Some notes on the uniforms and insignia of the Ugandan army, 1971-1979

Introduction.

On this page I attempt to sketch out a few rough thoughts about the appearance of the Ugandan army under Idi Amin. This topic abounds with uncertainties and confusions, and this page should very much be taken as a rough attempt at untangling a few things, rather than any sort of authoritative or definitive commentary.

This page represents, I cannot over-emphasise, my personal conclusions, and nothing more — every single item here may be wrong in part or in whole, and is entirely at the mercy of corrections and clarifications. I would of course be sincerely grateful for any information any readers are able to offer.

It has, also, by this point, swelled to quite considerable length, much larger than I had initially envisaged. I’ll see what I can do about making it a bit more manageable, eventually.

An additional note (April 2024). This page is, as noted, sprawling and unenjoyable to read. I wrote it before I wrote the previous page, about the organisation of the Ugandan army, although there have been numerous small additions and edits here and there. Some of my conclusions, unit names, etc., on this page differ from those of the previous page. Where they conflict, the previous page should always be preferred. I will, eventually, tidy up this page and harmonise it with the other one. I thank the reader for their patience until then.

My approach to these uniforms, and a short summary.

At the risk of over-burdening the preamble to this page too much, I think it might be worth setting out, briefly and clearly, what my basic thinking about these uniforms is.

The foundation for my thoughts is the scene in Général Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait where Amin visits the barracks of the Tiger Battalion. We see that this unit makes heavy use of yellow distinctions — one can see yellow lanyards, solid yellow stable belts, yellow insignia flashes and yellow socks. The regimental band has all its facings in yellow.

Other footage from other sources shows regimental bands dressed the same way as the Tiger Battalion’s band, except that their facings, instead of yellow, are red, blue or green. One can also see figures in various bits of footage with red, blue or green lanyards and stable belts.

My working hypothesis, based on this, is that the four senior battalions (1st-4th) each had a single distinctive colour. My guess, based on the evidence available, is that the 1st Battalion used green, the 2nd red, the 3rd yellow, and the 4th blue. My reasons for these conclusions are set out below in their proper places.

As for the other units. It seems fairly certain that the Malire Regiment used red and blue, the military police red and white, the artillery red, blue and yellow. These are all described again in their places.

Cautiously, I would suggest that the Marines used blue and white, and the Suicide Regiment perhaps solid black — again, see further down the page. Every other unit remains so far unidentified.

A note on image sources.

Generally the footage and images I have used are datable. A few screenshots are undated — this is entirely my carelessness in neglecting to note down the dates. But I don’t think anything turns on this.

Anything credited “© Les Films du Losange” is from the classic Général Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait. We learn from Ugandan radio (via the BBC’s Summary of World Broadcasts) that the Malire Regiment’s attack on the “Golan Heights” was filmed on 31 January 1974, and Amin’s visit to the Tiger Regiment at Mubende was on 2 February 1974. The scene with jets and pilots was probably 16 February 1974. The state of my current knowledge doesn’t allow me to date the rest of the footage.

Anything credited “© Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation” is from the Tanzanian documentary film Vita vya Kagera (1980). This contains many rarities, though all the copies available online are unfortunately fairly miserable quality. I can’t speak a word of Swahili, so any additional information that may be contained in the narration is unfortunately lost to me.

General comments about the uniforms.

Colours. I use “khaki” here in the British sense — i.e., a relatively dark shade, and not in the American sense of a light tan. The latter I describe as “tan” etc.

Orders of dress. I use “no. 2 dress” to mean, basically, how that term would be understood in the British context, and “service dress” to refer to fatigue and camouflage uniforms — these were worn as campaign dress, internal service dress, exercise dress (etc.), but often also parade dress. Strictly speaking this is a corrupt use of language as, in the British army, no. 2 dress is a uniform, and not an order of dress — British “service dress” is no. 2 dress. But I trust this won’t cause any confusion.

No. 2 dress. Khaki (often with a notable green tinge) four-pocket tunic with silver buttons. Pointed cuffs with two buttons at each cuff. Tan shirt and necktie, the shades varying enormously. Khaki trousers and black leather shoes. A khaki peaked cap with brown chinstrap and khaki peak, or a rifle-green cap with black peak and chinstrap (see below).

Metals. This is a difficult matter, made more difficult by the ability of gold to appear silver, and vice-versa, depending on the vagaries of the lighting, even in relatively high-quality material. As mentioned, the No. 2 dress used silver buttons. Senior officers’ collar tabs seem to have used silver buttons also. Hat badges, however, seem to have usually been an incongruous gold, although silver ones can be seen here and there.

Fatigues. An infinite variety of fatigues, bush hats, etc. Generally the shirts seem to have been more tan, and the trousers and hats more green, but I wouldn’t seek to be too dogmatic about this. M1 helmets and what seem to be Czechoslovak M53s also worn. Black boots worn with or without khaki gaiters. Some officers can be seen with nicely tailored fatigues made of what looks like the same material as the No. 2 dress.

Berets. Some units wore berets — see their relevant sections. A (black?) beret was possibly also standard headgear for (enclosed?) vehicle crews — very unclear to me.

Enlisted men’s headgear. Enlisted men (without berets, etc) didn’t have a side cap. The “smart” headgear seems to have been the slouch hat, although it’s relatively scarce in the source material. Possibly, however, it was widely issued and, by whatever happenstance, simply just isn’t in the footage much. We see it widely worn in the scene at Mubende in Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait, perhaps suggesting it was indeed a common item. Other than this, men seem to have just worn their bush hats.

Officers’ side caps. A rifle green (army) or dark blue (air force) side cap in British cut. Black buttons and black piping on the top seam. Gold circular UA badge with pompon behind. This seems to have been red for the army and light blue for the air force.

Officers’ peaked caps. I can find no obvious system in the use of khaki versus rifle-green caps by officers. It may simply have been a matter of personal taste. Majors and lieutenant-colonels had one line of gold foliage, at the edge of the cap peak, colonels and above two lines.

Lanyards. The system here seems to have been that officers wore these on the right shoulder, and men (seemingly just NCOs) on the left shoulder.

Czechoslovak camouflage. The UA seems to have received a shipment of Czechoslovak “mlok” camouflage at some point in the Obote era. I can’t quite get a sense for which units received this — I’ve noted it in the text where I’ve seen this, but I imagine random bits and pieces of it could be found in all units.

