Editing Flag of Poland (section)

=== Twentieth century ===
[[File:Paris expo 1937 troisième photo.jpg|thumb|upright|The flag of Poland in 1937]]
[[File:Dar Pomorza Gdynia Sztokholm 1938.jpg|thumb|upright|The civil ensign of Poland in 1938]]
[[File:Poland_NYC_1939.jpg|thumb|upright|The flag of Poland in 1939]]
White-and-red flags were first waved during a patriotic demonstration on 3 May 1916 in Warsaw. The organizing committee advised participants about the correct alignment of the colours, that is with the white stripe above the red one. Still, many demonstrators brought flags with the red stripe on top. On 1 August 1919, almost a year after Poland regained independence in November 1918, the Sejm officially introduced a white-and-red bicolour as the Polish national flag. In order to avoid confusion with the white-and-red [[International maritime signal flags|maritime signal flag]] used internationally by harbor pilots and tugboats, the same act of Sejm introduced a variant of the flag with the coat of arms in the white stripe for use as a [[civil ensign]] and by Polish diplomats and consuls abroad.<ref name="znamier" />

[[File:Opaska powstancza.jpg|thumb|left|A white-and-red [[brassard]] worn by a Polish insurgent during the [[Warsaw Uprising]] of 1944. The acronym WP stands for ''Wojsko Polskie'' or [[Polish Armed Forces]].]]
Apart from changes in the legal specifications of the shades of the national colours (see the section below), the basic design of the Polish flag, including the 5:8 ratio, has remained unchanged to this day. The flag with coat of arms was only modified to adjust to the changes in the coat of arms itself. Major modifications included a change in the stylisation of the eagle from [[Neoclassicism|Classicist]] to [[Baroque]] in 1927 and the removal of the crown from the eagle's head during the [[History of Poland (1945–1989)|Communist rule]] from 1944 to 1990.<ref name="kuczyn" /><ref>Ustawa o zmianie przepisów o godle... (1990)</ref> In that period, [[Polish People's Republic|Poland]] was one of the few [[socialist state]]s in the [[Eastern Bloc]] (apart from the [[flag of Cuba]] and [[flag of Laos|Laos]]) not to adorn [[communist symbolism]] on its flag.

[[File:Warsaw Uprising - Polish Flag (1944).jpg|thumb|upright|A frayed Polish flag during the final days of the [[Warsaw Uprising]] of 1944]]
[[File:Polish flag 1945 Berlin.jpg|thumb|upright|Polish flag in Berlin on 2 May 1945]]

20th-century Polish insurgents wore white-and-red [[brassard]]s (armbands) which played a role similar to the cockade of previous centuries. Such armbands were worn by Polish freedom fighters during the [[Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919)|Greater Poland Uprising]] (1918–1919) and [[Silesian Uprisings]] (1919–1921), as well as during the [[Second World War]] (1939–1945) by the soldiers of the [[Armia Krajowa|Home Army]] (AK) and [[Bataliony Chłopskie|Peasants' Battalions]] (BCh) – usually emblazoned with the acronyms of their formations.<ref name="znamier" /> During the Second World War, Polish soldiers raised the Polish flag on several sites of their victories. On 18 May 1944, after an Allied victory over the German forces in the [[Battle of Monte Cassino]], a patrol of the 12th Podolian Uhlan Regiment (part of the [[Polish 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division]]) raised a Polish flag on ruins of the [[Monte Cassino]] abbey in Italy. On 1 August 1944, the first day of the [[Warsaw Uprising]], a white-and-red flag was hoisted on the [[Prudential (Warsaw)|Prudential]] building, Warsaw's tallest skyscraper of the time. During the liberation of Warsaw by Soviet forces and [[Ludowe Wojsko Polskie|Polish People's Army]] on 17 January 1945, Polish flags were raised on the [[Belweder|Belvedere]] palace and ruins of the [[Warsaw Główna|Main Railway Station]]. On 2 May 1945, after the [[Battle in Berlin|capture of Berlin]], soldiers of the 7th Battery, 3rd Division, 1st Light Artillery Regiment planted Polish flags on the [[Berlin Victory Column]].<ref name="znamier" />

Polish flags were also used by anti-government demonstrators under the Communist rule. During the bloody riots of [[Poznań 1956 protests|1956 in Poznań]] and [[Polish 1970 protests|1970 in Gdynia]], protesters carried flags that were blood-stained on the white stripe.<ref name="znamier" />