July 30, 1945; the sinking of the USS Indianapolis
Chief Tango reminds us that Thursday will mark the 70th anniversary of the sinking of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis. The ship was unescorted when around midnight a Japanese submarine sank the ship with a torpedo. What followed was the stuff of horror movies. A crew of about 1200 was reduced to about 900 by the sinking of the ship, but by the time they were rescued, only 321 survived their time in the water and three of those died after their rescue.
From Smithsonian Magazine;
As the sun rose on July 30, the survivors bobbed in the water. Life rafts were scarce. The living searched for the dead floating in the water and appropriated their lifejackets for survivors who had none. Hoping to keep some semblance of order, survivors began forming groups—some small, some over 300—in the open water. Soon enough they would be staving off exposure, thirst—and sharks.
[…]
The sharks fed [on the survivors] for days, with no sign of rescue for the men. Navy intelligence had intercepted a message from the Japanese submarine that had torpedoed the Indianapolis describing how it had sunk an American battleship along the Indianapolis’ route, but the message was disregarded as a trick to lure American rescue boats into an ambush.
After 11:00 a.m. on their fourth day in the water, a Navy plane flying overhead spotted the Indianapolis survivors and radioed for help. Within hours, another seaplane, manned by Lieutenant Adrian Marks, returned to the scene and dropped rafts and survival supplies. When Marks saw men being attacked by sharks, he disobeyed orders and landed in the infested waters, and then began taxiing his plane to help the wounded and stragglers, who were at the greatest risk. A little after midnight, the USS Doyle arrived on the scene and helped to pull the last survivors from the water.
Additionally, the destroyers Helm, Madison, and Ralph Talbot were ordered to the rescue scene from Ulithi, along with destroyer escorts Dufilho, Bassett, and Ringness of the Philippine Sea Frontier. They continued their search for survivors until 8 August.
The commander of the ship, Captain Charles B. McVay III, survived the ordeal to be court martialed and convicted of “hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag”. But Mochitsura Hashimoto, commander of I-58, the sub that sank the Indianapolis, testified that zigzagging would have made no difference. McVay was the only Navy ship commander who was convicted of losing his ship during the Second World War. In October 2000, Congress passed a resolution exonerating Captain McVay and President Bill Clinton signed on to it. The Secretary of Navy ordered McVay’s record cleared of wrong doing in July 2001.
31 of the survivors are still with us and they had a reunion this last weekend in Indianapolis.
Category: Historical
I will file for my PTSD claim right after I kiss the ground that man walks on and have the check sent to him.
I read about that while in high school, but what was written in the book was nothing compared to the horror I just read. A special blessings at the temple in the morning for all the heroes who didn’t come home and for the 31 still with us. I’m going to Google the story.
Wow. Just Wow.
I’ve never seen that. so thank you for posting.
I was just going to look for that same video until I scrolled down
God Above and Satan Below! I can’t even begin to imagine the horror those survivors went through! And I don’t want to. I know we joke about it a lot here, but I truly believe that those survivors, when they eventually die of natural causes, will go to heaven, because they’ve already spent their time in hell on earth.
How did they ever live a normal life afterwards? If there were ever a group that deserved the classification of PTSD / PTS, these are them.
If I remember right, Capt McVay committed suicide later…sad sad, all the way around! You didn’t mention how they delivered the Atomic Bomb, completed their mission and was sunk later…
Oblig:
One of the ships I was stationed on hosted a visit from an Indianapolis survivor. It was definitely a sobering story to hear what those Sailors went through.
Another thing that amazed me was the size of the Indianapolis and the number of crew she had vs. the size of the current Ticonderoga Class cruiser and her crew.
Indianapolis
Length overall-610 ft.,3-3/4 in. [584 ft. at the waterline
Extreme breadth [beam] -66 ft., 5/8 in.ft
Treaty displacement 10,000 tons. [9,950 tons standard displacement]
Crew 1200
Ticonderoga Class
Length: 567 feet.
Beam: 55 feet.
Displacement: 9,600 long tons (9,754.06 metric tons) full load.
Crew 330
TL/DR
The Indianapolis was only 43 Feet longer and 11 feet wider than today’s cruisers…and had almost 900 more Sailors onboard.
The Navy was not my service, so maybe I’m speaking “out of school” here. But everything I’ve read about the USS INDIANAPOLIS sinking makes me believe her skipper, CAPT Charles McVay, was railroaded and made a scapegoat. This link provides a decent summary:
http://www.ussindianapolis.org/mcvay.htm
Though he was later reinstated after Nimitz became CNO and retired in 1949 as a RADM, McVay never fully recovered from his court martial. He committed suicide in 1968. Posthumously, both Congress (2000) and the Navy (2001) formally declared him innocent of any wrongdoing related to the loss of the USS INDIANAPOLIS.
One item not mentioned in Jonn’s article above is what the USS INDIANAPOLIS had done immediately prior to her sinking. During the invasion of Okinawa in March 1945, the USS INDIANAPOLIS was struck by a kamikaze and was severely damaged. She returned to Mare Island shipyard in CA for repairs.
