WWII sub wreckage found in Pangasinan sea
A WORLD War II-era submarine was discovered in Dasol Bay.
The sunken USS Harder (SS-257) was found by The Naval History & Heritage Command – Underwater Archaeological Branch of the United States Navy on Thursday, May 23 using data collected by The Lost 52 Project, an organization dedicated to locating and memorializing the 52 US submarines lost during the Second World War, and veteran ocean explorer Tim Taylor.
The finding was validated after an expedition on November to December last year.
Setting off at the Dasol Bay, the very area where an intense battle occurred 80 years ago, the members of the Lost 52 project began its search, and documentation of the sunken sub.
The Harder was deployed from Fremantle, Australia on August 05, 1944 for its sixth and final war patrol and was supposed to be a part of a five-boat wolfpack to Luzon when it was hit by depth charges by Japanese escort vessels off the coast of Dasol in August 23, 1944.
The Harder sank 17 enemy vessels and completed six patrols within a year before it was last seen in the waters of Luzon, taking with it 79 submariners. It was eventually declared lost on January 02, 1945.
The US Navy said The Harder received a Presidential Unit Citation and six battle stars and was declared missing in January 1945, with a crew of 79. Its captain, Samuel Dealey, received the Navy Cross four times and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. It was believed that 11 US Navy submarines sank in the waters of the Philippines during World War II.
In the lead-up to the significant underwater expedition, the Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Division (MUCHD) team, under the guidance of Curator I, Bobby C. Orillaneda, made formal visits to the municipalities of Santa Cruz in Zambales, and Infanta, Dasol, and Burgos towns.
The National Museum of the Philippines, supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Philippine Coast Guard and in collaboration with the US Navy and the US Embassy in Manila, are steadfast in their mission to find sunken World War II-era ships across the archipelago. (Ahikam Pasion)
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