Army rank insignia. NCO chevrons seem to have only been worn on the right arm. Shoulder rank insignia followed the classic British system – e.g. a brigadier had the insignia of a “senior colonel”. The main difference is the constant presence of “Uganda Army” below the shoulder rank insignia, for officers and NCOs. On rank slides this was literally the words “UGANDA / ARMY” at the bottom of the slide, and on shoulder straps it was a metal device with “UGANDA” in an arc over “ARMY” (I think?) at the base of the shoulder strap. This device was worn below rank insignia for officers, and on its own for NCOs. Rank slides themselves seem to have consistently been light tan, with insignia and text in black or dark green. Generals had nicer slides, in dark green, with the insignia and text in gold. Colonels and brigadiers seem to have had red collar tabs with crimson central lines, generals red collar tabs with gold foliate central lines.

Air force rank insignia. Presumably the same as the army. Specific air force rank slides can be seen, in light grey (or thereabouts) and reading “UGANDA / AIR FORCE” at the bottom, but the army pattern was also used.

Regimental colours.

These were introduced at some point in the Obote era. These seem to have been of identical design for all units except the Marine Regiment (see its section), including the Air Force honour guard. Units seem to have also had camp colours, of varying patterns — I deal with these in their relevant sections. The camp colours perhaps supplanted the regimental colours as the “main” regimental flags as the Amin era went on, but the relative lack of later date footage makes this hard to say much about.

The national colour. The Ugandan flag. Red socket, gold fringe and gold tassels. Gold Ugandan crane finial atop a gold cylinder. Black or dark brown staff. An elaborate central device as seen. A blue disc, edged in gold, reading in gold “THE UGANDA” (top) “ARMY” (bottom), with three dots separating the two sections of text. above the disc, the national coat of arms, in full. Around the disc, a wreath of various foliage, both sides seemingly identical. The pictures above are the best I can do in terms of detail. In the centre of the disc, the Ugandan crane, on a white or very light blue background, standing on a green hill. I lack a clear view of this but this is what the modern Ugandan army employs, and it would fit here.

The regimental colour. As for the national colour, except as noted. A dark green field. In the centre of the disc, the Uganda Army badge (crossed machetes below a Ugandan crane head), on a red background. Six battle honours, in yellow scrolls, on either side. This is somewhat obscure. I can’t find a single straight description of the King’s African Rifles colours anywhere, but the system seems(?) to have been that there were six battle honours for WWI and earlier*, which were common to all battalions, and carried on the regimental colour. Meanwhile WWII battle honours (a total of 26) seem to have been awarded only to the battalions that actually took part in the engagements in question, and were carried on the king’s colour. So my best guess is that the Uganda Army regimental colour carried the WWI and earlier battle honours, and the WWII battle honours, which ought to have been on the national colour after the British system, were left off completely. Which feels a little curious but, nevertheless.

*I think these went left-right, top-bottom. “ASHANTI 1900” / “SOMALILAND 1901-1904” / “KILIMANJARO” / “NARUNGOMBE” / “NYANGAO” / “EAST AFRICA 1914-1918”.

Earlier uniforms, and the transition to the Amin era.

Strictly outside the scope of this review, but I think it might be profitable to set out a couple of notes here.

4th Battalion, King’s African Rifles. The ancestor of the Ugandan army. For such a famous and hard-fighting corps, details of the KAR’s uniforms are strangely elusive, particularly the battalion distinctions. As far as I can discern, then. Enlisted men: a long shirt-tunic, tan, black buttons. Tan shorts. Red fez, green sash and lanyard. Blue puttees worn over socks of an unclear dark colour. On the upper sleeve a red circle with crossed swords. Officers: a four-pocket open-necked tan tunic, etc. Black buttons. Tan slouch hat.

The Ugandan army under Milton Obote. The 4th Battalion KAR became the 1st (and only) Battalion, Uganda Rifles, at some point in the immediate runup to Ugandan independence in 1962. At independence, or thereabouts, it was renamed the 1st Battalion, Uganda Army. The 2nd Battalion was raised in 1963, subsequent ones in due course.

In this period, army uniforms continued along KAR lines, with tan uniforms and “rifles” style distinctions (i.e., black buttons and dark NCO chevrons, use (by some units) of dark caps, socks, etc.). For parade (etc.) dress, enlisted men received a four-pocket closed-collar tunic, while officers continued with their open-collar tunic. Branch distinctions (differences in headgear, etc) seem to have sprung up rapidly — I don’t propose to go into detail about these. A fairly consistent feature of the uniforms seems to have been a patch, worn on the upper left sleeve of the tunic, or both sleeves: a green square, on which the Ugandan crane emblem on a white circle edged yellow. Presumably, this was intended to be a replacement for the red KAR patch described above. Fatigue uniforms were as they would continue to be. This is a whole separate topic and I’m barely scratching the surface of it here, no doubt.

This was the uniform in use at the time of Amin’s coup, and for a time afterwards — it is much in evidence at Mutesa II’s state funeral in April 1971 (indeed, this event is the best source of colour images and footage of it I am aware of).

One particular peculiarity of generals’ no. 2 uniforms of this era is a black, gold-edged shoulder strap with rank insignia.

Notable in the early footage is the prominent role played by the police — a large rifle-armed police honour guard formation with white tunics (officers: black) is often seen.

Introduction of the khaki no. 2 dress. The earliest certain appearance of the khaki no. 2 dress I can find is July 1971 — worn by Amin himself, on his visit to the UK. He also seems to be wearing it in a 1966 black-and-white photo, shown below — the colour is visibly darker than that worn by the NCO to his right. It seems to have taken longer to be rolled out to the army as a whole — I believe the earliest occasion of it being worn en masse that I can find is January 1972. I’m very hesitant to put solid dates on anything, but my best conjecture from the footage is that the tan four-pocket tunics were obsoleted at some point in the middle of 1972.

There seems to have possibly been a short transitional period where the no. 2 dress was worn with black “metal”, instead of silver — Amin himself is often seen with black buttons in 1971, and another man can be seen with the same in November 1972. Elsewhere, an officer wears silver buttons but black rank pips.

It should be noted that the air force no. 2 uniform appears to have also used black buttons, before they were replaced with silver.

