USS Indianapolis

History Lesson

After repairs and overhaul, the USS Indianapolis received orders to proceed at high speed to Tinian, carrying the component parts and uranium projectile of the atomic bomb "Little Boy" which was soon to be dropped on Hiroshima. Due to the urgency of her mission, Indianapolis departed San Francisco on July 16, 1945 foregoing her postrepair shakedown period. Touching at Pearl Harbor July 19, she raced on unescorted and arrived in Tinian on July 26, having set a record in covering some 5,000 miles (8,000 km) from San Francisco in only 10 days. After delivering her top secret cargo at Tinian, Indianapolis was dispatched to Guam. From Guam she set course to Leyte. From there she was to report for further duty off Okinawa. Departing Guam on July 28, Indianapolis proceeded by a direct route, unescorted. Early in the morning, at 00:15 on July 30, 1945, two heavy explosions (some say three) occurred against her starboard side and she capsized and sank in 12 minutes. The ship was silhouetted against a low moon, which made it easy for the Japanese submarine to target.

Delayed rescue: Four days in the water

This was a top secret mission, so there was no notice sent to the port of destination or about their estimated time of arrival, as was the usual naval procedure for normal missions. Thus, with no ETA they were never reported late at the arrival port. Also, the Indianapolis did broadcast two distress calls that were received at two separate locations on Leyte, though they were dismissed in both cases as being bogus transmissions due to the Navy's protocol of the time. The subsequent delay of the rescue mission led to the loss of hundreds of sailors. About 300 of the 1,196 men on board died in the attack. The rest of the crew, nearly 900 men, floated in the water without lifeboats until the rescue was completed four days later. 321 crew came out of the water alive, with 317 ultimately surviving. They suffered from lack of food and water, exposure to the elements, severe desquamation, and....shark attacks. The most fatalities from shark attacks in history by the oceanic whitetip shark species.

When the ship did not reach Leyte on the 31st, as scheduled, no report was made that she was overdue. This was due to a misunderstanding of the Movement Report System. Thus it was not until 10:25 on August 2 that the survivors were accidentally sighted by pilot Lieutenant Chuck Gwinn and copilot Lieutenant Warren Colwell on a routine patrol flight. The survivors were mostly held afloat by life jackets. Gwinn immediately dropped a life raft and a radio transmitter. All air and surface units capable of rescue operations were dispatched to the scene at once. The men had waited for assistance while floating helplessly for 4 days. Many men watched their friends die from shark attacks.

Upon completion of rescue operations, August 8, a radius of 100 miles had been combed by day and by night, saving 317 of the crew of 1,196 men.

Captain Charles Butler McVay III, commander of Indianapolis since November 1944, was wounded, but survived the sinking, and was among those rescued days later. In November 1945, he was court-martialed and convicted of "hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag." Several circumstances of the court-martial were controversial: there was overwhelming evidence that the United States Navy itself had placed the ship in harm's way. The Navy had ordered McVay to "zigzag at his discretion, weather permitting." Also, the commander of I-58, Mochitsura Hashimoto, testified that zigzagging would have made no difference; and although 700 ships of the U.S. Navy were lost in combat in World War II, McVay was the only captain to be court-martialed. The military court knocked him down 100 places on the seniority list.

However, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz remitted McVay's sentence and restored him to duty. McVay retired from the service in 1949 as a rear admiral. While many of the Indianapolis survivors asserted McVay was not to blame for the loss of the ship, the families of some of the men who died blamed the captain. The guilt and shame mounted until he committed suicide in 1968 :(

In October 2000, the United States Congress passed a resolution that Captain McVay's record should reflect that "he is exonerated for the loss of the USS Indianapolis." President Clinton signed the resolution.

The exact location of the Indianapolis is unknown. In July and August, 2001 an expedition sought to find the wreckage through the use of side-scan sonar and underwater cameras mounted on a remotely operated vehicle; four Indianapolis survivors accompanied the expedition, which was not successful. In June of 2005, a second expedition was led to find the wreck; National Geographic covered the story and released it in July. Submersibles were launched to find any sign of wreckage. The only thing ever found, that has not been confirmed to have belonged to the Indianapolis, is many chunks of metal found along the reported sinking position.

Many have claimed that the Indianapolis cannot be found. She was carrying quite a few explosives on board and was reported to have gone down burning. Many believe that she perhaps exploded after sinking beneath the waves. On top of this, the area in which she sank has some of the deepest spots in the world. The expedition led in 2005 found no actual bulk of the wreck, no deckhouses, turrets, or hull. This has not discouraged some shipwreck hunters who are bent on finding one of World War II's most famous ships.

All information is from Wikipedia