US Submarine Sinks 4 Japanese Destroyers - The Remarkable USS Harder

in the middle of 1944 one American submarine mounted a series of Daring attacks on Japanese destroyers refusing to back down against their traditional Nemesis the sub fought a series of remarkable battles showing skill and resolve which lived up to its motto hit him harder in April 1944 the gate class submarine in USS harda was on patrol off the Caroline Islands hunting Japanese shipping just like all of its previous time at se it was being skippered by Commander Samuel Dy an aggressive submarine Captain who had seen good success up to this point with nine ships sunk so far in his and his boat's career at that stage harda had exclusively sunk Merchant ships but is it proud the waters around woli on the night of April 12th he received a signal from vice admiral Charles Lockwood the commander of Pacific Fleet submarines lifting an earlier ban on boats engaging Japanese destroyers up to this point destroyers have been viewed as targets that were too difficult to hit and too dangerous to fight but now in the words of Lockwood writing after the war the time had come to tear down the Destroyer screens Commander D did not need to be told twice shortly after 6:00 p.m. the following day harda was spotted and closed down by the destroyed s ikazuchi rather than withdrawing the Periscope and scrambling for the depths as D might have done the previous day harder remain steady at Periscope depth readying its Torpedoes this video is sponsored by call of War a free online PVP strategy game Call of War lets you take command over a nation during the second world war and engage in combat with up to 100 other players in Epic realtime games that can take weeks to complete players have to manage their resources build up their military trade and form alliances with other players all in pursuit of achieving Victory on several huge historical Maps your units will move in real time requiring good long-term planning to emerge on top call of War can be played with the same account on PC and mobile so you can manage your war effort wherever you are sign up to call of War using the link in the description and you'll get an exclusive gift of 13,000 gold and 1 month of Premium subscription for free offer available only for 30 days so don't lose time the Destroyer sped on closing the distance rapidly D held his nerve waiting until the enemy ship was just 900 yd away before at 659 unleashing a sound of four torpedos right down its throat ikazuchi spotted the oncoming threat and tried to turn away but it was too late two of the Torpedoes smashed into the Destroyer blowing huge holes in its side and dooming it to sink in a matter of minutes with no survivors the crew of harder were jubilant and Commander D now had a taste for hunting Japanese destroyers his next opportunity came 7 weeks later on June 6th 1944 after harder had redeployed to the East Indies and was operating close to the Japanese Anchorage at tawi tawi at 7:30 p.m. the boat's radar picked up a small Japanese Convoy made up of two two destroyers and three empty oil tankers which were heading south to one of borneo's oil ports for refueling Commander Dey wheeled his boat around and set off in Pursuit hoping to get ahead of the Convoy and attack it from the front but he was soon hampered by a full moon which rose shortly after Sunset and allowed the Destroyer mitsuki to spot the submarine at 9:25 mitsuki like many Japanese destroyers was Keen to be aggressive and swung away from the other ships to charge down the American boat in a similar setup to the first Destroyer harder had sunk D slowed his boat to a crawl and then turned it away presenting the boat's Stern torpedo tube to the onrushing enemy ship then he waited with every second that pass minut suuki got closer increasing the chances that the torpedo would hit but also the likelihood of suffering a severe death charging if they missed finally at 959 Del gave the order and three Torpedoes shot out of the stern tubes two of which smacked into the enemy ship and broke its back as minut Suki sunk harder surface just in time to see the other Destroyer wakatsuki on its way to belatedly offer its support again D resolved to take it on beginning another game of chicken with an on-rushing destroyer at 10:42 harda fired all six of its B torpedo tubes as wakatsuki bore down this time they missed D had to rapidly trash dive his boat to 300 ft as a destroyer now steamed straight over the top of them and drop depth charges harder narrowly made its escape this time but it was a sharp reminder of the high risks of taking on destroyers but with high risk came High reward determined not to miss again the following day Del allowed the Destroyer hav Nami to come within 650 yards in exactly the same way before firing Torpedoes which At This Point Blank Range smashed into a destroyer amid ships and blew its magazine up with an explosion so fearsome it almost rolled the submarine over harder was then swiftly forced down by the arriving uraz which subjected the boat to a depth charting that was so severe that several crew members thought they were about to be ripped apart not to be deterred 3 Days Later harder was at it again since one Destroyer was now apparently too easy Del took on two at once letting them approached to within a, yards before blowing the T akazi away with Torpedoes in the space of 4 days harda had now sunk three Japanese destroyers in close quarters