Skull and crossbones (military)

For other uses, see Skull and crossbones.

Variations on the skull and crossbones have been used by several military forces. The largest is on the "Jolly Roger" flags used by submarines.

Usage

Naval warfare

Main articles: Jolly Roger and Use of the Jolly Roger by submarines

The Jolly Roger is the name given to any of various flags flown to identify a ship's crew as pirates. Since the decline of piracy, various military units have used the Jolly Roger, usually in skull-and-crossbones design, as a unit identification insignia or a victory flag to ascribe to themselves the proverbial ferocity and toughness of pirates.

File:HMS Utmost -1-.jpg

6 February 1942 Members of the crew of HMS Utmost with their "Jolly Roger" success flag, photographed alongside submarine depot ship HMS FORTH in Holy Loch, on their return from a year's service in the Mediterranean

Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson VC, the Controller of the Royal Navy, summed up the opinion of the many in the Admiralty at the time when in 1901 he said submarines were "underhand, unfair, and damned un-English. ... treat all submarines as pirates in wartime ... and hang all crews." In response, Lieutenant Commander (later Admiral Sir) Max Horton first flew the Jolly Roger on return to port after sinking the German cruiser SMS Hela and the destroyer SMS S-116 in 1914 while in command of the E class submarine HMS E9.

In World War II it became common practice for the submarines of the Royal Navy to fly the Jolly Roger on completion of a successful combat mission where some action had taken place, but as an indicator of bravado and stealth rather than of lawlessness. The Jolly Roger is now the emblem of the Royal Navy Submarine Service.

File:FA-18 Super Hornet VFA-103.jpg

A US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft assigned to the "Jolly Rogers" of Strike Fighter Squadron 103 (VFA-103), prepares to launch from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class Aircraft Carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, 2006.

Three distinct U.S. Naval Aviation squadrons have used the name and insignia of the Jolly Roger: VF-61 (originally VF-17), VF-84, and VFA-103. While these are distinctly different squadrons that have no lineal linkage, they all share the same Jolly Roger name, the skull and crossbones insignia and traditions. The first incarnation of the Jolly Rogers was established on January 1, 1943 at NAS Norfolk, as VF-17, flying the F4U Corsair. Inspired by the piratical theme of the aircraft's name, VF-17's commanding officer Tommy Blackburn selected the Jolly Roger as the squadron's insignia. The current squadron to hold the name is the VFA-103, Strike Fighter Squadron 103 (the Jolly Rogers), the skull and crossbones on all-black tails makes them easily identifiable.

United States Marine Corps reconnaissance battalions also use a skull and cross bones on their emblems.

Land warfare

Hussars, lancers and dragoons became established types of military units, with their typical uniform patterns (and weapons and tactics) maintained in many armies. In Chile, during the independence battles, a paramilitary guerrilla group against the royal Spanish army composed mainly by bandits and civilians, called "Los húsares de la muerte ("The Death Hussars") wore a Skull with two crossed femurs on the neck of their jackets.

In the Estonian War of Independence the skull and crossbones were symbols of Kuperjanov's Partisan Battalion. The badge is still used in the Estonian Army by the Kuperjanov Battalion, for example 2007 in Iraq.

Though not employing a black uniform, the skull and crossbones has been used by a succession of lancer regiments in the British Army. The Queen's Royal Lancers continue to use the skull and crossbones in their emblem, inherited from its use by the 17th Light Dragoons - a unit raised in 1759 following General Wolfe's death at Quebec, with an emblem of a death's head and the words 'Or Glory' in commemoration of him. The cap badge was later used by the 17th/21st Lancers and its present-day successor, the Queen's Royal Lancers who are still nicknamed the 'Death or Glory Boys'.

The 2nd Lancers Regiment of the Portuguese Army also use the skull and crossbones as symbol and "Death or Glory" as motto, as the regiment was raised by a former colonel of the British 17th Lancers.

During the Russian Civil War, the troops of Nestor Makhno bore a skull and crossbones on their flag with the words "Freedom or Death," while the troops of the White Kornilov Division wore patches emblazoned with a skull and crossbones above a pair of crossed swords.

When Hitler gained power, there were still uniforms that were black and with a rather large (≈10 cm) skull and crossbones on a black cap, but the pattern was adapted for the Nazi SS service, with a "peaked cap" and a tiny skull and crossbones for the cap (≈2.5 cm). And in World War II, Nazi SS troops made use of the "Totenkopf" (German word for "dead man's head") as an insignia for another part of the uniform as well (in particular, the 3rd SS Division, which was a part of the larger Waffen SS), and also by the similarly named World War II-era Luftwaffe's 54th Bomber Wing (Kampfgeschwader 54).

