UNITED STATES NAVY: GADSDEN "DONT TREAD ON ME" FLAG.

UNITED STATES NAVY: GADSDEN "DONT TREAD ON ME" FLAG.
[Pacific Theater: 1942-45.]
A World War II era Gadsden flag. 840 x 1400 mm. The flag with a yellow ground and a central motif of a coiled rattle-snake about to strike, and lettered below in black "DONT TREAD ON ME." The hoist stenciled with letters "USN" and anchor motif. The flag badly damaged and torn, stained and browned.

A badly damaged USN Gadsden flag, presumed to have been flown from a PT boat or similar, probably in the Pacific Theater. The Gadsden flag was not an official flag of the US Navy but it portrayed a historical tradition of fierce resistance that the US Navy adopted. It was designed by a Colonel Christopher Gadsden, a South Carolinian, in 1775 during the Revolutionary War, and was used by Continental Marines as an early motto flag. it is still used by the city of Charleston, and various military forces have adopted the motto and design as an unofficial flag since the Revolutionary war. Rare on the market. In this version the rattle-snake is not sitting on grassy ground.