Get the Ricochet app
Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.
The USS Harder, SS-257 has been found thanks to the Lost 52 Project a private organization founded by Tim Taylor to research lost submarines on patrol during WW II. To date, the Lost 52 Project has found 7 lost WWII submarines.
Overdue and Presumed Lost will no longer be the epitaph for USS Harder and her 79-man crew. The Harder was found several days ago 3,750 feet below the ocean's surface. This will be their tomb and the discovery of the crew’s final resting place comes shortly before Memorial Day.
The Harder sank 20.5 ships on her six war patrols. In total, the Harder accounted for 82,500 tons sunk and damaged seven additional ships for 29,000 tons. Commander Samuel D. Dealey, known as “a submariner’s submariner,” led the Harder throughout her service.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor and received four Navy Crosses during his lifetime, and her crew earned a posthumous Presidential Unit Citation.
Lost Harbor by Leslie Nelson Jennings There is a port of no return, where ships May ride at anchor for a little space And then, some starless night, the cable slips, Leaving an eddy at the mooring place . . . Gulls, veer no longer. Sailor, rest your oar. No tangled wreckage will be washed ashore.
The 3-D image of the Harder courtesy of The Lost 52 Project and the US Navy.
"Despite constituting a mere fraction, approximately 2 percent, of the U.S. Navy’s fleet, submarines proved to be a formidable force, accounting for the destruction of over 30 percent of the Japanese Navy’s assets, with their operations resulting in the demise of 8 aircraft carriers, 1 battleship, and 11 cruisers from the Japanese fleet. Furthermore, US submarines orchestrated the destruction of more than 60 percent of the Japanese merchant fleet, dealing a crippling blow to Japan’s capacity to sustain its military forces and industrial war effort".
Discussion (7)
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
The Harder story is a reminder of my late dad. He was a submarine combat veteran in the Pacific and earned both his Silver Dolphins as an enlisted man and his Gold Dolphins as an officer. He was on his first war patrol as an 18-year-old, and he beat the odds of being one in five submariners that were lost in WWII.
He had completed four war patrols, and he was 19 years old when the war ended. We have his ribbons and Submarine Combat Pin. We also have a copy of the cease fire message sent to submarines. He asked the radio operator for a paper copy of the message while serving on the USS Sand Lance.
His Asia-Pacific ribbon has four battle stars, and he has a Presidential Unit Citation with one star. The three stars on his combat pin indicate three or more successful war patrols.
CONTRIBUTOR
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
May I take the opportunity to make folks aware of my new book on US Navy submarines in World War 2?
It includes parts of an interview I made with Elmer "Zeke" Zelmer, who was communications officer aboard Cavalla when it sank Shokaku.
It will be out in January 2025
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
My wife's family has some different history involving submarines. Her late dad joined the Merchant Marine during WWII. A farm boy from the Dakota's whose first ship and his first voyage ended when a German U-Boat sunk his ship.
The U-Boat surfaced near the lifeboat he and several sailors managed to get aboard. They thought that the German captain was going to finish what he started. They were given some rations, and the U-Boat captain gave them the directions to reach the nearest shore.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Soon to be x-ray machines:
airforcetimes.com
Open link
news.usni.org
Open link
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
@DougWatt You always write of your father with such love. I appreciate your loving memories. Thank you.
You're seeing five of seven comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.