What else became obsolete at this point? Obote-era footage of the army shows units in tan slouch hats and, elsewhere, rifle-green Balmoral caps with rifle-green hackles. These seem to have vanished, likewise the tan caps with dark (rifle-green?) bands which were much in evidence. The sleeve patches with the Ugandan emblem also disappeared. Waist sashes also seem to have fallen out of use around this time — some units had a sash in the Ugandan national colours, the police a red sash. Slouch hats continued to make the occasional appearance, e.g. the footage of the Tiger Regiment’s barracks in Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait.

Generals and command staff.

Generals’ no. 2 dress. Army and air force generals were distinguished by their rank insignia, of course, and, in the case of no. 2 dress, a red cap band, sometimes a dark (dark blue or rifle green, unclear) cap crown, two rows of gold foliage on the cap peak and gold aiguillettes (piped red for army generals and light blue for air force generals). On some occasions army generals are seen with enormous twisted gold epaulettes, on which embroidered rank insignia on red backing.

The cap badge was more elaborate, and individual examples seem to have varied in somewhat in their finer details. Army generals’ badge was a large gold wreath, in the middle of which (from top): the Ugandan crane head; a crossed sabre (top-left to bottom-right) and baton; and a scroll, in black edged silver, reading “UGANDA ARMY” in silver. Air force generals had the crane head, then an eagle with spread wings, then a scroll with “UGANDA AIR FORCE”.

A uniform which one tends to overlook, simply from how ubiquitous it is in the source material, is Amin’s iconic blue outfit. I haven’t subjected this to close dating but at least one source describes it as Amin’s Field Marshal uniform, first appearing when he adopted that title in July 1975.

Service dress. Very early footage shows what I take to be general staff service uniforms — these seem to have been set aside fairly quickly in the Amin era. Amin himself is seen with a twisted red and blue lanyard, red-over-blue stable belt (the blue seemingly a touch lighter than that of the Malire Regiment’s belt) and, variously, a black beret with general officer’s badge, or a unique dark blue side cap with light blue pompon with red centre and gold UA badge. Some officers seen around him can be seen wearing dark blue side caps with red tops and false peaks, dark blue top seam and trim to the false peak. Their lanyard had red in it, and I can’t comment further — the same lanyard and belt for Amin is the obvious guess. The usual collar tabs were worn. A pre-coup photo of Amin, as army chief of staff, seems to show him wearing the red and blue cap.

Various flags as pictured. The black and red swallow-tailed flag is Amin’s own vehicle flag.

Regimental bands.

Bear with me here — I put this at the top for a reason. Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait gives us a good view of a band which I think the context requires must be the band of the 3rd (Tiger) Regiment. Dark green caps piped yellow. Dark green five-button (silver) four-pocket tunic with standing collar piped yellow, yellow trefoils atop green pointed cuffs piped yellow, dark green trousers piped yellow. Dark green swallows’ nests piped yellow. Some sort of yellow insignia on the collar. Yellow lyre badge on the upper arm. Yellow NCO chevrons. Yellow flounders at the right shoulder tied to the top tunic button and somewhere on the left breast. White belt, gold square buckle with silver central device. Dark green or black drums with a long scroll above the national arms, above something illegible, above another scroll, battle honours on either side. The drum-major with a gold officer style aiguillette on the left shoulder and a dark green ornamental drum belt piped gold(?). The conductor with the same time of aiguillette on the right shoulder. Brown Sam Browne belt, sword, etc.

I have seen a couple of 1972 clips where dignitaries arriving at Entebbe Airport are greeted by a band which seems to be mostly the Tiger Regiment band —or, at least, another band with the same uniform— but with a handful of men off to one side are wearing what seems to be the same uniform but with the yellow distinctions (except the trouser stripes, oddly) in red, blue or green. So I wonder if what we’re seeing here is an illustration of the colour schemes of the four senior regiments. The Tiger Regiment must have worn yellow (below) and I can make a tenuous case for giving blue to the Simba Regiment (see below).Green and red, then, for the Jinja Regiment and the Gondo Regiment, or vice-versa, — see below in the “unidentified uniforms” section for further thoughts on this.

In earlier footage the bands seem to have worn sashes under their belts — perhaps in national flag colours.

3rd (“Tiger”) Infantry Battalion.

The best attested of the infantry battalions, thanks to their appearance in Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait. The identification comes from an officer naming the unit in one scene.

Tiger Battalion (no. 2 dress). No. 2 dress, etc. Brown chinstrap and cloth peak, some officers with rifle-green caps. Yellow lanyard. Officer rank insignia and cap badge sometimes with a yellow backing, likewise occasionally the men’s (or at least, the NCOs’). White belt with gold buckle and silver central device.

Tiger Battalion (service dress). Fatigues, etc. Yellow stable belt. Dark green socks with yellow tops and flashes, worn with khaki gaiters etc. Yellow lanyard. Slouch hat with light tan band and, on the turn-up, a silver UA badge on a yellow backing. A shot in the Tanzanian “Vita vya Kagera” film appears to show a corpse with the yellow belt of this unit, and a jacket in Zairian “leopard” camouflage — for decorum I don’t show this here.

Tiger Battalion (flags). The regimental colours seem to have been the standard type — exact details unclear.

1st Simba Mechanised Regiment

Originally, the 4th (“Simba”) Infantry Battalion

See the previous page for my comments on the organisation and re-organisation of this unit.

Simba Battalion (service dress). The above news photo, while horrible both in quality and in subject-matter, is quite exceptional in that it’s explicitly captioned as showing the Simba Regiment (in a clipping from “The Star” newspaper — I think this is the Daily Star of Tanzania). The lack of colour is of course to be regretted, but we can make out FN FALs and, interestingly, berets. This photo (September 1972) predates the unit becoming formally “mechanised” so the berets were, perhaps, worn by the crews of its jeeps or whatever enclosed vehicles they may have had at this point (unclear).

Simba Battalion (BTR-152s). The regiment was upgraded to a mechanised unit in April 1973. Footage from the Tanzanian “Vita vya Kagera” film shows a Soviet BTR-152 labelled as seen. We see a BTR-152 with “14UA” number plate in other footage (dated January 1976, so far as I can tell), leading a column of SKOTs. C&F don’t give SKOTs to this unit, but I think it’s plausible. The pennant on the BTR isn’t wholly legible, but the final letters are “M R”, presumably for “Mechanised Regiment”. All vehicles seem to be solid green — the BTR in the “Viyta” footage seems to have some sort of yellowish rectangle on the side, but I couldn’t guess whether or not that’s meant to be insignia.