In the former Yugoslavia, and especially Serbia, the skull and crossbones was a prominent symbol used by the Serbian royalist and nationalist paramilitaries known as the Chetniks during the Second World War and the Yugoslav Wars.The Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, commonly known as the Chetniks (Serbo-Croatian: Četnici, Четници, pronounced [tʃɛ̂tniːtsi]; Slovene: Četniki), was a World War II movement in Yugoslavia led by Draža Mihailović, an anti-Axis movement in their long-range goals and engaged in marginal resistance activities for limited periods. They also engaged in tactical or selective collaboration with the occupying forces for almost all of the war.The Mihailović Chetniks were not a homogeneous movement.The Chetnik movement adopted a policy of collaboration with regard to the Axis, and engaged in cooperation to one degree or another by establishing modus vivendi or operating as "legalised" auxiliary forces under Axis control.Over a period of time, and in different parts of the country, the Chetnik movement was progressively drawn into collaboration agreements: first with the Nedić forces in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia, then with the Italians in occupied Dalmatia and Montenegro, with some of the Ustaše forces in northern Bosnia, and after the Italian capitulation also with the Germans directly. While Chetnik collaboration reached "extensive and systematic proportions, the Chetniks themselves referred to their policy of collaboration as "using the enemy".The historian Professor Sabrina Ramet has observed, "Both the Chetniks' political program and the extent of their collaboration have been amply, even voluminously, documented; it is more than a bit disappointing, thus, that people can still be found who believe that the Chetniks were doing anything besides attempting to realize a vision of an ethnically homogeneous Greater Serbian state, which they intended to advance, in the short run, by a policy of collaboration with the Axis forces. The Chetniks collaborated extensively and systematically with the Italian occupation forces until the Italian capitulation in September 1943, and beginning in 1944, portions of the Chetnik movement of Draža Mihailović collaborated openly with the Germans and Ustaša forces in Serbia and Croatia. In contrast, Associate Professor David MacDonald has stated that it would be, "highly misleading to suggest that Četniks throughout the war collaborated with the Germans and Italians to carry out genocide of Croats and Muslems."

The Chetniks were a partner in the pattern of terror and counter terror that developed in Yugoslavia during World War II. The Chetniks used terror tactics against the Croats in areas where Serbs and Croats were intermixed, against the Muslim population in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Sandžak, and against the Yugoslav Partisans and their supporters in all areas. These terror tactics took various forms, including killing of the civilian population, burning of villages, assassinations and destruction of property. The terror tactics used by the Chetniks against the Croats was largely a reaction against the mass terror perpetrated by the Ustaše, and the terror against the Partisans and their supporters was ideologically driven. The Muslim population of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Sandžak was a primary target of Chetnik terror due to the traditional animosity between Serbs and Muslims.

Aerial warfare

The Nieuport 17 fighter of Charles Nungesser

The White Bird in which Nungesser disappeared in 1927

Fighter aircraft of both the Allied Powers and the Central Powers occasionally made use of the a Skull and crossbones emblem in World War I, either by itself or as part of a more complex insignia, more often by individual pilots, and in rare instances, by entire aviation units. The most memorable of these usages could be considered to be on the series of French fighter aircraft flown by French 43-victory flying ace Charles Nungesser, as all of his aircraft, both during and following World War I featured his personal "black heart" insignia on the sides of the aircraft's fuselage, centered on a Skull and crossbones emblem, accompanied with a coffin directly above the skull, and flanked with single candlesticks to either side of the emblem, all within the black heart-shaped field. He earned the nickname "Hussard de la mort" ("Horseman of Death") when as a cavalry man in the first days of the war, he captured a Mors (a luxury car) carrying four German Staff officers with operation plans [1]

Image gallery

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  101 Squadron (Israel) Israeli Air Force

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  Kuperjanov Battalion

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  Chetnik flag

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  Field Marshal August von Mackensen with Deaths Head Hussars insignia

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  Seventeenth Brunswick Hussar Regiment, Prussia.