head-on combat it was a stunning success achieved with skill iron resolve and a helpful bit of luck too upon these submarines returned to Port at freemantle in July harder was the talk of the fleet rear Admiral Ralph Christie commanding us boats based at freem manle was ecstatic and D's fellow submarine Skippers soon dubbed him the Destroyer killer his success was a symbolic win for the idea that submarines could go after destroyers when previously that had been thought if not impossible then extremely ill advised in the nearly 2 and 1 half years of war before the sinking of akazuchi us submarines had sunk only 16 destroyers in just the 8 months afterwards to the end of 1944 21 would go down this way but despite the success it was clear to many around D that the boat's exploits had taken their toll it had been the Skipper's fifth War Patrol and normal practice was to transfer sub commanders ashore at this point as the strain of leading a submarine through repeated attacks and death charging took its toll on harder's return there was certainly concern about Del his second in command Lieutenant Commander Frank Lynch reported that during the patrol Sam was showing unmistakable signs of strain he was becoming quite casual about Japanese anti submarine measures and that at one time he had found Dy in a state of mild shock unable to make a decision R Abal Christie was concerned and considered ordering him off the boat as planned with Lynch taking over but was determined that he wanted to go out again in order to give Lynch who had also done five patrols or rest before he took command I've got to make this Patrol he told Christie and the Admiral eventually relented and so on August 5th 1944 harder left freem manle again this time accompanied by the boats H and had as a wolf pack under D's command they headed for the Philippines arriving in time to join three other boats in an attack on a Japanese Convoy off Palawan Bay on August 21st which claimed four enemy Merchant ships afterwards the boats Cruise the coast with harda sinking two Japanese fret of the night of August 22nd and hake crippling the Destroyer asaz the following day by the early hours of August 24th H and harda had met up off Bay where H believed that asaki may have been towed an actual fact it had sunk some hours before but the Americans did not know that the crew of The Destroyer had escaped and were in the bay aboard a tanker and they had called for help at 5:32 a.m. H picked up the sounds of screws and Sona approaching from the southeast two ships slowly became visible in the early morning light one large and one small the larger ship was Patrol boat 102 which is is actually a captured Clemson class destroyer formerly known as the USS Stewart at 632 it turned away from the submarines and headed for the bay leaving the smaller ship the an submarine vessel cd22 on its original course unhappy with howy situation was developing H Skipper Lieutenant Commander Frank Haler broke off his approach and turned North he then spotted hard's Periscope Dead Ahead so turned about just as the Japanese ship swung around toward watch the american boats expecting an imminent depth charging Hala took his boat deep it's not known exactly what harda was doing at this point but it's believed that Dy had his boat pointed bow one at the onrushing enemy ship with his Periscope visible much as he had done before daring the Japanese to charge at his boat at some point as the enemy closed in harder loosed three Torpedoes but all of them missed a short distance away as they descended the crew of hke heard a series of depth charge explosions at 7:28 a.m. when they surfaced some hours later Hala tried to contact harder but got no response when this silence continued for days and weeks harder was eventually declared overdue presumed lost news of the loss of harda was a terrible blow to the submarine force it and de had become famous for their exploits Eugene flucky the Medal of Honor winning captain of the USS bab considered de his hero in the the months after the loss of harda recognition for the boat and its crew came in the shape of a presidential unit citation and a posthumous Medal of Honor for command the delay what exactly had happened to harder remained a mystery as the boat went down with all hands and the wreck was never found until 2024 when the wreck was discovered by the Lost 52 project harder Lies over 1,000 M down intacted other than a single large hole near the conning Tower most likely from a Japanese death charge the effect of fatigue or overconfidence in cing the sing has long been speculated but we'll never know for sure Vice lock would put it down to the largest size of Japanese depth charges by this point in the war making their attacks more effective perhaps harder was just unlucky whatever played out in those few minutes on the morning of August 24th 1944 it was the end for a fine crew and their boat a small but significant part of the Titanic struggle for control of the Pacific remember to sign up to play Call of War using the link in the description for the next 30 days to receive the exclusive gift of 13,000 gold and 1 month of Premium subscription for free click the link in the description choose your country and fight your way to Victory [Music] [Music]

Channel: Historigraph

Views: 271,451

Keywords: historiograph, histography, historigraph

Id: UHeNXa7kG0c

Length: 12min 6sec (726 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 09 2024