During WW II the families of Gudgeon crew members received a small black and white photo of the boat's battle flag. The photo was approximately the size of the battle flag below and was painted on the hull of the submarine.
I have spent a couple hundred hours deciphering the barely legible text on the original version, then colorizing it to make it as true as possible to the original colors and content of the black and white version. The colored version is a near exact reproduction of the original in terms of the Gudgeon escutcheon, the medals, the flags and the depth charges. All of the text has been rewritten exactly as the original in a font which is as similar as possible to the original, (which was painted by Edward Bland of the Gudgeon. Only one or two of the notations under the symbols on the colorized version of the battle flag contain "inauthentic" text. It's my version of what would likely be there, if the original could be read. Because I know Gudgeon's history it is felt that all of the text is probably the same as the black and white original which follows.
Unfortunately the colorized version could not be reproduced in great enough size for it to be read by the readers of Find 'Em Chase 'Em Sink 'Em so it was not used in the book.
The colorized version was sent to surviving Gudgeon crewmembers Ray Foster, Moose Hornkohl, George Seiler, Edward Hammond and Art Barlow with Seiler, the former Gudgeon torpedoman exclaiming, "How in the hell did you get that old black and white of the Gudgeon Battle Flag to look like the original?"
If the reader is interesting acquiring one of these rare, copyrighted, colored versions of the battleflag please write: Mike Ostlund at: gudgeon211@hotmail.com.
