What is the significance of flare colors?

[sneakyimp]

I've read descriptions of flare usage to signal distress, ask for artillery, etc., but I'm wondering if there was any consistent meaning attached to the various colors of Very lights and flares.

The colors I've heard of so far are red, white, green, and purple. Which color signifies what? Would this significance be consistent throughout the war or would colors be designated some special and varying meaning on an operation-by-operation basis? Would axis powers interpret flare colors the same as allies or not? Would star shells also have all those four colors?

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

[johnboy]

I've read descriptions of flare usage to signal distress, ask for artillery, etc., but I'm wondering if there was any consistent meaning attached to the various colors of Very lights and flares.

The colors I've heard of so far are red, white, green, and purple. Which color signifies what? Would this significance be consistent throughout the war or would colors be designated some special and varying meaning on an operation-by-operation basis? Would axis powers interpret flare colors the same as allies or not? Would star shells also have all those four colors?

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

It would have made sense to change the meaning of the colours for each seperate battle, but would it have practical? To the enemy the flares of whatever colour would have signified that something was about to happen.

[connaughtranger]

Flare colours and patterns were decided by the division in the line and would probably have varied almost on a day-by-day basis. Sometimes, unhappily for the troops in the front-line, German flares were sometimes misinterpreted by British artillery & vice versa, which brought all Hell down on the hapless men

[jhill]

At least later in the War the Operation Orders prior to any show set out the meanings of signals. They had to change every time so that it would be difficult for the other fellows to spoof signals to his advantage.

Here is an example from the Orders for the Amiens Operation in August of 1918 as included with the diary of the 3rd Canadian Divisional Artillery.

[johnboy]

Hope they remembered to tell the French.

The SOS signal could have been confusing.

[MikeMeech]

Hi

In the example of SOS signals, these were changing daily. See below:

Other examples are:

and

Note these are 'Army' orders passed down to units.

There were a large number of different pyrotechnics used, The translated 1917 French list is shown:

These could be used to mean different things for particular operations. However, the same technology was available to all sides so confusion could happen, in an 'allied' attack the Germans would send up SOS signals, if they happened to be the same as 'allied' ones there could be some confusion especially if the German SOS signal was the same as the 'allied' Success signal.

At the Battle of Messines the 'British' troops used Green Flares (these are ground burning) to show their location to Contact Aeroplanes. Green was chosen because it was known the Germans were using Red (which was the preferred colour as it showed up better) to avoid confusion. However, when the sun rose high the Green flares were very hard to see.

The RFC observers were told in 1916 to fire their White Very lights (signal used to call for infantry flares) upwards so they were less likely to be confused with White Very lights fired by the infantry. The RFC were always looking for more distinctive pyrotechnic signals to avoid confusion. In 1918 a Smoke Signal that burst into 14 trails of yellow smoke (also 7 yellow and 7 purple was being developed as the yellow could not be seen in bright sunlight) to replace the white Very light for Contact Patrols. A Red Parachute flare was also developed for the Counter Attack Patrol aeroplane in 1918, this meant:

"That the enemy has been seen to leave his front line trenches in the direction of our lines."

Again a lot of time and effort appears to have been spent on developing pyrotecnic signals during WW1, they tried to avoid the confusions that could arise, however, that could never be ruled out on the battlefield.

Mike

[Tom Morgan]

They used to say that three black lights fired at night would be the signal that the war had ended!

Tom

[sneakyimp]

Really good information, guys. Thank you so much. It stands to reason that each force would try to exploit the signals of the enemy to bring harm or confusion to them and that increasingly elaborate signals would necessarily be concocted to prevent this. I find it mildly distressing that the Australian SOS signal of 3 green flares is identical to the Canadian signal for "lift your fire we are advancing." That seems like a very good way to drop shells on your friends.

[Ralph J. Whitehead]

Another point to consider, the men of RIR 99 found that the flare color did not match the label due to poor production values. They had to test the flares to see what colors they actually produced. This could prove very damaging if the wrong color was fired off.

Ralph