USS Harder: Wreck of famed US Navy World War II sub found off the Philippines [Video]

The wreck of one of the most storied U.S. Navy submarines of World War II has been found in the South China Sea eight decades after its last patrol, the Navy’s History and Heritage Command said Thursday.The USS Harder lies under 3,000 feet of water off the northern Philippine island of Luzon, sitting upright and intact except for damage behind its conning tower from a Japanese depth charge, the NHHC said in a press release.Harder was lost in battle on Aug. 24, 1944, along with its entire crew of 79 submariners, while on its sixth patrol of the war, as the U.S. sought to retake the Philippines from occupying Japanese forces.“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 U.S. Navy admiral, said in the press release.According to a U.S. Navy history, …