Simba Battalion (jeeps). The same January 1976 footage also shows several jeeps, which may(?) belong to the same unit as the BTRs. They seem to be in plain green. The pennant is illegible.

Revolutionary Suicide Mechanised Specialist Regiment

Originally, the 2nd Simba Mechanised Battalion

This was not the Malire Regiment — see the previous page for much more on this.

Suicide Regiment (service dress). This is very difficult. We see the Suicide Regiment Jazz Band performing in Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait. Behind them is a figure in fatigues, with black beret and a dark lanyard and stable belt — it seems to have a slight greenish hue to it, but this could just be the footage.

The British Pathé archive has a valuable but highly vexing collection of cuts of the Ugandan army from c. November 1978. One cut shows the sign outside the regimental barracks (as shown). The next cut is Amin jubilantly touring a barracks. I think, perhaps counter-intuitively, that this is in fact a wholly different bit of footage showing the barracks of the Malire Regiment, not the Suicide Regiment, for reasons I won’t get into here.

Suicide Regiment (T-34s). Cooper & Fontanellaz give these to the Suicide Regiment. Seen in this item of footage, from this angle, and nowhere else. Solid green — some sort of white thing on the front right, but impossible to tell if it’s insignia or something else. For whatever it may be worth, this footage implies (by reference to the preceding footage) that these tanks were seen at Mbarara (garrison town of the Simba Mechanised Regiment), rather than Masaka.

Suicide Revolutionary Jazz Band. A real thing! Their evidently hand-made banner had the UA crest as its central device.

5th Mechanised Specialist Reconnaissance Regiment (aka the Malire Regiment)

This was not the Suicide Regiment — see the previous page for much more on this.

Malire Regiment (full dress). Black glengarry cap with red and white diced band. Gold circular badge (the UA badge, presumably) on a black flash. Rifle green tunic in “highland” cut. Open neck with three silver(?) front buttons, breast pockets with buttons, no skirt pockets. Plain shoulder straps. Tan shirt with tartan tie. White belt with gold square buckle with silver central device. White sporrans. Tartan kilt and socks. Black boots with khaki gaiters or socks outside the tartan socks. The tartan itself is red predominantly – “Royal Stuart” or some such. Red lanyard. The men equipped with G3 rifles and bayonets. The bayonet scabbard on a white baldric attached to the waistbelt. Officers with brown Sam Browne belts. Bandsmen the same uniform but with rifle green swallows’ nests with red trim. The drum-major in the January 1975 footage pictured above wears the same uniform as the band, but by August he obtained an elaborate uniform with Balmoral cap, as illustrated. A couple men seem to have a red lyre device on their lower left sleeve. Dark blue(?) drums with the national arms, above something illegible, with battle honours at either side.

Malire Regiment (no. 2 dress). This identification isn’t certain but, we read in the Summary of World Broadcasts that the Malire Regiment provided an honour guard for the opening of the 1975 OAU summit in Kampala. The footage here is from another occasion at the summit, rather than its opening, but that surely must be close enough, and these men are otherwise unattributed. Khaki no. 2 dress, khaki caps, white belts, red lanyards, red/blue backings to the cap badges and shoulder titles (at least on some men) as indicated. Note that, here, red is the “leading” colour over blue on the cloth flashes, whereas blue is leading on the stable belt and slouch hat flash. I should note that this is the earliest (and only) I’ve seen this unit in no. 2 dress. I imagine they were first issued it around this time — we see them at e.g. Amin’s inauguration in 1971 in shirtsleeves, and presumably, on an occasion like that, they’d have worn a more solemn uniform if they had one. Being vehicle-borne, they might’ve been regarded as a lower priority for a dismounted dress uniform compared to the infantry.

Malire Regiment (service dress). Fatigues, etc. The occasional item of “lizard” camouflage and Czechoslovakian “mlok”. Navy-over-red stable belt with gold buckle. Black beret with gold circular UA badge. A red, or twisted red and blue lanyard. Red is more common and, if we assume the full dress uniforms (below) are a “perfected” version of the uniform, then red was probably the regulation. Red and blue is more congruent with the system seen elsewhere of lanyards using all the colours in their respective stable belt, however. Light NCO chevrons. Sterling SMGs, G3 rifles, probably also FALs. A few men can be seen with slouch hats with gold circular UA badge atop a navy (left) and red (right) flash. The band is a very light tan with, seemingly, a thin red strip at the top.

Malire Regiment (flags). The Malire Regiment’s regimental colours seem to have been the standard type — exact details unclear. A white or yellow company flag reading “A-COY” in black, below a disc with the Ugandan crane. A red company flag reading “[x]-COY” in white (presumably also with the disc). A black company flag with obv. the UA badge on a red circle and rev. “H-Q-COY” in white. A Sherman on parade has some sort of red, blue and white flag, and a SKOT, on a different occasion, a small blue over red diagonal pennant.

Malire Regiment (Shermans). At the time of the coup, the Shermans had a white disc on the front right of the glacis plate, and a full-colour UA badge on a white square on the left. There seems to have been no other insignia. By early 1972 this had changed to a green-over-red square flash on the front left, left and rear left. Full-colour UA badge on a white square on the rear right. The regiment appears to have held onto its Shermans even after its loss of prestige following the 1974 coup — see the previous page. Shermans are seen in the Kagera War with, seemingly, no insignia.

I don’t know why the flash should be green and red, instead of the regimental blue and red. The flash was, so far as I can see, particular to this unit, and not an army-wide insignia.

Malire Regiment (SKOTs). A flash on the front right and front left — presumably introduced at the same time as this insignia was for the Shermans, as it is absent in early 1971 footage. A captured SKOT, paraded in Tanzania after the war, still has this insignia.

Malire Regiment (Jeeps). As seen.

Malire Regiment (Ferret armoured cars). I’ve only seen the one sad example pictured here — no insignia visible.

Airborne.

This is slightly unclear. We see plenty of paratroop type uniforms in the footage, the distinctions being a red belt, lanyard and beret. The question, however, is what units to assign the uniforms to. Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait shows us a scene at what must be the Paratroop School, where red belts/lanyards/berets are much in evidence. I have seen footage (see much further down) of a unit I think the context implies is the Air and Seaborne Battalion. These men, again, wear red belts/lanyards/berets. The Parachute Battalion, itself, seems also to have used all red. I don’t think it’s too troublesome that the school should wear the same distinctions as the regular battalion, but the lack of difference (so far as I can see) between it and the Air and Seaborne is rather curious.

