USS Harder: Wreck of lost US World War II submarine found off the Philippines

The wreckage of the USS Harder, one of the most famed US Navy submarines of World War II, has been found in the South China Sea, some 80 years after it was sunk by enemy forces.

The Harder was sunk in a battle on 29 August 1944, along with its crew of 79 men, while on its sixth patrol of the war as the US sought to retake the Philippines from occupying Japanese forces.

It was found 3,000 feet (about 900 metres) below water off the northern Philippine island of Luzon, sitting upright and relatively intact, the US Navy’s History and Heritage Command (NHCC) said Thursday (May 23) in a press release.

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“Harder was lost in the course of victory. We must not forget that victory has a price, as does freedom,” NHHC Director Samuel J. Cox, a retired US Navy admiral, said in the release.

‘Hit 'em harder’: history of the celebrated submarine

The Harder, which sailed under the motto of "Hit 'em harder', sank the most Japanese warships during World War II.

In one of its final war patrols, it sank three Japanese destroyers and heavily damaged two others over four days, according to the NHHC.

In the wake of the attack, the Japanese were forced to change their battle plans and delay their carrier force, giving rise to their defeat.

The Philippines was one of the main Pacific battlegrounds of WW II, as the US fought to retake its former colony from the Japanese Imperial Army.

Waters neighbouring the Philippines archipelago serve as the resting place of many storied WW II battleships.

In 2015, US billionaire Paul Allen located the wreck of the Musashi, one of the two largest Japanese warships ever built, in the Philippines' Sibuyan Sea.

The Harder was found by the Lost 52 project, an effort led by Tim Taylor, CEO of Tiburon Subsea, which aims to find the 52 US submarines lost during the great war.

The group has previously located at least six WWII subs, the NHHC said.

The NHHC stated the wreck is “the final resting place of Sailors that gave their life in defence of the nation and should be respected by all parties as a war grave.”

Awards and recognition

The submarine and its crew were later awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its service during the war. The honour recognises extraordinary heroism in action.

Its captain, Commander Sam Dealey, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the US's highest military decoration, for his actions in Harder’s fifth patrol from March to July 1944.