Sign-In
Cart
USS Harder (Ss-257): The Destroyer Killer of the Pacific War
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 8 2026
Pages: 152
Weight: 0.47
Height: 0.33 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
In the summer of 1944, a fleet submarine operating in the waters off the Philippine coast sank her fifth Japanese destroyer and did not return. She had been hunting destroyers since her fourth war patrol, turning toward the charging escort rather than away from it, firing the down-the-throat shot that the prewar doctrine had never imagined as an offensive first choice, and coming back each time with the patrol report that confirmed the kill. The USS Harder did not come back from the seventh patrol. What she left behind was a record that changed how the Pacific submarine force understood the most dangerous moment in submarine warfare - the moment the escort turned toward the submarine and accelerated to flank speed.
USS Harder (SS-257): The Destroyer Killer of the Pacific War is the definitive analytical account of Sam Dealey's command and the tactical doctrine whose development transformed a defensive emergency into a systematic offensive method. At its center is the problem Dealey spent six patrols solving: how to turn the charging destroyer's prosecution run - the threat the prewar doctrine had specified as the occasion for depth, silence, and patient endurance - into the firing geometry of a confirmed kill. The down-the-throat shot was not Dealey's invention. It was his doctrine: the deliberate, prepared, reproducible application of a fire control solution whose geometry the charging escort was producing by its own behavioral predictability, executed across four confirmed destroyer kills before the seventh patrol's silence closed the account.
This book follows the Harder's seven war patrols with the analytical density and the narrative honesty that the full operational record demands. It examines Dealey's combat philosophy in the tactical detail that the patrol reports document, traces the progressive development of the anti-escort method from the preparatory observations of the first three deployments through the Ikazuchi's sinking and the fifth patrol's two-day consecutive destroyer sequence, and places the Harder's destroyer attrition within the strategic context of the Philippine Sea campaign whose operational conditions the accumulated escort losses had been shaping since the fourth patrol's first confirmed kill. It reconstructs the Medal of Honor action's operational complexity - the surface rescue conducted in waters the Harder's own prior success had made acutely dangerous - without the commemorative compression that the citation's language imposes on the full weight of what the situation required. And it follows the Harder into the waters off Dasol Bay with the knowledge that the method whose prior applications had always worked was about to encounter the conditions under which it would not.
Drawing on war patrol reports, Japanese anti-submarine records, ULTRA intelligence documentation, Medal of Honor proceedings, and the serious scholarly literature on the Pacific submarine campaign, this book reconstructs the Harder's operational history with the precision the documentary evidence supports and the analytical honesty that the full record - the destroyer kills, the rescue actions, and the final silence off western Luzon - requires.
Sam Dealey turned toward the charging destroyer. He did it five times. The Pacific submarine force learned from every one of them.
Also from
Fajardo, Angel
El Enigma de Nazaret: ¿Resucitó Jesús?: Lo Que La Ciencia Y Los Textos Antiguos Revelan
Fajardo, Angel
Paperback
El Poder de Los Alimentos: Cómo Los Alimentos Moldean La Mente, Las Emociones Y La Salud
Fajardo, Angel
Paperback
Ordena Tu Casa, Calma Tu Mente: La Conexión Oculta Entre El Orden Exterior Y El Equilibrio Interior
Fajardo, Angel
Paperback
La Mente Que Sana Y Enferma: Cómo Los Pensamientos Influyen En Tu Salud Y Bienestar
Fajardo, Angel
Paperback
Also in
Naval History
Hostage on the Yangtze: Britain, China, and the Amethyst Crisis of 1949
Murfett, Malcolm H.
Hardcover
The Last Flight: The Untold Story of the Search for JFK Jr. and the Race Against the Atlantic
Webster, W. Russell
Webster, Theresa M.
Hardcover
It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy
Abrashoff, D. Michael
Hardcover
The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard's Most Daring Sea Rescue
Sherman, Casey
Tougias, Michael J.
Paperback
Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man
Vincent, Lynn
Vladic, Sara
Paperback
The Last Stand of Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour
Hornfischer, Estate Of James D.
Hardcover
Letters to Myself: A Collection of Life Lessons Shared with My Younger Self
Cordle, John P.