When repairs were completed, she was selected to deliver the nuclear package for the “Little Boy” nuclear weapon to Tinian (the USS INDIANAPOLIS departed San Francisco the same day as the Trinity test occurred, 16 July 1945). That mission was a success, delivering the components to Tinian on 26 July. Like her final voyage, that mission was also executed completely unaccompanied (without escort), even though the USS INDIANAPOLIS did not have submarine detection equipment.
The USS INDIANAPOLIS was proceeding to Leyte Gulf for training prior to rejoining TF 95 vic Okinawa when she was torpeoded and sunk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_%28CA-35%29
There tends to be something of an ‘aura of nobility’ surrounding both that War and the men who fought in it. What happened to the commander of the Indianapolis is proof (if any was really needed) that the warriors of that conflict had the same troubles our warriors of today do, concerning the effects of human error and subtle politics. And anybody who thinks Navy service is ‘easy’ compared to other services should be quickly disabused of that notion by a story like this one.
Captain McVay came from a family tradition of Naval officers. According to what I’ve read, his father, Captain Charles B. McVay Jr, had little patience for a cocky young ensign named Ernie King who apparently thought he knew everything. Fast-forward 40 years, Ensign King is now Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King, and has a well-deserved reputation as a shooter of messengers and all-around vindictive prick. He’s notified of the loss of the Indianapolis, and the investigation thereof. He also learns that her skipper is Charles B. McVay III (the old man having long since retired and passed away). King is known to have exerted considerable influence over McVay’s court-martial.
Do the math. Every piece of evidence in McVay’s favor was thrown out, including the testimony of Captain Hashimoto of the HIMS I-58, and the fact that the cruiser USS Salt Lake City copied the Indianapolis’s garbled-but-readable distress call. The Navy had fucked up and didn’t want to admit it, and the CNO was a vicious bastard with an axe to grind.
The survivors seem to have stayed pretty much unanimous in their support of Captain McVay. The one survivor who testified against him was well-known to be the ship’s resident brig rat, is suspected of possibly murdering men in the water (he definitely stole drinking water), and definitely got a back-room deal to avoid facing the music.
Sadly, even their undying support didn’t save him from suck-starting his .45 on the front lawn of his house in 1968. He’s been described as the last casualty of the Indianapolis. Personally, I think the officers who ran his court-martial should have been charged with his murder.
Addendum. As she was sinking, the USS INDIANAPOLIS sent out a distress call. That distress call was received by three (3) different shore stations.
For various reasons, none of those shore stations took action on receiving that call. One of the three thought the distress call was a Japanese ruse. The second’s CO had gone to bed and had left orders that he was not to be disturbed. The third station’s CO was drunk. As far as I know, none of those individuals were court-martialed for dereliction of duty.
The Navy initially denied that any distress call had been received from the USS INDIANAPOLIS after she had been torpedoed. Declassified records released many years later proved this denial to be . . . not accurate.
Her distress call was also copied by the USS Salt Lake City, if memory serves. It was garbled, but readable. Unfortunately, the SLC was 2500 miles northeast at the time.
Captain Mcvay ended his own life in his front yard after his morning dog walk. He hade been receiving hate mail for years.
None of this should ever be forgotten.
I am/was Navy…nothing much has changed, the lead assed, chicken shyt brass sitting safe and warm are quick to cover their worthless asses and declare “somebody” “anybody” guilty of the situation…look at today, those freaks, the ass kissers of obama are telling the Navy they can’t even Pray to Jesus! I say, GO TO HELL, DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT YOUR RETIREMENT..GO DIRECTLY TO HELL!
Another of the SNAFU (Situation Normal, All Fucked Up) brigade’s CYA battle plans.
That ship was a beautiful and great ship manned by a thousand of America’s best of that generation. Their sacrifice cannot be forgotten or glossed over. To send her out without an escort or even notification of her departure is another in the testament of stupidity of military brass…
Again the brass show us how NOT to stand with your troops.
One would think that examples like this would teach them the fallacy of their ass-covering exercises.
The ship was never reported as overdue.
So many things could have changed the outcome, So many people failed to do their duty.
A new movie is being filmed right now about the Indianapolis off of Alabama. Nicholas Cage is portraying Captain McVay and Mario Van Peebles (didn’t know he was a history buff) is directing. The title is “Men of Courage.” Who know, it might even be good.
The story is well known in Hawaii. His son was a much respected entertainment promoter and a much loved character who never stopped fighting for his fathers honor. Thanks for this.
Some truly phenomenal comments plus historical and anecdotal information above.
Thanks to you all for your input! Some great info!
To the Officers and Crew of the Indianapolis, I thank you and pray that in some way I can, correction WE can all be worthy of your service and sacrifice.
For the 70th reunion, held July 23-26 2015, 14 of the 32 remaining survivors attended. The reunions are open to anyone interested, and have more attendees each year, even as the number of survivors decreases from death.