In military organizations, the practice of carrying colours, standards, flags, or guidons, both to act as a rallying point for troops and to mark the location of the commander, is thought to have originated in Ancient Egypt some 5,000 years ago. The armies of the Roman Empire also used vexilla, battle standards reading SPQR. It was formalized in the armies of Europe in the High Middle Ages, with standards being emblazoned with the commander's coat of arms.
General use
Military colours originally had a practical use in battle. As armies became trained and adopted set formations, each regiment's ability to keep its formation was potentially critical to its success, and therefore its entire army's success. In the chaos of battle, due to the amount of dust and smoke on a battlefield, soldiers needed to be able to determine where their regiment was.
Regimental flags are generally awarded to a regiment by a head of state during a ceremony. They were therefore treated with respect as they represented the honour and traditions of the regiment. Colours may be inscribed with the names of battles or other symbols representing former achievements (see battle honours).
Regiments tended to adopt "colour guards", composed of experienced or élite soldiers, to protect their colours. As a result, the capture of an enemy's standard was considered as a great feat of arms.
Standards and colours are never capriciously destroyed – when too old to use they are replaced and then laid up in museums, religious buildings and other places of significance to their regiment. However, in most modern armies, standing orders now call for the colours to be intentionally destroyed if they are ever in jeopardy of being captured by the enemy.
Due to the advent of modern weapons, and subsequent changes in tactics, colours are no longer carried into battle, but continue to be used at events of formal character.
Colours Asia Cambodia In Cambodia, the colours of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) and other uniformed institutions follow British, US, and French practice.
Until 2022, what was essentially a large version of the flag of Cambodia with the unit name below in white in the bottom blue stripe was used as the King's colour of RCAF formations before being reassigned as the national colour for parades and ceremonies. In 2023, a new Chinese-derived design but also harking to the days of the old kingdoms on Cambodian territories, debuted – it is a unified design with the insignia of the unit or formation at the center and the unit name in Khmer below but with the colors differing per service:
Royal Cambodian Army and Royal Gendarmerie of Cambodia: red Royal Cambodian Navy: navy blue Royal Cambodian Air Force: sky blue
China, People's Republic of (Mainland China)
The People's Liberation Army is the overall body for the entire armed forces of the People's Republic of China, and is represented by a single flag, which serves as a ceremonial colour for all regiments and larger formations. This is based on the national flag, but has instead of the four smaller gold stars the Chinese characters for the numerals '8' and '1', which stand for 1 August, the day in 1927 that the PLA was founded. When paraded, the flag is fringed in gold and mounted on a red-and-gold pole.
Each branch of the PLA has its own flag, based on the Army Flag (Banners of the PLA): Ground Forces: identical to the Army flag, but with the lower 40% coloured green. Navy: identical to the Army flag, but with the lower 40% has three blue and two white horizontal stripes of equal width. Air Force: identical to the Army flag, but with the lower 40% coloured air force blue. Rocket Forces: identical to the Army flag, but with the lower 40% being a gold stripe. These, too, are not paraded publicly except with the same gold fringe as the Army flag.
Individual unit colours based on the PLA service colour would be introduced only from 2018 (and that, only on a test basis), when mobile contingents of units of the Northern Theater Command which took part in the joint military exercise "Vostok 2018" with the Russian Armed Forces carried red colours with the unit name on the white fringe nearest the flagpole. Test battle colours had been given to the People's Armed Police some years before the practice was adopted by the PLA Ground Forces on an experimental period. During the 1 October 2019 civil military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, a mobile colour guard unit debuted after many years the garrison colours awarded to every PLA formation and agency, which are red with the formation or agency name in Mandarin Chinese in white or gold lettering (but without the white fringe), with some colours bearing additional inscriptions bearing either battle honours or decorations awarded to the formation or agency concerned.
China, Republic of (Taiwan)
The army of the Republic of China (Taiwan) also has a single flag that it uses, which is red, with a banner of the Blue Sky with a White Sun in the centre. It has a red flagpole with silver spearhead finial and red tassels immediately underneath. Individual units use a variation of the Army Flag as their own identifying Colour; this features a white strip next to the hoist, which has the unit's name in black characters, as well as a golden fringe (as is the case since 1961 for all units of the Republic of China Armed Forces, but since 1947 were limited only to Army units above the regimental level). The army honour guard colour is in gold with the unit coat of arms in the centre.