Paperback
Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage
Sontag, Sherry
Drew, Christopher
Paperback
Ghosts of Panama: A Strongman Out of Control, a Murdered Marine, and the Special Agents Caught in the Middle of an Invasion
Harmon, Mark
Carroll, Leon
Paperback
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour
Hornfischer, James D.
Paperback
In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paperback
Fighting Fifteen: The Navy's Top Ace and the Deadliest Hellcat Squadron of the Pacific War
Moore, Stephen L.
Hardcover
Wielding the Trident: Admiral Raymond A. Spruance and America's Victory in the Pacific
Blackley, Andrew K.
Hardcover
Shipwrecks and Lost Treasures: Great Lakes: Legends And Lore, Pirates And More!
Varhola, Michael
Paperback
Gamble in the Coral Sea: Japan's Offensive, the Carrier Battle, and the Road to Midway
Piegzik, Michal A.
Hardcover
Thunder Below!: The USS *Barb* Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II
Fluckey, Eugene B.
Paperback
Annapolis Goes to War: The Naval Academy Class of 1940 and Its Trial by Fire in World War II
Symonds, Craig L.
Hardcover
Phantom Fleet: The Hunt for Nazi Submarine U-505 and World War II's Most Daring Heist
Rose, Alexander
Hardcover
Ghosts of Panama: A Strongman Out of Control, a Murdered Marine, and the Special Agents Caught in the Middle of an Invasion
Carroll, Leon
Harmon, Mark
Hardcover
So Others May Live: Coast Guard's Rescue Swimmers: Saving Lives, Defying Death
Laguardia-Kotite, Martha
Ridge, Tom
Paperback
Sailing the Graveyard Sea: The Deathly Voyage of the Somers, the U.S. Navy's Only Mutiny, and the Trial That Gripped the Nation
Snow, Richard
Paperback
Mahan on Naval Strategy: Selections from the Writings of Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan
Mahan, Alfred Thayer
Paperback
Erasing the Liberty: The Battle to Keep Alive the Memory of Israel's Massacre on the USS Liberty
Gahary, David R.
Tourney, Phillip F.
Paperback
Holocaust on the High Seas: An Eyewitness Account of Israel's 1967 Attack on the USS Liberty
Tourney, Phillip F.
Paperback
Clash of the Carriers: The True Story of the Marianas Turkey Shoot of World War II
Tillman, Barrett
Paperback
Samurai!: The Autobiography of Japan's World War II Flying Ace
Saito, Fred
Sakai, Saburo
Caidin, Martin
Paperback
The Death of the USS Thresher: The Story Behind History's Deadliest Submarine Disaster
Polmar, Norman
Paperback
Sailors to the End: The Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal and the Heroes Who Fought It
Freeman, Gregory A.
Paperback
Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway--The Great Naval Battles as Seen Through Japanese Eyes
Hara, Tameichi
Paperback
Operation Catapult: Winston Churchill and the British Attack on the French Navy at Mers-El-Kébir
Whiteside, Bill
Hardcover
Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941
Evans, David C.
Peattie, David
Paperback
Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy
Hale, John R.
Paperback
Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee Jr.
Stillwell, Paul L., Usnr (Ret ).
Hardcover
A Hoot in Hell's Island: The Heroic Story of World War II Dive Bomber Lt. Cmdr. Robert D. "Hoot" Gibson
Warner, Kirk
Gibson, Robert D.
Hardcover
Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine
Hicks, Brian
Kropf, Schuyler
Paperback
Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution
Patton, Robert H.
Paperback
The Sailing of the Intrepid: The Incredible Wartime Voyage of the Navy's Iconic Aircraft Carrier (Large Print Edition)
Fisher, David
Williams, Montel
Hardcover
The Sailing of the Intrepid: The Incredible Wartime Voyage of the Navy's Iconic Aircraft Carrier
Williams, Montel
Hardcover
Mastering the Art of Command: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Victory in the Pacific
Hone, Trent
Paperback
A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II
Parkin, Simon
Paperback
Escape from the Deep: The Epic Story of a Legendary Submarine and Her Courageous Crew
Kershaw, Alex
Paperback
All Hands on Deck: A Modern-Day High Seas Adventure to the Far Side of the World
Sofrin, Will
Paperback
Imperial Japanese Navy 1932-1945 Warships and Colours: With Japanese Army Vessels and Three Special Bonus Pages
Wright, Malcolm
Paperback
Kaga and Akagi: Aircraft Carriers in the Imperial Japanese Navy
Ahlberg, Lars
Lengerer, Hans
Hardcover
The Devil's Own Purgatory: The United States Mississippi River Squadron in the Civil War
Gudmestad, Robert H.
