Original Item: Only One Available. When it comes to rare flags, Submarine and U-Boat related ones are near the top of the list. The tradition of submarine battle flags began during WWII when subs returning from patrol would fly flags representing ships sunk, total tonnage, or a broom indicating a “clean sweep” (meaning that every target engaged was destroyed). Toward the end of the war the crews started making flags specific to their boat with a logo and sewn patches indicating ships sunk, the number of patrols, pilots rescued, citations received, etc.

Battle flags in World War II kept an unofficial record of the number of ships a submarine sank. Warships were represented by the rising sun version of the Japanese flag, while the merchant vessels were represented by the "meatball" flags. The submarine's logo was also featured on the flag. The difficulties in assessing actual damage from attacks on the enemy led many submarines to overestimate their successes. After the war, an Allied naval review board discovered inaccuracies as great as thirty percent during an examination of Japanese losses credited to American submarines.

While this flag does not have the flags and/or tonnage of vessels destroyed, this does appear to have been a start to one that was never finished and may have been made for when the Submarine was first launched. The center of the flag has the vessel’s iconic Pomfret fish with sharp teeth, wearing a “dixie cup” cap while holding onto a torpedo. This fish was an excellent choice to name a submarine after. The pomfret is a fish of the seabream family which is a powerful and speedy swimmer, capable of operating at great depths very similar to a submarine!

There is no extensive damage present though there is what appears to be rust stains on the white embroidered portions, nothing too great but still noticeable as you can see from the photos. The green wool body has minimal scattered moth nips but are hardly visible.

A beautiful, rare flag that comes more than ready for further research and display.

After training, the new submarine arrived at Pearl Harbor 1 June 1944. She departed Pearl Harbor 23 June and proceeded via Midway to her first patrol area—the east coast of Kyūshū and Bungo Suido. On 6 July she made an emergency dive when attacked by a Japanese plane. On 12 July she allowed a Japanese hospital ship to proceed in peace. After attempting an attack on a battleship, she arrived at Midway 16 August.

On 10 September she departed Midway for the Luzon Straits-South China Sea area to conduct her second patrol. She sighted two enemy battleships on 26 September, but their speed and the presence of an enemy submarine prevented an attack.

On 2 October Pomfret sank Tsuyama Maru, a 6,962-ton passenger-cargo vessel. After the usual depth charging, she departed for Saipan and moored in Tanapag Harbor 12 October.

After refit and training, Pomfret reentered the same patrol area 1 November as part of a wolf pack, with Cdr. John B. Hess now commanding. Pomfret sank Atlas Maru, 7,347-tons and Hamburg Maru, 5,271-tons. On 25 November, she sank Japanese Patrol Boat No.38 and cargo ship Shōhō Maru, 1,356-tons. Pomfret departed the area and proceeded via Midway to Pearl Harbor.

The submarine began her fourth patrol 25 January 1945 in another wolf pack. The mission was a picket boat sweep ahead of a carrier task force soon to strike the Tokyo-Nagoya area. After completing the sweep without encountering any picket boats, she moved south of Honshū for lifeguard work.

On 16 February she rescued a pilot from the aircraft carrier Hornet, Lieutenant (jg) Joe Farrel. The next day, she saved a pilot from Cabot, Ensign Robert L. Buchanan. The incident was described in "Silent Victory" by Clay Blair (Lippincott, 1975) as follows:

Pomfret, commanded by John Hess, made a spectacular rescue. A pilot from the carrier Cabot was forced to ditch in the outer waters of Tokyo Bay. Fighters circled over Pomfret, guiding Hess to the rubber life raft. Hess fearlessly took Pomfret into these restricted waters and rescued the pilot, Ensign R. L. Buchanan. During this same bold operation, Hess picked up another pilot, Lieutenant Joseph P. Farrell from Hornet, and a Japanese pilot. War correspondent Ernie Pyle devoted a column to the rescue entitled 'Even If You Was Shot Down in Tokyo Harbor, the Navy Would Be In to Get You'.

That day she also captured two prisoners. Unsuccessfully attacked by a Japanese destroyer on 10 March, she departed the area 23 March and arrived at Midway on 30 March. Departing Midway 26 April for the Kuril Islands-Okhotsk Sea area, she entered the area 5 May. On 26 May she fired torpedoes at an enemy anti-submarine hunter-killer group, but scored no hits. She returned to Midway 7 June.

On 2 July she departed for her sixth war patrol. After lifeguard duty south of Honshū, she began patrol in the East China Sea. On 19 July she sank the first of 44 floating mines. On 24 July, she shelled the Kuskaki Jima lighthouse and radio installations and, on 26 July, she destroyed a three-masted junk and a small schooner. On 8 August she rescued the entire five-man crew of a B-25 bomber. Pomfret continued to shell small craft and pick up Japanese and Korean survivors until the cessation of hostilities 15 August 1945. The following day she headed for Guam. On 9 September she arrived at San Francisco.