The wreckage of one of the U.S. Navy’s most famous World War II submarines was found in the South China Sea, eight decades after its last patrol, the Navy History and Heritage Command (NHHC) said Thursday. .
The USS Harder is about 900 meters deep off the island of Luzon in the northern Philippines, upright and intact except for damage behind its conning tower caused by a depth charge (a type of anti-aircraft gun). -submarine) Japanese, the NHHC said in a press release.
Harder was lost in battle on August 24, 1944, along with his entire crew of 79 submariners, during his sixth patrol of the war, as the U.S. attempted to retake the Philippines from occupying Japanese forces.
“Harder was lost in the course of the victory. We must not forget that victory has a price, as does freedom,” NHHC Director Samuel J. Cox, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, said in the press release.
According to U.S. Navy history, Harder sank two Japanese escort ships off the Bataan Peninsula on August 22, 1944, and then headed north along the Luzon coast with two other submarines in search of more targets.
In a battle with the Japanese escort ship CD-22 on the morning of August 24, Harder fired three torpedoes that missed their target and was later sunk by the Japanese ship’s fifth depth charge attack, according to Japanese records cited by the NHHC.
The NHHC said the sinking of the Harder was confirmed by data provided by the Lost 52 Project, an effort led by Tim Taylor, CEO of Tiburon Subsea, to find the 52 American submarines lost in World War II.
The group has located at least six World War II submarines, the NHHC said.
“We are grateful that Lost 52 has given us the opportunity to once again honor the valor of the crew of the submarine ‘Hit ’em Harder,’” said NHHC’s Cox, in reference to the ship’s motto.
The NHHC said the wreck is “the final resting place of the sailors who gave their lives in defense of the nation and should be respected by all parties as a war grave.”
The Philippines was a U.S. territory attacked by Japan shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. In the spring of 1942, U.S. and Philippine forces on Luzon surrendered to Tokyo forces and Japan used the captured archipelago to protect its supply lines from the East Indies and Southeast Asia.
But by mid-1944, the US was reversing Japanese gains in the Pacific and planned landings to do the same in the Philippines.
Harder, whose motto was “Hit ’em Harder” (“hit them harder” in Portuguese), was captained by commander Samuel Dealey, who would posthumously receive the Medal of Honor, the highest US military decoration, for his actions. actions on Harder’s fifth patrol, March to July 1944.
During that period, Harder sank three Japanese destroyers, with two others likely destroyed or heavily damaged over the course of just four days, according to the National Medal of Honor Museum.
The museum’s Dealey page described a particularly harrowing encounter.
Under attack from a Japanese destroyer, Dealey ordered a frontal torpedo shot into the bow of the attacking enemy, known as a “throat” shot, according to the museum account.
“At 1.37 kilometers, Dealey fired three torpedoes and ordered the submarine to dive. As the Harder passed approximately 80 feet below the destroyer, two of the torpedoes struck the ship, sending shock waves through the submarine.”
In his first four patrols after commissioning on December 2, 1942, Harder sank 14 Japanese warships and merchant ships, according to the Medal of Honor Museum.
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