Famed World War II Submarine USS Harder Discovered off Luzon

USS Harder (NHHC)

PUBLISHED MAY 26, 2024 9:41 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

Just ahead of Memorial Day, the U.S. Navy's historical commission has confirmed the identity of the wreck of the USS Harder, a famed attack submarine that sank more Japanese warships than any other American sub over the course of World War II. 

USS Harder was a Gato-class attack sub commissioned in December 1942, and she fought in the Pacific Theater until August 24, 1944. She sank her first target, a seaplane transport, on June 22, 1943. She continued on to claim many more victories, particularly in her famous fifth patrol. The sub departed Fremantle, Australia on May 26, 1944 - exactly 80 years ago Sunday - and transited to the island of Tawi-Tawi, where the Imperial Japanese Navy maintained a fleet anchorage at the western edge of the Celebes Sea. USS Harder sank four Japanese destroyers in a matter of weeks and heavily damaged or destroyed one more, singlehandedly disrupting Japan's fleet-level battle plans. 

She also observed a heavy concentration of Japanese warships at the Tawi-Tawi anchorage on June 11, and she radioed this critical intelligence to the fleet. The early alert gave Adm. Raymond Spruance more information on Japanese plans for a "decisive battle" - the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Harder's actions helped set the stage for the American victory in that critical engagement, which effectively ended Japanese carrier airpower for the rest of the war. 

Harder was lost on her sixth patrol during an attempted attack on a Japanese ship. Together with submarine USS Hake, she attempted to engage the escort ship CD-22, but the Japanese crew evaded the attack and pursued USS Harder with depth charge runs. The fifth depth charge attack sank USS Harder with all 79 hands aboard; USS Hake escaped. 

Harder's commanding officer, Cmdr. Sam Dealey, received the Congressional Medal of Honor for the vessel's service, along with the Navy Cross, three Gold Stars and a Silver Star. 

Courtesy USN / Lost 52 Project

Eight decades later, ocean search firm Tiburon Subsea and the Lost 52 Project found the wreck of USS Harder off Luzon in 3,000 feet of water. The wreck is relatively intact except for depth charge damage near the conning tower. Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) has now confirmed the identity of the site and designated it as a protected wreck. 

“Harder was lost in the course of victory. We must not forget that victory has a price, as does freedom,” said NHHC Director Samuel J. Cox, U.S. Navy rear admiral (retired). “We are grateful that Lost 52 has given us the opportunity to once again honor the valor of the crew of the ‘Hit ‘em HARDER’ submarine that sank the most Japanese warships."

Previous finds attributed to Taylor and the Lost 52 project include USS Grayback, Stickleback, Grunion, R-12, S-26 and S-28. 

Memorial Day Heroes: The Rescue of the WWII Sub USS Squalus

Refloated and renamed, USS Squalus would go on to sink a Japanese carrier and multiple merchant ships

Sailors haul the McCann-Erickson Rescue Chamber aboard the USS Falcon after its final trip to rescue sailors trapped on the USS Squalus after the submarine sank, May 23, 1939 (USN)

PUBLISHED MAY 27, 2024 2:43 PM BY U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

 

 

[By Katie Lange]

Thanks to World War I and the advent of the submarine, U.S. naval divers mastered how to make and survive deep ocean dives. But by the 1930s, they were still trying to figure out how to successfully rescue survivors from sunken vessels.  

They finally figured that out in 1939, when Navy Lt. Orson Leon Crandall and three other master divers used a new piece of equipment to rescue nearly three dozen sailors from a sub that sank during a training incident. Crandall's expertise and calmness under pressure earned him the Medal of Honor.  

Crandall was born on Feb. 2, 1903, in St. Joseph, Missouri, to Marshall and Bertie Crandall. He had two brothers and a sister, all of whom were older.  

Crandall enlisted in the Navy in 1922 when he was 19. For the next decade, he served on several ships before going into diver training in 1932. By March 1939, he held the rank of chief boatswain's mate and was designated a master diver, the highest level a diver can attain. 

Only a few months later, a disaster off the coast of New Hampshire would require Crandall to utilize his expertise in the most harrowing of conditions.  

