Dealey and Christie

[Rockin Robbins]

Well, you know that Vice Admiral Christie was a strange old bird. We talked earlier about how he insisted that Commander Sam Dealey take him out on a cruise, and reportedly, allegedly, possibly not, ordered Dealey to raise his conning tower above the surface to lure one of the DD's in for one of his famous "down the throat" shots. And we detailed how they covered for each other after the fact. In it's "remember this" series, the US Subvets of WWII have an even more interesting take on the situation where Admiral Christie functionally admits giving the order!

REMEMBER THIS USS HARDER?

When the Harder (Dealey) returned to Darwin from her record-breaking "destroyer" patrol on June 21, 1944, Admiral Christie requested Cdr.Dealey to take him out on a "three week patrol." The primary purpose of this trip was to sink the ship that regularly hauled nickel from the Celebes, the Japanese only source for this strategic metal. A contact report alerted Harder to the presence of a damaged cruiser and two escorts, returning from the battle of the Philippines. Unable to close despite running at flank speed, Adm. Christie said to Cdr. Dealey "why didn't you expose your conning tower and lure the DD's in and sink them." Later, Dealey privately asked, "Admiral, were you serious about luring them in?" Replied Christie "Well Sam, you're the destroyer killer. I was neither criticizing nor directing. The way we feel about you and the Harder, the risk was not great." source: www.ussubvetsofwwii.org

The waters get muddier on this episode!