Anyway, the men here are from one or another of the units which dressed in this manner. The men in “lizard” I think must be the Parachute Battalion, as their ensign is seen in one cut with a flag reading “Air Borne”.

Airborne (no. 2 dress). No. 2 dress, etc. Brown cap band and cloth peak. Silver parachutist badge on cap band and left breast. Red lanyard. White belt, buckle unclear.

Airborne (service dress). Fatigues, etc, “lizard” camouflage or “mlok” camouflage. The mlok seems to be earlier than the lizard. Red beret with silver parachutist badge or the gold UA circular badge (the latter perhaps more common). Sometimes a second silver parachutist badge on the left breast. Red stable belt. Red lanyard. Red-brown “jump boots”. Alternatively, shorts with grey socks with red tops, worn with gaiters. Officers also wore the rifle-green side cap, sometimes with the parachute badge pinned to the left side. Helmets with irregular, presumably locally-produced camouflage covers — dark brown and green blotches on light brown. G3 rifles with collapsible stocks.

Osprey’s title on the Entebbe operation claims that the Ugandan paratroopers had received their lizard uniforms from Israeli stocks, and so the Israeli paratroopers decided to dress themselves in lizard as well, to increase their resemblance to Ugandans. Israel certainly did make use of lizard in the 1960s, and then ceased using it subsequently, so the idea that its surplus would go to Uganda at the height of Israeli-Ugandan relations is entirely plausible. However, photographs of the Israeli participants at Entebbe seem to show them wearing vertical lizard, not horizontal. Perhaps, simply, the Israelis made a mistake.

Airborne (flags). A red camp colour with “AIR BORNE”(?) and further illegible text, in white, above presumably a winged parachute or similar. Note that the image above is flipped horizontally in order for the flag to be legible.

The Commando Battalion.

I have no explicit identification of this unit but, to me, them being the Commando Battalion feels like an irresistible inference.

Commando Battalion (service dress). These men seem to parade behind the paratroopers, but separately, and they don’t wear red belts or berets, at least not on parade. They have a distinctive high-stepping quick march and some men seem to wear knives on their belts. “Lizard” camouflage. Rifle-green berets or M1 helmets or liners in a shiny blueish grey colour, at least for parade purposes. The lanyards seem to have been a mottled red and green, with red predominant. Light chevrons. One man has some sort of yellow upper sleeve insignia, seemingly an eagle descending to attack a serpent or etc (see the flag below).* G3 rifles with collapsible stocks. The red and yellow stable belt man I’ve put here, for the moment, as a conjecture. Black-and-white photographs of the notorious Abdallah Nasur show him wearing a rifle-green side cap with a small badge with the eagle device, as well as a two-colour lanyard and a stable belt with at least one narrow stripe — no particular reason why they should be this unit’s, perhaps.

*This emblem is strikingly similar to that of the Egyptian El-Sa'ka Forces. One doesn’t read about Egypt providing training to the Ugandan army in this period, but there’s no reason why they couldn’t have done. Alternatively, Amin’s vague claims of having militarily supported Egypt in the Yom Kippur War could have a germ of truth in them — perhaps some Ugandans turned up and had a look around the Egyptian commando school before returning home.

Commando Battalion (no. 2 dress). I assume from the upper sleeve insignia that this man belongs to this unit.

Commando Battalion (flags). A splendid, fantastical two-man flag. A golden winded parachute, over a dark green(?) disc with gold edge. Inside the disc is a gold eagle, its wings extending outside the disc, grabbing a snake or similar with its claws. The field seems to be “lizard” camouflage(!).

The Artillery Regiment.

I’ve seen Amin wearing the above stable belt — it’s a conjecture but, the British Royal Artillery wears a belt of this pattern so, I think this is probably a safe guess. The rest of the uniform is olive green with the rifle-green officer side cap.

Footage shows men in black berets and fatigues with vehicle-towed artillery — I must assume this is, also, this regiment. The use of 09UA registrations is curious, as we also see 09UA on a military police vehicle, and that vehicle also has military police flashes, so it can’t be one which they had momentarily borrowed. More evidence needed. The artillery vehicles seem to have no flashes anywhere.

The Air and Seaborne Regiment.

A Sergeant Arkanjero Baru, of this unit, had a publicised court-martial in late 1972, for having murdered a Kenyan air force officer — he was found guilty and executed. Here we see him. This is of fairly limited value, uniformologically, as this is evidently an early, transitional type uniform with Obote-era cap and black buttons. The lanyard seems to be several thin gold(?) cords grouped together, and the cap badge has a red backing.

August 1973 footage shows Amin reviewing a unit at Tororo, the garrison of this regiment. The unit has identical distinctions to the Parachute Battalion, and the obvious assumption is that it is the Parachute Battalion, but it feels implausible that that unit would be shipped from one end of the country to the other, for an inane ceremony (the first anniversary of the “Economic War”) when another unit was right there. This unit, whatever it was, had regimental and national colours of seemingly the standard pattern.

The Marine Regiment.

Marine Regiment (no. 2 dress). First seen by me in November 1977. White cap (red band for officers) with black chinstrap and peak. White embroidered badge (in the general style of the UA badge) on navy blue backing. Navy blue open-collar tunic with silver buttons. White shirt and black tie. A closely twisted white and blue double lanyard. Arced upper sleeve title reading “UGANDA ARMY / MARINES” in light blue on dark blue. Navy blue trousers with broad light blue stripe. White belt with gold square buckle and silver central device. Some men may have had gold open buckles. Officers black leather etc. Bandsmen with elaborate aiguillettes as pictured — gold for NCOs and, so far as I can tell, mixed gold and red for enlisted men. In January 1978, G3 rifles.

A roll of 1978 footage shows a military band, containing men from seemingly several units, on parade, with the Marines following behind. Right at the back of the band are some pipers, in highland dress. In one iteration of the footage their tunics look to be the Marines’ navy blue, but in another iteration (lower resolution but with somewhat better colours) the tunics seem to be the dark green of the Malire Regiment’s pipers — for which, see their section above.

