pennant 4 unrolls according to fig2 when after the marking apparatus 1 has struck an obstacle 8 the holding ring 5 has fallen downward from the rolled up pennant instead of the slidable holding ring 5 one of brittle rupturable material can be used it breaks and thus releases the pennant 4 when the marking apparatus 1 hits the support tube 3 of the marking apparatus 1 is seated in a concave foot 9 which is made from a spherical half shell 10 with a tube stump 11 internally molded on as a coupling part for the support tube 3 the remaining concave space is filled with weighting material 13 principally cast lead this concave foot 9 enables the marking apparatus 1 to be thrown out of an aircraft for example and in fact even where the ground would not permit penetration of a point 15 fig4 which can be used as an alternative to the concave foot 9 and can be coupled to the support tube 3 in the manner described due to the weighting property of the concave foot 9 the marking apparatus always seats on this after which the support tube 3 swings into the vertical position the point 15 is a hollow spike of forged steel in which a friction bushing not shown of plastic is mounted in the manner of a releasable hose seal to receive the support tube 3 of light alloy the spherical half shell 10 consists of impact resistant plastic nylon 66 and is cast with the weighting material 13 in special cases activated with pm 147 or c 14 and also with plastic up polyester.