Badge color
Badge color (also regimental or lapel color ) is the color of the uniform parts by which a regiment or other military association differs from other associations of the same branch of service .
With the establishment of the standing armies and the ensuing uniformity of the troops, the need arose to be able to distinguish the regiments from one another. The basic color of the uniform coat was basically the same for all regiments of one branch of service, collars, lap envelopes, cuffs and discounts , sometimes vests and trousers were made in a different color. Because of the linear tactics that were common at the time , camouflage was not required so that strong colors could be used for this. This gave the commanders a quick overview of the location of individual regiments on the battlefield. Those who were scattered could also find their unit more easily. Since the regiment chiefs, as owners of the “company” regiment, procured the uniforms independently at the end of the 17th century , they often chose the livery color of their noble family. The color of the badge often changed with the owner of a regiment. From the early 18th century, the badge colors were then determined by the army administration. Existing colors were retained and for some branches of arms uniform badge colors were introduced based on usage. Artillery and technical troops were therefore given black badges in many states (e.g. Prussia , France and Russia ), as light-colored impacts would quickly become unsightly due to powder smoke and car grease. Light infantry, if they were not already wearing green uniforms, received green badges in memory of their origins in hunting. In Great Britain regiments with the royal title of infantry and cavalry (eg "Royal Fusiliers") received uniform dark blue badges. In the case of smaller arms (e.g. artillery, foreign troops or hunters ) that were dressed in the uniform style of larger arms (e.g. infantry or dragoons ) and differed from them by the basic color of the skirt, the color of the face is also called Badge color, if no different colors were used for the individual regiments within the class.
Drummers, trumpeters and other military musicians often wore "alternate colors"; H. Badge color and basic color were swapped.
With the growth of the army was already in the 18th century and more difficult to give particular in the infantry as numerically strongest branch of every regiment a characteristic badge color. In Great Britain they managed to differentiate the regiments by the arrangement and metal of the buttons and the shape and color of the strands. In France, a complicated system developed in which parts of the badge-colored uniform parts were alternately kept in the basic color with badge-colored edging. Austria used about thirty different badge colors and two different button and pants colors (blue pants for Hungarians, white for everyone else).
With the emergence of the mass armies, it ultimately became impossible to give each infantry regiment its own color scheme. For this reason, France introduced a uniform in the national colors (blue skirt with white and red badges) as early as the Revolutionary Wars (probably also in rejection of aristocratic origins as livery colors). From the Scharnhorst reforms onwards, Prussia only gave badge colors to the army corps . Great Britain reduced the badge colors to four as part of the army reform of 1881. The badge colors survived the introduction of camouflage colors at the beginning of the 20th century, but in the First World War they disappeared from the field uniforms of all major powers.
In Germany, they were replaced by the weapon colors , which only characterize the type of weapon and no longer individual regiments. In some other countries, badge colors for brightly colored parade uniforms are still in use.
literature
- Richard Knötel , Herbert Knötel and Herbert Sieg: Colored Handbook of Uniform Studies. (2 volumes), Augsburg 1997