War makes strange flag-fellows
When war breaks out, former friends can become enemies, and one-time foes might turn into allies. As a result, once-hated flags get saluted and formerly beloved banners are banished. That was certainly true when World War I began nearly 100 years ago, as demonstrated in patriotic postcards of the period.
For example, a French postcard from around 1918 shows the spirit of liberty surrounded by banners and pointing the way to victory with a sword. She hovers above a soldier and a French slogan: “Victory through the effort of all!”
The flags arrayed around her include, of course, France and England, but you’d probably be astonished by the presence of the Japanese flag with its red rising sun. About 20 years later, Great Britain and France would be ardent foes of Japan, but it joined the Allies against Germany in the Great War.
Another postcard shows an American eagle atop the Star-Spangled Banner with a dozen other standards in rows. Again, expectations are met by the presence of British, French and Russian flags flapping in the wind. But the flags of Japan and Italy, who would be foes of America in the Second World War, wave proudly in sync with the U.S.
A WWI postcard that could have been sent, unchanged, in WWII bears the flags of England, the U.S. and France, who would remain united from 1914, the beginning of the First World War, to 1945, the end of the Second – and on to today.
Labeled “Flags of the Allies,” the card includes a poem: “In War’s dark day this trinity/Led countless hosts to victory/With colors pridefully unfurled/To bring peace to a grateful world.”
A humorous 1915 postcard from France uses flags to ridicule the Germans. It shows a hulking Teutonic soldier making off with French booty, including a hatbox, clock, bloomers and a parrot. Strapped to his back is a piano.
Watching him is a French soldier whose war prizes are the furled standards, helmets and sabers of defeated German units.
Under the German, a caption says, “What they steal.” Under the Frenchman, it reads, “What we take.”