Marine Regiment (service dress). The two pictures above are from the Voice of Uganda newspaper. An exceptional use of Belgian “jigsaw” camouflage seen in 1975 — no doubt the distinctively-coloured copy manufactured in Zaire rather than Belgian surplus. By 1978 they’d evidently switched to Zairian “leopard”. Beyond these two pictures, which are what they are in terms of usefulness, I think it’s very likely my “unidentified unit 4” is also the Marines.

Marine Regiment (flags). The regimental colour was white with the Ugandan flag in the top-left, a narrow blue cross, and the UA badge “proper” on a white disc, towards the right. There is a silver anchor under the machetes. The national colour perhaps the standard one.

Marine Regiment (T-55s). With considerable trepidation, I propose here that the T-55s seen in footage belong to the Marine Regiment. Perhaps not all of the T-55s but, perhaps, all the T-55s I have seen. I have no support for this from the written sources. Let me explain my thinking.

• T-55s made a prominent appearance in a January 1976 parade in Kampala. This is, I think, the earliest I have seen them. We see crew with green berets and standard UA badges. The footage is too indistinct to make much more out of, but photographs of the same event show that the crew are wearing “jigsaw” camouflage. This aligns with the attested use of this pattern by the Marines in July 1975.

• January 1978 footage (another parade) features several T-55s, among them tank 726. This tank is flying a large flag. The details are unfortunately indistinct but, in the best copy of the footage I can find, the flag is a lightish blue, with black bars top and bottom. In the centre, a large white disc with a version of the UA badge. There is an indistinct object under the crossed machetes.

• As mentioned above, the colour presented to the Marines in January 1978 had a central device of the UA badge with an anchor under the machetes. I believe an anchor is the object I see under the machetes on the T-55 flag.

• Undated early Kagera War era footage shows tank 726 again. Its crew are now in Zairian “leopard” camouflage. This would seem to mirror the Marines’ attested switch from jigsaw to leopard by September 1978, as shown above.

The camouflage pattern on the tanks is unique to Uganda, and unfortunately quite difficult to describe via text. There’s a good colour reconstruction in the Cooper & Fontanellaz book, and the Alamy archive has two or three high-resolution photos. I can’t show any of this here for copyright reasons. Essentially, on a darkish green, a light pattern consisting of broadly circular clusters of dots, each cluster with a “tail” of three strokes. The density of the dot/cluster arrangements, and their regularity, seems to vary between tanks. There’s also a few random broad, bulbous strokes of the lighter colour, on which the pattern continues, but in a dark colour, probably the base darkish green. This pattern seems to have been all over the tank, including the wheels. Perhaps other tanks simply had blotches instead of dot/cluster arrangements.

The Border Guards.

May 1972 has Amin reviewing an otherwise unseen unit at a ceremony marking the re-opening of the Ugandan-Sudanese border. My best guess is that these men are the elusive Border Guards, whose headquarters were at Gulu, in the area. This is a pre-Amin style uniform with tan caps. The distinctive colour, seen on belts and sock tops, seems to have been a pale yellow, the lanyards pale yellow and a second colour, as seen.

The Military Police.

Uniforms. The uniform seen for most of Amin’s era is a red (crown)/white (band) cap, loosely twisted red and white lanyards, a red-over-white stable belt, and olive-green socks with white-over-red tops (i.e. red on top when folded over), worn with short puttees or gaiters, the latter sometimes white.

This uniform replaced an earlier one, towards the end of 1971 — September 1971 footage shows a fairly haphazard mix of both. The older uniform was a red (crown)/rifle green (band) cap, one or two narrow red lanyards, red-over-rifle-green stable belt, and olive-green socks with red-over-green tops, worn with gaiters etc as above. One man can be seen with a rifle-green(?)(crown) / red (band) cap.

In general: gold UA badge. Light chevrons. Pistols, sterling SMGs, G3 rifles, some sort of AK with collapsible stock, an RPD machine gun(!) and I think I see an Uzi as well. Some type of helmet (as pictured), poorly painted red. One man has a slouch hat, the flash etc sadly invisible. A colonel can be seen with collar tabs and an incongruous green beret, seemingly with some kind of gold square badge. Officers seemingly could also wear the rifle-green side cap. Officers and men can be seen in no. 2 dress, but not often. A colonel or brigadier can be seen with rifle green cap with red-over-white band, gold UA badge. A man’s head, briefly seen at Amin’s wedding, may be an MP — if so, a solid khaki cap but a red-over-white backing to the cap badge. A certain aversion among officers to wearing the fully red and white cap, perhaps? Two men, I think MPs, can be distantly seen wearing greatcoats.

Towards the end of Amin’s reign, the military police can be seen wearing very fetching red jungle hats — the screenshot here is from post-Amin footage but the hats can be seen in the Amin period as well.

Vehicle insignia. As pictured. The use of 09UA here is confusing, as this can also be seen on an artillery tractor (see the Artillery and Signals Regiment, above ). This may have been the “miscellaneous units” code, perhaps.

The Air Force.

Air Force (no. 2 dress). Air force blue cap, tunic and trousers. Cap with black peak and chinstrap. Gold embroidered air force badge on dark blue backing. Four-button open-collared tunic. Silver(?) buttons. Light blue lanyard. Pilot wings above left pocket when worn. The only NCO chevrons I can see are army-style tan on khaki but no doubt there were appropriately coloured ones also. Light greyish blue belt with gold buckle with silver central device. Brown belt etc for officers.

Air Force (service dress). Greyish tan beret with gold air force wings, or dark blue side cap with light blue pompon and unclear badge. Amin is seen once with this pompon, but wearing an army uniform — there it has a red centre and gold circular UA badge, which may be a personal touch. Light greyish blue shirt, model 37 type belt and fatigue trousers. White NCO chevrons, officers with dark blue rank slides. The actual flying uniform was a blueish grey overall, worn with rank slides. The slides could read “Uganda Army” or “Uganda Air Force”. The former seems to have been more common, and I’d guess the metal arc, when metal insignia was worn, read “Army” also.

Air Force (band). As seen. Blue uniform with yellow facings, etc.

Air Force (flags). The air force honour guard seems to have had army-style flags, down to the green regimental colour. Elsewhere, a blue camp colour with indecipherable emblem and “AIR FORCE” below. The flag of the deliciously named “Suicide Strike Command” as seen.

Vehicles seem to have had registrations beginning “AF” instead of “UA”, but I can’t confirm.

The State Research Bureau.

