VERY RARE! WWII U. S. NAVY SMALL BOAT No. 12 Ensign Patrol Torpedo Boat Flag

Ones of the rarest USN WWII flag types. This flag would be very easy to frame and would be the highlight to any WWII or rare historical flag collection. In the second photo of this listing, you will see a digitally sourced photograph of an identical no. 12 flag type being used on the PT Boat during the D-Day landings. This is the historically documented description that is attached to that photograph.

Sailors, American flag flying between them, pointing twin. 50 caliber towards sky in the MG nests on PT (Patrol Torpedo) boat during D-Day (Operation Overlord). This'salty' and worn theater flown Patrol Torpedo Boat is the smallest ensign size produced for the U.

Navy during World War II. This flag shows great wear while still maintaining much of its original structure and fabric. The grommets are made of zinc which was common as a "wartime production" flag as the transition from BRASS to ZINC was done to save the brass for other uses for the war effort. PT (Patrol, Torpedo) boats were small, fast, and expendable vessels for short-range oceanic scouting, armed with torpedoes and machine guns for cutting enemy supply lines and harassing enemy forces. Forty-three PT squadrons, each with 12 boats were formed during World War II by the U.

PT boat duty was very dangerous and the squadrons suffered an extremely high loss rate in the war. Based in New Orleans, Higgins Industries was a small boat company owned by Andrew Jackson Higgins. Higgins built a wide array of boats. Most World War II historians often equate the beach landing crafts used at Normandy and Iwo Jima simply as Higgins boats.

The first Higgins PT boats were used against the Imperial Japanese forces in the Battle for the Aleutian Islands and in the Mediterranean against Nazi Germany and her allies. They were used to support the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. Perhaps the best known PT was skippered by Lieutenant and later U. Most of the PT boat attack force fired their compliment of torpedoes and headed for home, but three boats stayed behind including the 109.

In the confusion and darkness at sea, Lieutenant Kennedy noted a vague shape approaching him. He assumed it was a sister PT boat, but soon discovered it was a Japanese destroyer.

Kennedy attempted to swing his boat into position to fire a torpedo, but was not fast enough. The much larger destroyer hit the. Broadside at full speed nearly splitting the much smaller wooden boat in half. Kennedy and the survivors swam nearly 3 miles to a small island.

After a week of surviving on small islands with the help of Solomon Islands locals, Kennedy and the. Surviving crew were rescued by. The Mare Island Naval Station in San Francisco Bay was home to what was known as the Pacific Fleet, however, their flags were used throughout all theaters war during WWII. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history.

The operation began the liberation of France (and later western Europe) and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. This WWII landing craft flag is in heavily used and worn condition. Used landing craft flags from WWII were a very sought after war prizes as talked about by many WWII veterans. Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first naval base on the west coast of the United States. It is 25 miles northeast of San Francisco, near Vallejo, California.

There were 46,000 workers employed there during the war. It comprised over 900 buildings, and the base closed in 1996. The flag loft employed 500 workers, 400 women doing their part by working 8 hours a day 6 days a week. This item is in the category "Collectibles\Militaria\WW II (1939-45)\Original Period Items\United States\Field Gear, Equipment". The seller is "premierrelics" and is located in this country: US.

This item can be shipped worldwide.

• Theme: Militaria
• Original/Reproduction: Original
• Conflict: WW II (1939-45)