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  Officer's of Alexandrya Hussars Regiment Emblem

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  Polish Storm Detachment during Silesian Risings

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  The "death's head" was the sign of Polish Death Hussar Divisions from 1920 (Polish–Soviet War)

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  Queen's Royal Lancers

• Braunschweiger Totenkopf.jpg

  Braunschweiger Totenkopf

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  Kampfwagen-Erinnerungsabzeichen

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  Kampfgeschwader 54

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  The traditional "Danziger" Totenkopf worn by the SS 1923-34

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  3rd SS Division

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  SS Death's Head Patch

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  Fourth Commando Brigade, Biafra.

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  Special Police Operations Battalion, Brazil.

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  Fourth Light Detachment, Finland.

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  1/7 Fighter Squadron, France.

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  2/2 Fighter Squadron, France.

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  Charlie Company, Thirty-sixth Commando Battalion, Iraq.

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  The Llanera Brigade, Philippines.

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  Second Lancers Regiment, Portugal.

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  Kornilov Assault Regiment, Russia.

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  Eighth Lusitania Light Armored Cavalry Regiment, Spain.

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  Military Assistance Command Vietnam - Studies and Observation Group, United States.

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  First Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  Sixth Night Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  13th Bomb Squadron, USAF — inherited from 13th Aero Squadron.

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  Fifteenth Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, United States.

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  Sixteenth Special Operations Squadron, United States.

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  Twenty-fourth Intelligence Squadron, United States.

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  Thirty-first Test and Evaluation Squadron, United States

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  Eighty-fifth Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  Eighty-ninth Flying Training Squadron, United States.

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  Ninetieth Tactical Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  Ninety-second Tactical Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  Ninety-fifth Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  128th Bomb Squadron, United States.

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  164th Airlift Squadron, United States.

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  190th Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  310th Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  319th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  320th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  321st Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  328th Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  348th Night Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  351st Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  363rd Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  365th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  366th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  367th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  375th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  392nd Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  399th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  400th Missile Squadron, United States.

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  402nd Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  416th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  416th Night Fighter Squadron, United States

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  423rd Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  428th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  428th Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  447th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  490th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  493rd Fighter Squadron, United States.

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  512th Rescue Squadron, United States.

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  527th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  533rd Training Squadron, United States.

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  552nd Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  561st Fighter-Day Squadron, United States.

• 587th Bombardment Squadron - Emblem.png

  587th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  640th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  716th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, United States.

• 828th Bombardment Squadron - Emblem.png

  828th Bombardment Squadron, United States.

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  Fifth Bomb Wing, United States.

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  90th Bomb Group, United States.

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  VFA-2, United States.

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  VFAW-3, United States.

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  VFA-34, United States.

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  VF-101, United States.

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  VF-142, United States.

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  VFA-151, United States.

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  VA-12, United States.

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  VA-133, United States.

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  VA-175, United States.

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  VP-26, United States.

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  VQ-11, United States.

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  VS-32, United States.

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  VT-11, United States.

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  First Battalion, Ninth Marines, United States.

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  Second Battalion, Ninth Marines, United States.

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  Marine Raider, United States.

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  MCSOCOM, United States.

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  United States Marine Corps Reconnaissance Battalions, United States.

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  1st Reconnaissance Battalion, United States.

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  2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, United States.

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  3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, United States.

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  4th Reconnaissance Battalion, United States.

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  5th Reconnaissance Battalion, United States.

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  Marine Amphibious Reconnaissance, United States.

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  First Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, United States.

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  Second Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, United States.

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  D Company, Second Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, United States.

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  Third Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, United States.

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  VF-84, inherited by VFA-103

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  VMF-113, United States.

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  VMF(AW)-114, United States.

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  VMF-225, United States.

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  VMF-471, United States.

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  VMF-524, United States.

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  VMFA-531, United States.

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  VMF-514, United States.

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  VMA-124, United States.

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  VMB-613, United States.

• VMSB-233 WWII Logo.jpg

  VMSB-233, United States.

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  VMSB-244, United States.

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  VMTB-621, United States.

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  VMAQ-1, United States.

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  VMAQ-2, United States.

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  VMU-2, United States.

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  VMO-4, United States.

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  HMM-164, United States.

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  HMLA-369, United States.

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  MALS-40, United States.

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  MWSS-274, United States.

See also

• No. 100 Squadron RAF badge
• 101 Squadron (Israel), which uses an "angel of death" logo variant since 1948
• Jolly Roger
• Totenkopf — "death's head" insignia of many elite military units
• Danse Macabre

References

–The Skull and Cross Bones was originally the maritime battle flag of the Knights Templer. (Knight, Christopher and Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key et al., Arrow Books, London, 1997.)