High End Replica Items: Only One Lot of 2 Available. These are very well constructed and hand painted replica canvas / cotton wall hangers/flags “attributed” to the US Navy Balao-Class Submarine, USS Seahorse (SS-304) and Salmon-Class Submarine, USS Sturgeon (SS-187).

USS Seahorse Flag: The flag features a yellow seahorse above a torpedo with its tail wrapped around the torpedo.

USS Sturgeon: The flag features a duck in a navy uniform riding a sturgeon that is holding onto a torpedo. This image is very similar to the ones produced by the Disney Animation Studio.

By the time America entered WWII, Disney animations had proven themselves as true feature-length films with box-office toppers like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo.

Disney’s animated shorts had already gained immense popularity to the point where Mickey Mouse was depicted on the patch of a Naval Reserve Squadron.

Although unsanctioned by Disney, the pre-war patch started a trend that exploded across the military during WWII.

In fact, Disney had to dedicate five artists to the full-time task of filling requests for military insignias.

The Navy in particular had a fondness for incorporating Disney characters into its insignias.

These are incredible, museum quality replicas that would display wonderfully in any WWII US Navy collections. Comes more than ready for display!

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.

USS Sturgeon (SS-187)
USS Sturgeon (SS-187), a Salmon-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sturgeon. Its 1944 sinking of the Japanese troopship Toyama Maru, killing more than 5,000 Japanese, was one of the highest death tolls from the sinking of a single ship in history, and its 1942 sinking of the prisoner ship Montevideo Maru was the worst maritime disaster in Australian history.

USS Seahorse (SS-304)
USS Seahorse (SS-304), a Balao-class submarine, was the first submarine and second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the seahorse, a small fish whose head and the fore part of its body suggest the head and neck of a horse.

Seahorse was laid down on 1 August 1942 by the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California. The vessel was launched on 9 January 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Chester C. Smith, and commissioned on 31 March 1943.