During her first war patrol, Trepang earned a Navy Unit Commendation for sinking a large Japanese landing craft and damaging a battleship and destroyer under heavy depth-charge and air-based attacks. Many battle flags also recorded other significant events or actions like enemy ships damaged, rescue missions performed, and commendations received. As a result, her official record was changed from 14 merchant ships sunk to seven after the war. The committee could not verify all the merchant sinkings Trepang‘s crews believed they had achieved. After the war, the Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee reviewed available information and changed the official records of some submarines: sometimes crediting a submarine with previously unacknowledged sinkings sometimes discovering sinkings were claimed in error. One of Trepang‘s crews illustrated the ships the submarine sank during the war by sewing 14 red circle flags (indicating 14 merchant ships sunk) and four rising sun flags (four warships sunk).Ĭrews made their best determinations during engagements but could not always verify their sinkings with certainty. Across the five patrols, her crew documented a cumulative record of 18 Japanese ships sunk: four warships and 14 merchant ships. Trepang’s flag reflects her full wartime service of five patrols. A trepang is a sea cucumber or sea slug.īattle flags could document a single patrol or multiple patrols. A Japanese “rising sun” flag symbolized a sunken warship, while a white flag with a red circle represented a sunken merchant ship.Īlthough sometimes colored differently, USS Trepang’ s insignia is a battle-ready version of the sea creature for which she was named. As importantly, the battle flag featured a Japanese flag for each enemy ship the submarine had sunk. Most battle flags included the submarine’s name and insignia (logo), which was usually a depiction of the submarine’s namesake (a fish or other sea-dwelling animal, as that was how U.S. Flags were designed and stitched by individual crews at sea so their contents and symbolism varied from submarine to submarine. Submarine crews began sewing battle flags in 1942 as unofficial records of the ships they sank. She would make five war patrols during the year before the war ended, earning five battle stars for her service. Commissioned in May 1944, Trepang completed sea trials and began her first war patrol in September. Trepang was a Balao-class submarine built mid-war at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Naval Undersea Museum, commemorates the World War II service of the submarine USS Trepang (SS 412). This battle flag, in the collection of the U.S.
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