During a visit to the Submarine Base in New London, Conn. in early 1943 a local VIP was enjoying lunch on the newly commissioned USS Harder (SS 257) with the ship’s commanding officer. A young Sailor, fresh from recruit training, with sea bag in hand, inadvertently stumbled into the wardroom.
As the raw recruit stood in awe, realizing he was surely in the wrong space, the ship’s captain arose from his chair, walked over to the young man, extended his hand and offered an extremely warm welcome.
Hi there, my name’s Dealey. What’s yours? said the officer. The local dignitary couldn’t remember the Sailor’s name, but he remembered the young man’s face. He knew the Sailor suddenly felt at home and was overwhelmingly impressed with the captain.
There, he thought, is a submarine skipper who’s going places. Every man in his crew is behind him 100 percent. He was right. The USS Harder and Sam Dealey were indeed going places.
Sam Dealey was born in 1906 into a first-generation Texas family. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1930 and, after serving on the battleship USS Nevada, attended submarine school in New London before accepting duty aboard the S-24 in Hawaii.
Harder’s sea service began on December 2, 1942 under the command of LCDR Dealey. In May 1943, they arrived at the Submarine Base, Pearl Harbor, and after a brief training period were off on their first war patrol. Over the course of six war patrols in the Pacific Harder sank ten merchantmen, four destroyers, and three frigates to earn the title Destroyer Killer.
Her first patrol was conducted in Pacific enemy waters, starting in June 1943. She sank three freighters, and damaged seriously a freighter-transport, another freighter, a transport and a tanker. She went to the same waters again for her second patrol, and sank three freighters and a tanker, while she damaged a trawler. Harder was a part of a wolfpack, of which Pargo and Snook were the other members, on her third patrol. In the open sea north of the Marianas, she sank a freighter, three freighter- transports and an armed trawler.
Harder’s fourth patrol was in the Carolines. On April 13, 1944 she sank a Japanese destroyer and a freighter and damaged a second destroyer. Harder departed for her fifth patrol in the Celebes Sea on May 26, 1944. She picked up coast watchers from northeastern Borneo, and gave a very valuable contact report on a major task force leaving Tawi Tawi anchorage, preparing to engage in the first Battle of the Philippine Sea. She sank a destroyer on June 6, 1944; the same day allied forces were struggling desperately to hold the Normandy beachhead half a world away. On the next day another destroyer fell victim to Harder’s torpedoes, and sank tail first. Yet another destroyer was Harder’s next victim, sunk on June 9th and on June 10th she damaged another destroyer. By the time Harder returned from this patrol, her reputation as “Destroyer Killer” was renown. Commander Dealey guided his eminently successful fighting ship, Harder, out of the harbor at Fremantle, Australia on August 5th, 1944 to begin her sixth war patrol. In company with Hake, Harder conducted training exercises enroute to Darwin. These two submarines topped off with fuel at Darwin, and on 13 August, together with Haddo, left for their assigned area west of Luzon, Republic of the Philippines. They were to patrol as a coordinated attack or wolfpack group, with Cmdr. Dealey in charge. On the afternoon of August 20th, 1944, Ray, patrolling the same area, tracked a large convoy into Paluan Bay on the northwestern coast of Mindoro. An hour after surfacing, she contacted Harder just outside the bay and held a megaphone conversation with Sam Dealey. Dealey formulated a plan for concentrated dawn wolfpack attack on the convoy. Harder came alongside Haddo at 1:30 on the morning of August 21st and told Lt. Cmdr. C.W. Nimitz, Jr., that at least 16 enemy ships were hold-up in the bay. When the convoy made its exit at dawn (as convoys were known to do) Ray was to approach from the northwest, Haddo from the west, and Harder from the southwest. Guitarro also had been drafted by Dealey, and was to attack from the northwest near Cape Calavite Lighthouse. During the ensuing attacks, four ships, totaling 22,000 tons, were sunk, according to the Japanese. It is thought likely that Harder sank one of them. On the following day, Haddo and Harder conducted a combined attack on three small vessels off Bataan, sinking all three. Haddo and Harder each received credit for sinking one vessel, and shared credit for the third sinking.
On the morning of August 23rd, Haddo contacted a tanker escorted by a destroyer, and blew the bow off the destroyer in a down-the-throat shot. She fired her last torpedo in this attack, and in response to urgent calls for assistance, Hake and Harder rendezvoused with her. Haddo, now out of torpedoes, “received Sam’s blessing” and left his wolfpack, heading south. Hake and Harder discussed plans for finishing off the damaged destroyer and then departed for their common objective off Caiman Point.
At 4:53 on the morning of August 24th, Hake dove not far from Caiman Point and about four miles off Hermana Major Island, near the west coast of Luzon, with Harder in sight 4,500 yards south of her. Hake heard echo ranging to the south and soon sighted two ships. At first they appeared to be a three-stack light cruiser and a destroyer, but upon later inspection were identified as a three-stack Thai destroyer (1,035 tons) and a minesweeper of less than 1,000 tons. Hake broke off the attack and headed north when the target zigged away apparently to enter Dasol Bay, while the minesweeper stayed outside.
At 6:47 upon coming to a northerly course, Harder’s periscope was seen dead ahead at about 600-700 yards. Sound also reported faint screws on the bearing, so Hake turned away toward the south. At this point the minesweeper gave three strong pings, whereupon Hake saw her 2,000 yards away swinging toward the two submarines. Hake figured he had sound contact and went deep. The enemy kept pinging, but seemed to have the two targets located and to be undecided what to do about it. At 7:28, Hake heard 15 rapid depth charges, none close. Two sets of screws were heard and each continued pinging on either quarter of Hake as she evaded to the westward. By 9:55 all was quiet.
Harder never was heard from again. Japanese records reveal that an antisubmarine attack was made on the same day with 15 depth charges. The enemy said, “much oil, wood chips and cork floated in the neighborhood.” Presumably Harder perished in this depth charge attack as Sam Dealey and his fine crew had fought their final battle. Harder was officially credited with having sunk 20.5 enemy ships. This gave Harder, one of the greatest fighting machines in the Pacific war, a total of 82,500 tons sunk and seven ships damaged.
Admiral Thomas Kincaid, then Commander Seventh Fleet, wrote of Dealey, “He developed a superbly-trained submarine crew. He had faith in his officers and crew. His officers and men knew it and worshipped him.” Harder received the Presidential Unit Citation for her first five patrols, and Commander Dealey was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his outstanding contribution to the war effort on Harder’s fifth patrol.