village, it would be sensible of the people to fly all three flags.

[maxine*j]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

I believe technically Italy signed an Armistace in Sept 1943, with only part of Italy (the northern part, I think) still under Mussolini/fascist control. So, this could well be somewhere in Italy, probably in late 1943 or later.

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Yes.  That's it, of course, if that's an Italian flag.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/italy-declares-war-on-germany

"On October 13, 1943, the government of Italy declares war on its former Axis partner Germany and joins the battle on the side of the Allies.

"With Mussolini deposed from power and the collapse of the fascist government in July, Gen. Pietro Badoglio, Mussolini’s former chief of staff and the man who had assumed power in the Duce’s stead by request of King Victor Emanuel, began negotiating with General Eisenhower regarding a conditional surrender of Italy to the Allies.   It became a fact on September 8, with the new Italian government allowing the Allies to land in Salerno, in southern Italy, in its quest to beat the Germans back up the peninsula.

"The Germans too snapped into action. Ever since Mussolini began to falter, Hitler had been making plans to invade Italy to keep the Allies from gaining a foothold that would situate them within easy reach of the German-occupied Balkans.  On the day of Italy’s surrender, Hitler launched Operation Axis, the occupation of Italy..."  et cetera.

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[melda58]

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@nuclearomen wrote:

it could be Italian, however the flag Italy used was the official state flag of Italy used by Italian armed forces during WWII. The tri-colour flag with the emblem of the former Royal House of Savoy was the first national flag and lasted for 85 years until the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946. You flag is very close, but the emblem is slightly not correct, notice the Italian flag had a think black boarder around the emblem which was not square it was pointed at top two corners and rounded at the bottom two... which means the flag your asking about is not the Italian armed forces flag at all. 

I would not conclude that the flag is not the Italian armed forces flag - it seems homemade and the quality of the photo is poor so we may not see the points if they are

small.  I actually think I see points.

Rita
  

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[nuclearomen]

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@melda58 wrote:

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@nuclearomen wrote:

it could be Italian, however the flag Italy used was the official state flag of Italy used by Italian armed forces during WWII. The tri-colour flag with the emblem of the former Royal House of Savoy was the first national flag and lasted for 85 years until the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946. You flag is very close, but the emblem is slightly not correct, notice the Italian flag had a think black boarder around the emblem which was not square it was pointed at top two corners and rounded at the bottom two... which means the flag your asking about is not the Italian armed forces flag at all. 

I would not conclude that the flag is not the Italian armed forces flag - it seems homemade and the quality of the photo is poor so we may not see the points if they are

small.  I actually think I see points.

Rita
  

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the quality is poor in the photos but I can clearly see there are no points or rounded edges on the boarder, there is also a point on the bottom of the boarder, center, which on inside of the boarder is also indented, a clear and obvious feature. Could be "homemade" but I doubt it, especially if in the timeframe we are talking in a country that devastated by war, someone had the time to just "make a flag"? Unlikely. Flags can be very similar in appearance. Small details are everything in identifying flags properly. To say "it's pretty close" doesn't mean anything. We can speculate it's Italian, but doesn't mean it is.   

[sonomabarn67]

Might be "theater" (of war) made. If they had time for patches, they had time for small flags.

[maxine*j]

@southern*sweet*tea 

Is that the entire photo?  If not, can we see the entire photo, and one cropped and enlarged so we can see the children as completely and clearly as possible?   Pretty please, with lots of sugar on top?   😊

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[nuclearomen]

maybe, sure it's possible. But perhaps, we are all looking to the wrong time period/country? Based off a very similar resemblance?  What would be an easier call if the photo was color, but for the time, i guess that's impossible. Need an expert to really say i guess... that is if you want to accurately say what the flag is, time period, and maybe even place of origin of the photo, in a selling or collector sense guess that the most accurate info would be important.