The Black Flag
Written by Godfrey Dykes
©RN Communications Branch Museum/Library
Talking about depth chargers, used only against enemy submarines, was the WW1 and WW2's persistent attacks against all enemy submarines [Italian, Japanese and German] but in truth, German submarines were of the greatest worry. All attacks got the "black flag" treatment but most flew or vigorously flew this flag on acquiring an asdic contact during U-Boat hostilities. Almost as a quid pro quo the successful submarine would return to base flying a black flag, often with a skull and bones motif, showing the number of torpedoed vessel and the number sunk by gun-fire or mines - laid by them! It is forgotten today, by virtually all of us, with most of the operators/witnesses now passed on. This is a typical pictorial representation of such an event. From the USN's involvement in WW2 to the end of hostilities in the Atlantic, USN units [and sometimes the R.N., Liverpool ASW flotilla under Captain Walker RN], would fly a black pennant to denote a contact which was being prosecuted. The Black Pennant became synonymous with UBoat warfare. No surprise then that come the end of WW2 in May 1945, the New York Times published this in 1945, a paragraph in the midst of scores of paragraphs.
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Talking about depth chargers, used only against enemy submarines, was the WW1 and WW2's persistent attacks against all enemy submarines [Italian, Japanese and German] but in truth, German submarines were of the greatest worry. All attacks got the "black flag" treatment but most flew or vigorously flew this flag on acquiring an asdic contact during U-Boat hostilities. Almost as a quid pro quo the successful submarine would return to base flying a black flag, often with a skull and bones motif, showing the number of torpedoed vessel and the number sunk by gun-fire or mines - laid by them! It is forgotten today, by virtually all of us, with most of the operators/witnesses now passed on. This is a typical pictorial representation of such an event. From the USN's involvement in WW2 to the end of hostilities in the Atlantic, USN units [and sometimes the R.N., Liverpool ASW flotilla under Captain Walker RN], would fly a black pennant to denote a contact which was being prosecuted. The Black Pennant became synonymous with UBoat warfare. No surprise then that come the end of WW2 in May 1945, the New York Times published this in 1945, a paragraph in the midst of scores of paragraphs.
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