On May 23, 1939, a diesel-electric submarine called the USS Squalus was practicing submerging at high speeds near the Isle of Shoals, an island chain off the coast of southern Maine, when it suffered a catastrophic valve failure. The sub — which carried 56 crew members and three civilian contractors — quickly filled with water and sank about 240 feet to the ocean floor.  

Crandall was serving on the USS Falcon, which was tied up at New London, Connecticut, when the call for help came in. The Falcon was one of several salvage ships with divers that hurried to the scene to try to save anyone who was still alive inside the Squalus.  

It took nearly a full day to prepare for the dangerous mission, but by the morning of the 24th, Crandall and about three dozen other divers were ready to get started.  

"I remember that the water was rough and that the wind was pretty stiff, but after a while it calmed down some," Crandall recalled in a 1952 article in the Baltimore Evening Sun newspaper. "The descent was pretty fast — it took only about seven minutes to drop down to the 240-foot level where the submarine lay with her stern in about 12 feet of mud." 

Shortly before noon, the Falcon lowered into the water a newly developed rescue device called the McCann-Erickson Rescue Chamber. Up until then, the chamber had only been used in training.  

In theory, rescuers planned to lower the chamber via cables to the sub's deck, then seal it to one of the Squalus' hatches, according to Naval Institute archives. The crew would then blow the water out of the sub's chamber, open both hatches, and pull out the trapped submariners. 

McCann Rescue Chamber on deck (Courtesy USN)

Courtesy USN

The process worked, but it took a long time.  

"Because of the pressure, we could work for an average of only 18 minutes at a time. It took three hours to bring us to the surface," Crandall told the Baltimore Evening Sun, explaining that the slow ascent was necessary so they wouldn't get "the bends," a decompression sickness that happens when gas bubbles form in the blood stream from rapid changes in pressure. 

Thanks to the skilled work of Crandall and three other master divers — Chief Petty Officer William Badders, Lt. Cmdr. John Mihalowski and Lt. James Harper McDonald — 33 men who survived the sinking were separated into four groups and rescued over the span of 13 hours.  

Courtesy USN

Courtesy USN

At one point, Crandall narrowly escaped death. According to his Tampa Bay Times obituary, during one of his dives, carbon dioxide gas formed in his suit. As he lapsed into unconsciousness, he started to call out football signals — something he did as the quarterback of a shore-based Navy football squad. Thankfully, other crew members heard the strange chatter through his diving suit telephone and knew something was wrong, so they pulled him to the surface, according to the Tampa Bay Times.  

Over the next three months, divers and salvage crews worked to bring the Squalus back to the surface and retrieve the remaining 26 men stationed at the rear of the vessel who didn't survive. Crandall made more than 60 dives as part of that effort. The submarine was finally raised on Sept. 13, 1939. All but one of the sailors' bodies were found.  

According to Naval Institute archives, a Navy court determined a mechanical malfunction caused the disaster. As a result, submarine hull valves were converted to quick-closing flapper valves to prevent future tragedies. 

For Crandall's leadership, bravery and devotion to duty during the hazardous Squalus rescue, he was awarded the Medal of Honor on Jan. 19, 1940, during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. His fellow master divers during the mission — Badders, Mihalowski and McDonald — also received the honor.  

Crandall remained in the Navy through World War II, and he became a commissioned officer and took part in several salvage and diving-related missions. He transferred into the Fleet Reserve in June 1946. He retired in December 1952 to St. Petersburg, Florida, where he decided to lay down roots. 

At some point along the way, Crandall married a woman named Mary. According to the Tampa Bay Times, he operated a fishing guide boat out of Johns Pass during his retirement.  

Crandall died May 10, 1960, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The heavy salvage ship USS Crandall, which served the Navy from 1967 to 1993, was named in his honor.  

As for the Squalus, it was decommissioned in November 1939, renamed Sailfish, and recommissioned on May 15, 1940. It was decommissioned again after World War II. Its conning tower was cut away and can now be found in a park at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard where memorial ceremonies are held every year in May.