USS Harder (SS-257)
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| History | |
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| Builder: | Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut |
| Laid down: | 1 December 1941 |
| Launched: | 19 August 1942 |
| Sponsored by: | Miss Helen M. Shaforth |
| Commissioned: | 2 December 1942 |
| Fate: | Sunk by enemy vessels off Dasol Bay, Luzon, 24 August 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Gato-class diesel-electric submarine |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 311 ft 9 in (95.02 m) |
| Beam: | 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m) |
| Draft: | 17 ft 0 in (5.18 m) maximum |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: |
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| Range: | 11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 kn (19 km/h) |
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| Test depth: | 300 ft (90 m) |
| Complement: | 6 officers, 54 enlisted |
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USS Harder (SS-257), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the harder, a fish of the mullet family found off South Africa. One of the most famous submarines of World War II, she received the Presidential Unit Citation. Her skipper, the resolute and resourceful Commander (Cmdr) Samuel D. Dealey (1906–1944), "a submariner's submariner", was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, on 1 December 1941. She was launched on 19 August 1942 (sponsored by Miss Helen M. Shaforth), and commissioned on 2 December 1942 with Cmdr Dealey, (Class of 1930) in command.
Following shakedown off the East Coast, Harder sailed for Pearl Harbor, and after a short stay there, she departed on her first war patrol 7 June 1943. Cruising off the coast of Japan, the submarine worked her way inside a picket line and sighted her first target 22 June. She made a radar approach on the surface and fired four torpedoes at the two-ship convoy, hitting the seaplane transport Sagara Maru (7189 BRT) (which was beached to prevent sinking, but later destroyed). She returned to Midway 7 July.
Harder began her second war patrol 24 August 1943 from Pearl Harbor, and after touching at Midway Island, she again headed for the Japanese coast. While patrolling off Honshū on 9 September, she attacked and sank Koyo Maru and later that night ran by an escort ship at a range of 1,200 yards (1,100 m) without being detected. Two days later the submarine encountered a convoy. After running ahead to improve her firing position, she sank cargo ship Yoko Maru with a spread of three torpedoes. Continuing her patrol, Harder sighted two more ships 13 September, but she was forced down by enemy planes while firing torpedoes. Escorts kept the submarine down with a severe depth charge attack which lasted for over two days and almost exhausted her batteries. After evading the Japanese ships, Harder detected her next target 19 September; a torpedo sent Kachisan Maru to the bottom almost immediately. Though running in bad weather, Harder continued to find good targets. On 23 September she sank the 4,500 ton freighter Kowa Maru and the 5,800 ton tanker Daishin Maru, off Nagoya Bay. Her torpedoes expended, Harder turned eastward 28 September. After shooting up two armed trawlers 29 September, she touched Midway 4 October and arrived Pearl Harbor four days later.
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