Hardcover
Brain Games - U.S. Navy Word Search - Large Print
Brain Games
Publications International Ltd
Paperback
The Last Days of the Schooner America: A Lost Icon at the Annapolis Warship Factory
Gendell, David
Hardcover
Guardians of the North: Canadian Warships and Maritime Aircraft, 1910-2025
Gimblett, Richard H.
Gagnon, Karl
Hardcover
The Ice Diaries: The True Story of One of Mankind's Greatest Adventures
Anderson, William R.
Paperback
The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece -- And Western Civilization
Strauss, Barry
Paperback
Through the Yellow Visor: The Life and (Mis)Adventures of a US Navy Fighter Pilot
Aiello, E. Vincent Jell-O
Paperback
Life and Death at Cape Disappointment: Becoming a Surfman on the Columbia River Bar
D'Amelio, Christopher J.
Paperback
Give Me a Fast Ship: The Heroic Actions of Ernest Evans and the Crew of USS Johnston
Cutler, Thomas J.
Hardcover
Iron Dawn: The Monitor, the Merrimack, and the Civil War Sea Battle That Changed History
Snow, Richard
Paperback
The Last Shot: The Incredible Story of the C.S.S. Shenandoah and the True Conclusion of the American Civil War
Schooler, Lynn
Paperback
Devil's Fire, Southern Cross: The Conclusion of the Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign, October 1943-February 1944
Cox, Jeffrey
Hardcover
A Rage to Conquer: Twelve Battles That Changed the Course of Western History
Walsh, Michael
Hardcover
War Beneath the Waves: A True Story of Courage and Leadership Aboard a World War II Submarine
Keith, Don
Paperback
Italian Adriatic Fleet 1915-18: The Fierce Naval War with Austria-Hungary
Cernuschi, Enrico
Paperback
Iron Coffins: A Personal Account of the German U-Boat Battles of World War II
Werner, Herbert A.
Paperback
Battle of the Atlantic (2): From Operation Drumbeat to the Defeat of the Wolfpacks, 1942-43
Stille, Mark
Paperback
This Great Contest Afloat: The Civil War on the Seas, Coastline, Rivers, and Oceans
Chatelain, Neil P.
Paperback
Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of Theworld
Crowley, Roger
Paperback
Perilous Fight: America's Intrepid War with Britain on the High Seas, 1812-1815
Budiansky, Stephen
Paperback
Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue
Drury, Bob
Clavin, Tom
Paperback
Revolution on the Hudson: New York City and the Hudson River Valley in the American War of Independence
Daughan, George C.
Paperback
No More Napoleons: How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World War One
Lambert, Andrew
Hardcover
All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor
Gire, Ken
Stratton, Donald
Paperback
The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945
Hornfischer, James D.
Paperback
Sentinels by the Sea: Coastal Fortifications of Colonial New England and Nova Scotia
Laramie, Michael G.
Hardcover
Arresting Ecologies: Global Literature Across Air, Land, and Sea, 1926-2014
Rizzuto, Nicole M.
Hardcover
Benedict Arnold's Navy: The Ragtag Fleet That Lost the Battle of Lake Champlain But Won the American Revolution
Nelson, James L.
Hardcover
Forgotten Island: The WWII Story of One Sailor's Survival on Japanese-Occupied Guam
Domagalski, John J.
Paperback
A Visual History & Reference for Submarine Insignia of the World
Lukas, Lee
Walker, Christopher
Hardcover
Across the Wing: Stories of Navy Carrier Combat Squadrons in the Vietnam Theatre
Heller, Dan
Paperback