A slightly excitable NBC news report (undated) says that Amin’s “S-Men” can be identified by their distinctive dark glasses, worn around the clock, and their car number plates, which supposedly all begin with “UVS”. Henry Kyemba also notes the “UVS” plates and the gaudy clothing of these men.

The Police.

There seem to have been a few different types of police, and sorting them out is difficult. The source material makes it very difficult to distinguish black from dark blue — I call it all “black” here, with that caveat.

“Normal police.” Service dress uniform a distinctive light greenish grey colour, the tunic sometimes with short sleeves. Black caps, lanyards, socks and leather, silver buttons. Black or black with two white stripe stable belts can be seen, rarely. Black NCO chevrons on an olive-drab base. Officers seem to have worn their lanyards on the left, at least sometimes. Lieutenant-colonels (or equivalent) seem to have had one row of silver foliage on the cap, full colonels (or equivalent) had two rows. Officer shoulder insignia had black backing or was on black slides. Black collar patches with silver embroidery for the appropriate ranks — long ones for the tunic, short ones for the shirt. The cap badge the Ugandan crane above a scroll, inside a wreath. Full dress uniform a black four-pocket tunic with silver buttons etc. Black leather. Broad red trouser stripes. On at least one officer, in the black uniform, the lanyard seems to be twisted black and white.

Prison service. The text description of one video describes a shot in it as showing “police and prison officers” — the police officers are accounted for, so by elimination the other men seen are the prison officers. Uniforms as for police officers, but with brown belts and red double lanyards. A colonel seen in Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait wears red collar patches and a red rank slide as well as the red lanyard.

Another police unit. Black or red caps, with black chinstraps and peaks. Black or red neckties. Dark grey uniform with brown leather. Enlisted men with silver circular belt buckles. Red trouser stripes. I think this is the more formal order of dress for the prisons service. The black/red distinction may indicate something.

Motor police(?) White tunic, etc. These men can be seen doing escort duty on motorbikes with white helmets, etc. etc.

Unidentified Units.

Unidentified unit 0. A scene in Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait shows an air force ceremony, I must assume at Entebbe. There is a march-past by an army unit in No. 2 dress. The two officers leading wear red lanyards — behind them, some NCOs have red lanyards, others blue. All ranks wear rifle-green caps. My initial instinct would be to regard this as the “red distinctions” battalion (my unidentified unit 7), to which a few men from the “blue distinctions” battalion (my unidentified unit 1) had, for whatever reason, been seconded. However, I feel this is somewhat untenable. If we assume that "unit 7” is the 2nd Battalion, and “unit 1” is the 4th Battalion — both of these units were garrisoned quite some distance away from Entebbe. Closer units were the Malire Regiment, near Kampala, and the 1st Battalion at Jinja. I tentatively give the 1st Battalion green distinctions (my unidentified unit 15), which would rule them out. The Malire Regiment, I think, did use red lanyards with its No. 2 dress (see that unit’s section above), but it seems to have also used khaki caps, not rifle-green ones. So I think these men are unattributable for the moment.

Unidentified unit 1. Men can be seen here and there with blue lanyards, in service and No. 2 dress. I think it is likely this is the Simba Regiment. A unit with blue lanyards can be seen in 1972 footage on ceremony at Kisoro, an obscure town in the bottom corner of the country. The closest garrison town to Kisoro is Mbarara, residence of the Simbas — this isn’t decisive on its own, but, notable. This units seem, unusually, to have all men with rifle-green caps, not just officers. Elsewhere, a white belt with gold buckle and light NCO chevrons.

Kagera War era footage shows men with either blue or black lanyards. The quality of the footage makes a precise diagnosis difficult. I think they’re blue, hence I put these men here, but if they’re black then they may be the Suicide Regiment instead. See the Suicides’ section above — the single man I can vaguely place with that unit seems to have worn a black belt. The footage these men are from is a mixture of different cuts, which complicates matters. Indirect evidence supporting them being the Suicides is that, in the footage, we see Amin haranguing them — I have a reference for Amin visiting the barracks at Masaka on 15 November 1978, which is a good date for this footage, and no equivalent contemporary reference to him visiting Mbarara.

Anyway these men, whoever they are, wear fatigues etc., a few men with “lizard” camouflage. AK rifles, magazines in a mix of G3/FAL pouches and locally-made pouches on shoulder straps. The helmets seem to be Czechoskovak M53s(?). A few men have Soviet-style tank helmets — again, we know the Simba and Suicide Regiments were mechanised.

Unidentified unit 2. Red beret, yellow or red/yellow(?) lanyard and stable belt in some red and yellow combination.

Unidentified unit 2A. Green beret, yellow/red(?) lanyard, red-yellow-red-yellow-red stable belt.

Unidentified unit 3. The grey no. 2 dress and unusual cap badge (the national coat of arms, I think) suggests something outside the army.

Unidentified unit 4. I suspect this is the Marine Regiment — the use of a twisted white and blue (I assume it’s blue) lanyard matches, as does the use of “leopard” camouflage. I think the September 1978 photo in the Marines section shows dark-over-light-over-dark stable belts, but it’s extremely unclear. The beret colour is elusive, from the poor quality of the footage — my instinct is green, which isn’t a nautical colour but it parallels the UK’s Royal Marine Commandos. Other footage yields a man with a blue beret (the only one I’ve seen), but a red lanyard, with green fatigues, in Amin’s entourage.

If the men in khaki no. 2 dress with this lanyard are the Marines, then that requires explanation. Perhaps, simply, the blue no. 2 uniform wasn’t issued until 1978 (I haven’t seen it earlier than that) and they wore a khaki uniform before then.

See also unidentified unit 12.

Unidentified unit 5. A red stable belt, but a dark beret. Unclear. In one bit of footage they can be seen marching behind men in fatigues with red lanyards, but it’s unclear if they’re the same unit or the next one in sequence. Elsewhere, men with what seem to be red stable belts and green berets in a truck with towed anti-aircraft gun.

Unidentified unit 6. A band with dark uniforms — I think these are too dark to be an infantry regimental band. Other units in this footage are an armoured regiment/the Malire Regiment, and some military police.

