Tag Archives: USS Harder (SS-257)

Famous Fleet boat Easter Egg VLS tribute

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Spotted on submarine reddit: Los Angeles-class Flight II hunter-killer USS Pittsburgh (SSN-720) with her VLS hatches open, showing badges of some famous WWII USN submarines. I don’t know the author, photos taken possibly during SSN-720’s inactivation in dry dock at PSNS & IMF, 2019-2020:

Gato-class USS Wahoo (SS-238) – she gained fame as an aggressive & highly successful submarine after Lieutenant Commander Dudley Walker “Mush” Morton became her skipper. She was sunk by Japanese aircraft in October 1943 while returning home from a patrol in the Sea of Japan.

Gato-class USS Grunion (SS-216) – she sank off Kiska around 30 July 1942, due to accidents caused/related to the circular run of her torpedo.

Gato-class USS Harder (SS-257) – her Commanding Officer, Commander Samuel D. Dealey (1906–1944), “a submariner’s submariner”, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, as well as four Navy Crosses during his lifetime

Gato-class USS Darter (SS-227) – she sank a total of 19,429 tons of Japanese shipping and received the Naval Unit Commendation and four battle stars.

Tambor-class USS Triton (SS-201) – she is credited with the sinking of over 20,000 tons of Japanese shipping & warships and was lost with all hands on or around 15 March 1943. Porpoise-class USS Perch (SS-176) – she was scuttled on March 3, 1942, after a heroic battle against Japanese destroyers.

Salmon-class USS Salmon (SS-182) – she was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism against enemy surface vessels. Tambor-class USS Trout (SS-202) – she sank 12 ships and was lost with all hands on her eleventh war patrol in 1944.

S-class “Sugar boat” USS S-28 (SS-133) – she sank one Japanese ship and was lost at sea with all hands in July 1944. Her wreck was discovered in 2017 at a depth of 8,500 feet (2,600 m) off the coast of Oahu.

Gato-class USS Trigger (SS-237) – she sank 18 ships and received 11 battle stars for World War II service and the Presidential Unit Citation for her fifth, sixth, and seventh war patrols.

Tang-class USS Tang (SS-306) – she sank 33 ships and was sunk during the last engagement by a circular run of her torpedo.

Compare the crests with the list of boats on Eternal Patrol:

(Photo: Chris Eger)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wreck of ‘Hit em Harder’ confirmed

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One of the 52 WWII American submarines considered on Eternal Patrol, the resting place of the Gato-class fleet boat USS Harder (SS 257), which received six battle stars for her wartime service, has been confirmed.

Laid down at EB in Groton a week before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Harder was commissioned on 2 December 1942 and earned the Presidential Unit Citation through five wildly successful wartime patrols.

The recently commissioned Harder (SS-257) steaming on the surface of Narragansett Bay, 20 January 1943.

Harder, accompanied by sisters Hake (SS-256) and Haddo (SS-255) departed Fremantle on 5 August 1944 for her sixth war patrol, assigned to haunt the South China Sea off Luzon. Two weeks later the American wolf pack splashed four Japanese cargo ships while Harder and Haddo attacked and destroyed the escort ships Matsuwa and Hiburi on 22 August.

By 24 August, with the out-of-torpedo Haddo returned to base, Harder and Hake had one final joint engagement, one that Harder would not survive.

As noted by DANFS:

Before dawn on 24 August 1944, Hake sighted the escort ship CD-22 and Patrol Boat No. 102 (ex-Stewart, DD-224.)  As Hake closed to attack, the patrol boat turned away toward Dasol Bay. Hake broke off her approach, turned northward, sighting Harder’s periscope 600 to 700 yards dead ahead. Swinging southward, Hake sighted CD-22 about 2,000 yards off her port quarter. To escape, Hake went deep and rigged for silent running. At 0728 Hake’s crew reported hearing 15 rapid depth charges explode in the distance astern. Hake continued evasive action, returning to the attack area shortly after noon to sweep the area at periscope depth – only finding a ring of marker buoys covering a radius of one-half mile. Japanese records later revealed that Harder fired three torpedoes at CD-22 in a “down-the-throat” shot, which the enemy vessel successfully evaded. At 0728, she launched the first of several depth charges, which sunk the American submarine.  

The Navy declared Harder presumed lost on 2 January 1945. Her name was stricken from the Navy Register on 20 January.

She is in remarkable condition after sitting on the floor for almost 80 years, sitting upright under the crush of more than 3,000 meters of sea.

4D photogrammetry model of USS Harder (SS 257) wreck site by The Lost 52. The Lost 52 Project scanned the entire boat and stitched all the images together in a multi-dimensional model used to study and explore the site. Tim Taylor and The Lost 52 Project grants the US Navy permission to use their image for press release of the discovery of the USS Harder with photo credit given to Tim Taylor and the Lost 52 Project.

And so we remember Harder and her 80 souls. 
 
There are no roses on sailors’ graves,
Nor wreaths upon the storm-tossed waves,
No last post from the King’s band,
So far away from their native land,
No heartbroken words carved on stone,
Just shipmates’ bodies there alone,
The only tributes are the seagulls sweep,
And the teardrop when a loved one weeps.
 

(Photo: Chris Eger)