Battle Flag of USS Spot (SS-413)
Title: Battle Flag USS Spot (SS-413)
Accession #: NHHC 1989-89-A
Circa: 1940s
Size: 24 x 31"
Medium: Fabric
Location: Headquarters Artifact Collection, Naval History and Heritage Command
One navy blue battle flag from the USS Spot (SS-413) with sixteen Japanese flags along the sides and bottom. Directly at the center of the battle flag is the insignia for USS Spot: a large fish donning a dixie cup hat, with two torpedoes clamped in its fanged mouth. Below the insignia is the hull number for Spot, SS 413. Sewn into the upper left corner of the flag is a Japanese ship under the flag of the Imperial Japanese Navy with “FOOCHOW” sewn underneath. Sewn into the opposite corner is an island and radio tower with three explosions labeled “KOKUZAN.”
USS Spot (SS-413) was a Balao-class submarine commissioned 3 August 1944. She served in the Pacific Theater during WWII and registered the destruction of sixteen merchant vessels, as represented by the sixteen Japanese merchant flags arranged around the bottom and sides of the flag. In addition to the merchant vessels, Spot sank the Japanese passenger-freighter Nanking Maru off the coast of Foochow (Fuzhou), China, and destroyed an oil storage area, barracks, and the radio station at Kokuzan To (known today as Soheuksando or Gageodo), a small island off Korea. She received four battle stars for her service in World War II.