Unidentified unit 7. I imagine this was one of the four regular regiments. Probably the 2nd (Gondo/Gonda) Battalion — 1972 footage has Amin visiting Karamoja district (where Motoro, the Battalion’s garrison, was located) and reviewing a passing-out of new recruits. Unfortunately this is right at the end of the “Uganda Rifles” era of uniforms, so the men are wearing tan/dark peaked caps, which complicates identification. But red lanyards and socks with solid red tops are much in evidence. No. 2 dress: an infantry type uniform with a red lanyard. Rifle green caps for officers. Light NCO chevrons. White belt with square buckle — it seems like silver with a gold central device, but this could just be the lighting. Service dress: fatigues, etc. FN FAL rifles.

Unidentified unit 8. As seen — an infantry type uniform with entwined red and rifle-green lanyard. I think I can see this unit’s enlisted men in other footage, in no. 2 dress — rifle-green caps, white belts with gold buckle and silver central device.

Unidentified unit 9. Another band. This one is identified in a video caption as the police band, which is possible. Red open-collar tunic, dark blue or black pointed cuffs trimmed yellow, cap, and trousers (the last with red stripe). Dark blue or black drums. Dark blue or black NCO chevrons. Presumably, if this is the police band, black in each case.

Unidentified unit 10. Another band. The video description, if I read it correctly, seems to identify these men as the police band, in which case they got a bit of a uniform upgrade following the above entry. Red tunic with yellow “brandenburgs” and pointed cuff trim with trefoils. Red cap band and dark blue or black top. Gold badge and chinstrap(?). Dark blue or black trousers with red stripe. Dark blue or black drum. If this is indeed the police band the dark elements are presumably black.

Unidentified unit 11. No. 2 dress with lanyard in, perhaps, the national colours. Khaki cap.

Unidentified unit 12. Blue-over-white stable belt. Conceivably this is the belt of unidentified unit 4, worn upside-down. However, if unit 4 is the Marines, this man is almost certainly too early (1971), and must belong to a different unit.

Unidentified unit 13. Another band!! It never ends. I would have regarded this as the band of the red details infantry regiment except some men here seem to have yellow swallows’ nests, the conductor has a yellow aiguillette, and the officer facing the camera has a very restrained tunic, seemingly with no breast or front pockets.

Unidentified unit 14. Yet another band-!!!!! Anyway this one’s a little distinct — navy blue uniforms, black belts, red trim, cuff trefoils etc, black caps.

Unidentified unit 15. I think this might be one of the four original battalions but, if so, it’s the rarest of the four (i.e., the units I take to be the four) in the footage. Fatigues, etc. Green lanyard and stable belt. I have (very tentative) reasons to think that red distinguished the 2nd Battalion, and blue the 4th, so this would then, by elimination, be the 1st. If so, the green I suppose is a nice nod to the “rifles” background of the unit.

Unidentified unit 16. Twisted red and yellow lanyard, red-over-yellow stable belt. A lieutenant-colonel is seen with a yellow backing to his gold UA badge. The fourth image here may be a different unit, but I put it here for the moment. Seeing as a general is pictured wearing this uniform, it could simply be the general staff uniform — the colours match the generals’ pattern gorget patches, and this would explain why the red and blue general staff uniform seems to have disappeared after 1971.

Unidentified unit 17. Footage of late date (January 1978 or circa) shows a SKOT with the flag seen above. The vehicle is seemingly uncamouflaged. This can’t be the Malire Regiment, as its distinctions were navy-over-red, and we have the opposite here. Cooper and Fontanellaz give SKOTs to the Marine Regiment, though red wasn’t prominent in their colouring. There seems to have been no insignia.

Unidentified unit 18. Seen, blurrily, in August 1975 footage. SKOTs with some sort of dappled camouflage pattern: it’s similar in ambience to the “lines and dots” pattern seen on T-55s, but less regular, and much cruder. Mostly it’s blotches in the lighter colour, but I see a few streaks in the lighter colour with blotches in the dark colour. Seemingly no insignia. I can’t see the left side, but the front right, where the SKOTs of the Malire Regiment had a flash, is blank, as is the rest of the right side, the front, and the rear. Men with red(?) or green berets, one with a red lanyard and unclear headgear. Camouflage in some sort of “duck hunter” type pattern(?)

Unidentified unit 19. No doubt this is some other unit where, for whatever reason, some men were wearing white helmets/helmet liners on some occasion.

Unidentified unit 20. Amin, in the army scenes of Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait, wears lizard fatigues with cowboy belt, and a black beret with a badge as seen — a gold UA badge behind a red (r.) and black (l.) flash. The left side really does seem to be black and not just dark blue.

Unidentified unit 21. No idea. Zairian “jigsaw” camouflage, red beret, dark-over-red stable belt.

A unit with “06UA” number plates. Lizard camouflage, fatigues, etc. Light chevrons. From context this may be the Malire Regiment.

A unit with “07UA” number plates Fatigues, etc. The scene in this footage is chaotic and it’s hard to tell who belongs to where. The tanker helmet on the driver may indicate some sort of mechanised etc. unit — this is early footage so, the Malire Regiment again? The “07UA” would perhaps be out of place, if so.

“08UA”. This was perhaps the code for Amin’s personal vehicles, as I’ve only seen it used on jeeps he’s driving. One jeep, pictured here, is lavishly marked with UA crests and has a fine three-colour brushstroke type camouflage pattern.

SKOTs with white-edged diamond insignia. A small mystery. In Vita vya Kagera we see several of these lying around at (what I think the context requires must be) the Suicide Regiment barracks at Masaka. The Tanzania-Uganda War in Pictures shows another specimen, apparently captured during the fighting for Jinja. The Suicide Regiment had been destroyed months before this, but a SKOT surviving to take part in the battle at Jinja is plausible, surely. This also avoids having to give SKOTs to the Jinja Battalion — I haven’t seen anything else to suggest they had them, although (see previous page) the Jinja Battalion was described as “Mechanised”, at least occasionally.

Cooper & Fontanellaz have another view of one of these with “07UA” number plate, whatever that may suggest.

Saladins. These were used by the Suicide Regiment, but possibly also others, so I put them down here. These are rare in footage — one, captured by Tanzanians, seems to have a yellow disc on the front right, as seen.

Some camp colours. These are seen all together at a parade, carried by men in no. 2 dress with khaki caps. The temptation to attribute them to the regular infantry battalions is enormous. Unfortunately the quality of the footage makes it hard to see the lanyards. The red flag seems to be amidst a couple of red lanyard guys. I possibly see a single green lanyard, on the man carrying the green flag, but it could be a visual artefact. The yellow colour is too far back.