Evening star., 1952-11-19
SUBMARINE:
By Comdr. Edword l. Beach, U. S. N.
CHAPTER TX.
Harder.

Hit EN- again, Harder!
No one in the Submarine Force
will ever forget that battle cry.
It is ringing still in the halls of
Dealey Center, New London; at
deserted Camp Dealey, on Guam,
and at the submarine base, Pearl
Harbor. For the U. S. S. Harder
was a peer among peers, a fighter
among fighters, and, above all, a
submarine among submarines.
And when she and her fighting
skipper were lost, the whole Navy
mourned. for her exploits had be-
come legendary. 1t was charac-
teristic that she gave her life to
save one of her fellows, for she
interposed herself in front of an
attacking ship to give another
submarine an opportunity to es-
cape and in so doing received the
final. unlucky, fatal depth charge
1t was Harder's fifth war patrol
which fixed her position, and that
of her skipper, Sam Dealey. in the
annals of the United States SUBJ
marine Force for all time.
On May 26. 1914. Harder de-
parted from Fremantle, Australia,
on what many have termed the
most epoch-making war patrol
ever recorded.
Your submarine is primarily a
commerce destroyer. While it will
attack any moderate-to-large war
ship it encounters. its principal
objective is the lifeline of the
enemy-itS merchant carriers.
The submarine will spend long
hours lying in wait in sealanes
frequented by enemy cargo vessels,
and~ her personnel will spend
longer hours trying to outguess
their adversaries, to determine
where they are routing their ships
in their effort to evade submarine
attack.
The submarine will. of course.
similarly try to intercept enemy
war vessels. But the destroyer or
escort vessel is the bane of. the
subs existence, for it is commonly
considered too small to shoot sue
cessfully and too dangerous to fool
around with. Besides. sinking a
destroyer was not ordinarily so
damaging to the enemy's cause as
sinking a tanker, for example.
Dealey Has Scheme.
Sam Dealey, ever an original
man. had a new thought. 1t was
known that the japanese Navy
was critically short of destroyers
of all types. Add to this the tre-
mendous screen necessary for a
feet movement and the probability
that it could be hamstrung-or at
least rendered extraordinarily vul-
nerable-if the number of de-
stroyers or escort ships could be
substantially reduced.
Dealey asked and received for
his operating area the waters
around the major japanese fleet
operating base of Tawi Tawi in the
Sulu Archipelago. He reasoned
that once he revealed his presence,
there would be no dearth of de-
stroyers sent out to track him
down. And if there were too many
in one bunch, he could avoid them;
If they came out by ones and
twos. he'd deliberately tangle with
them.
And tangle he did. Shortly
after sunset of the first day in
the area. a convoy was sighted
and Harder gave chase. The
moon came out during the pursuit,
the convoy changed course, and
events soon confirmed the sub
marines detection by the enemy.
The nearest destroyer emitted
clouds of black smoke, put on full
speed. and commenced heading
directly for her-and there was
nothing left to do but run for it.
At full speed Harder could
barely exceed 19 knots, and it
soon was evident that the tin
astern was clipping them off at
"a or better. The range inexorably