The Republic of China Navy's colours were red but with the seal of the Navy in a dark blue canton in the centre until the 1980s, the honour guard company's colours only use both dark blue and the Navy seal, which are the same colours used today in other ROCN units.
For the Republic of China Marine Corps, its unit battle colours, since 1960, mirrors that of the USMC but since the 1980s the unit name is on the white stripe near the hoist (just as the rest of the armed forces, formerly it was on a scroll similar to the USMC's).
The colours used by the Republic of China Air Force are in sky blue with the air force seal in the centre (formerly it was red with the sky blue canton featuring the coat of arms, the old design only used today by the honour guard).
Units of the Republic of China Military Police, formerly using a blue colour, now use a brown colour with the ROCMP arms.
Units reporting to the Ministry of National Defence sport an orange colour with the coast arms of the Ministry in the centre. Garrison colours are in blue with the Kuomintang emblem, a wheat wreath and 3 interlocked circles in yellow, red and blue respectively. Reserve units carry a red colour while the Taiwan Reserve uses a green one.
Only the following military academies sport their colours as the ROCAF colour is used by the Republic of China Air Force Academy:
Republic of China Military Academy Republic of China Naval Academy
In all events whenever the ROCAF is involved, the ROC flag is used as the National colour.
Indonesia In Indonesia, the Colours of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, Indonesian National Police and other uniformed institutions are known as . The Panji-panji is carried and escorted by a colour guard known as "Pataka", an abbreviation from in Indonesian.
National colour and service colours
During graduation and passing out parades, whenever the enlistment or commissioning pledge is taken, the flag of Indonesia is used as a national colour.
Mostly seen in parades are the service colours of the Indonesian National Armed Forces or TNI, the Indonesian National Police and the Municipal Police units (known as the ). Within the TNI, service colours exist for all three service branches. means the military/service colours in Indonesian.
Indonesian National Armed Forces Tri-Service Colour: Red with coat of arms on the obverse and the national coat of arms on the reverse Indonesian Army Colour: Green with coat of arms on the obverse Indonesian Navy Colour: Dark blue with coat of arms on the obverse Indonesian Air Force Colour: Sky blue with coat of arms on the obverse
Non-military:
Indonesian National Police Colour: Black and the national coat of arms on the reverse Municipal Police Colour: Dark blue
Colours of commands and below and are terms used to identify colours below the command or service specialty level within the Armed Forces, National Police and Municipal Police. The former are for battalion/squadron level units and military territorial commands or equivalents, the latter for brigades/regiments, divisions/regional commands and service specialty and operational commands. They share a common design: the unit heraldic arms is featured in the obverse while the emblem of its reporting formation is featured in the reverse side. All colours are gold fringed and carry a Garuda finial based on the national arms.
Within the TNI, Police and Municipal Police, the speciality colours are:
Green: Infantry, Army Corps of Engineers, Regional Military Commands, Operational and Administrative Commands, Agencies and Departments Red: Army Strategic Reserve Command, Army Special Force battalions and brigades, Reserve Component Black: Armour and Cavalry, Air Force Infantry, Raider Infantry (Airborne and Mechanized units inclusive), Municipal Police, Police Brown : Artillery and Air Defense Artillery, Indonesian Military Academy Gray: Logistics and Transportation, Military Police, Army Services Navy blue: Navy, inclusive of Fleet Forces and Military Sealift Ultramarine blue: Air Force Maroon: Mobile Brigade Corps (Police) Magenta: Marine Corps Violet: Army Aviation Command
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (North Korea)
The Korean People's Army is the overall body for the entire armed forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Until 1993 the KPA was represented by a single flag, which served as a ceremonial colour for all regiments, educational institutions and larger formations. The colour is on the basis of the national flag but with the national emblem replacing the star and on parades the colours were surrounded by gold fringe. The gold lettering in Hangul until 1961 was "For the independence of the motherland and the people" () or "For the freedom and independence of the Fatherland" (, Guards units only), then replaced by "For the unification and independence of the Fatherland, and the freedom and happiness of the people" ().