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Austria-Hungary, 1918

White Ensign, 1918

See also:

Austria-Hungary, 1868 - 1918

White Ensign, 1918

Source: Lothar Baumgartner: Die Entwicklung der österreichischen Marineflagge, Militaria Austriaca, Gesellschaft für Österreichische Heereskunde, Wien, 1977 p. 34
Vladimir Isaić: "Pomorski običaji i tradicije", Adamić, Rijeka, 2001. p. 37
Ottfried Neubecker: "Flaggenbuch (Flg.B.). Bearbeitet und herausgegeben vom Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine. Abgeschlossen am 1. Dezember 1939", reprint Mauritius Buch Verlag, Zwickau, 1992. add. p. 8a, IXa

The most of the Austrian-Hungarian naval fleet stationed in Pula was surrendered to the National Council of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (the state proclaimed by the parts of Austria-Hungary settled by Southern Slavic peoples, latter united with Serbia and Montenegro to form what shall be called afterwards Yugoslavia) on 31 October 1918 after the order by the Emperor Carl I. The replacement of ensigns in Pula was performed in the afternoon of 31 October, and in other Adriatic ports on 1 September 1918. The ensign of red-white-blue Croatian tricolour was hoisted. The ships carrying the non-Slavic sailors and officers from Southern Dalmatia to Pula were using the white ensign (i.e. the parley flag, the sign of negotiations), as is documented in a number of photographs.
The river flotilla on Danube was surrendered to the Royal Hungarian Government in Budapest only on 6 September 1918, and before that the red-white-red naval flag of Austria-Hungary with the Hungarian red-white-green tricolour were hoisted side by side. After the hand-over the Hungarian tricolour was used solely.
This was the end of the official use of the Austrian naval Kriegsflagge. However, yet at one time it shall be briefly and rarely rised in an official cappacity – it was introduced on 1 August 1940 in Nazi German Navy, as a special flag to be hoisted on the main mast of the heavy cruiser “Prinz Eugen” on 31 May every year, instead of the German Imperial flag that was used on that date on the other naval ships of the Third Reich.