WW2 Canadian Mystery flag /unit -

[capbadge]

Hi All,

Can anyone help identify this flag? It has a "iv" with four connected maple leafs in the sign, with the union jack. Appears to be quite old, white with a red border. Could anyone link this to a cap badge or unit regiment?

[Bill A]

Hi Stuart, The flag is for the Fourth Victory Loan drive, in Canada, Second World War.

[Voltigeur]

Hi CB, this is a Victory Loan flag, for the drive period of April 1943.
During the Second World War, the nine Victory Loan campaigns used pledge flags, honour pennants, victory flags, investor pins, honour certificates, slogans, and considerable hoopla, all to great effect. The major change was the transformation of the honour flags of the First World War, awarded only upon attainment of the financial goal, into the pledge flags of the Second World War, awarded at the beginning of each campaign as a token of the community's commitment to fulfill its pledge. Of the same design as the 1919 honour flag, the pledge flags had a white field, a broad red border, the Union Flag in the canton, and a badge, which changed with each campaign, on the fly.

The badge was also placed upon the honour pennants. These were awarded when the community or canvassing unit reached its quota. An additional honour pennant was given each time the quota was over subscribed by 25 percent. The first pennant showed the badge on a plain blue field; thereafter, the badge appeared on a white field with a red border.
Each campaign lasted for twenty days.

In 1943, for the fifth campaign, a new flag was introduced to be used specifically for commercial companies. Called the V Flag, for Victory Flag, it was awarded to a company when 90 percent or more of the employees invested 12 1/2 percent of their monthly salaries in Victory Bonds or War Savings Certificates. Three stars were added to the flag when 15 percent or more of the monthly salaries were invested.

Broad pennants with thin white borders, all bore a V surrounded by a laurel wreath on yellow. The first V Flag, for the fifth campaign was a vertical bicolour of maroon and dark blue, but it bore no additional badge. For the sixth campaign, the flag was red and blue divided horizontally, and, if the three stars were awarded, they bore the numeral VI. Thereafter, the V Flags were distinguished both by the pattern of their colours and by a badge. The colours for the seventh campaign were again red and blue, but divided vertically and the badge from the pledge flag was used on the fly. The eighth campaign was red over blue with yellow shield bearing a tilted VIII on the fly. The final V Flag, for the ninth campaign had a plain blue field with 9 in yellow on the fly.

The inspiration for the V Flags, like that of the service and honour flags before them, had come from the Americans. In late 1942, a year before Canada introduced the V Flag as an award for corporations, the Americans had introduced a flag for the Army-Navy Production Award. Almost identical in design to the later Canadian flags, it was a broad pennant divided vertically into two colours and rimmed with thin white borders. In the centre appeared a letter E (presumably for war Equipment) surrounded by a wreath. It differed from the Canadian flags in that it bore the word ARMY in the upper hoist and NAVY on the lower fly.20

In total, Canada had used 25 different flags and pennants to promote the sale of Victory Bonds during the two wars, all but two of them in the Second World War. They were very successful in accomplishing that goal, but they quickly fell into oblivion. After the wars they had outlived their original purpose and some of those which survived were turned to more prosaic uses. In the 1950s the Prince of Wales flag of 1919 was seen in Toronto being used as a counter cover, and in the town of Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, the Second World War pledge flags were tied together and strung across streets to block traffic during road construction. Sic transit gloria Canadæ

From: for more informations....
http://www.fraser.cc/FlagsCan/Nation/Occasion.html