Sapulpa Showcase (July 2019)

Artifact(s) of the Month:

The image shows a rare World War II (WWII) 48 gold/48 white star casket flag, the museum has on display in our military rooms. Casket flags during WWII were made in America with 48 white stars on both sides of the flag. However, there are other similar casket flags, like this one, with gold and white stars, but these flags may only have 4 or 5 gold stars displayed.


Why the gold stars?
The Marshall Plan in Europe to stimulate recovery of war torn countries, such as France, the US Army contracted with local French flag manufactures and seamstresses to manufacture casket flags for the repatriation program rather than have flags shipped in from the US. Though, there were flag specifications, it’s believed that some French workers, familiar with America’s World War I use of “Blue Star” and “Gold Star” window banners (see the images for examples), included gold stars on one side in place of white stars to honor America’s fallen soldiers.

Though there are no numbers to substantiate actual French manufactured casket flags, it’s believed 150-500 “Gold Star” flags were produced – most of these flags only had 4-5 gold stars on one side. However, flags with all 48 gold stars on one side are considered to have the smallest production, making them extremely rare.

Though the US caught the mistake early in production, it opted to use the flags with gold stars because of the short supply of flags. Subsequent flags were manufactured with all white stars.
When the flag is correctly folded, the white stars will show; when correctly draped on the casket, the gold stars will show.