USS Indianapolis

A SECRET MISSION. A SHIP LOST IN MINUTES. HUNDREDS OF MEN LEFT IN THE SEA. A FIGHT FOR JUSTICE THAT LASTED MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY.



On 30 July 1945, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis was struck by torpedoes from the Japanese submarine 58 and sank with terrifying speed in the Philippine Sea.


Of the 1,195 sailors and Marines aboard, only 316 survived.


Days earlier, Indianapolis had completed one of the most secret missions of the Second World War: delivering components of the atomic bomb to Tinian. Now hundreds of wounded men were scattered across open water with little fresh water, failing lifejackets and no knowledge that the Navy had not begun searching for them.


For days they endured blast injuries, exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, delirium, drowning and shark attacks. Their survival depended upon damaged flotation equipment, exhausted shipmates, medical leadership and the chance appearance of an aircraft overhead.


But the rescue was not the end of the story.


The Navy still had to explain why a major warship had disappeared without its failure to arrive at Leyte producing an immediate alarm. Instead, attention turned towards Captain Charles B. McVay III. He was court-martialled and convicted for failing to zigzag, even though his orders gave him discretion, vital submarine intelligence had not reached him and the commander of I-58 testified that he could still have completed a successful attack.



USS INDIANAPOLIS tells the complete story of the ship, its crew and its final voyage-from its association with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and its combat service across the Pacific to the atomic-bomb mission, sinking, survival ordeal, delayed rescue, controversial court-martial and the survivors' decades-long campaign to restore McVay's reputation.


Drawing upon official naval records, survivor testimony, rescue reports, court proceedings and modern historical reconciliation, Gary Mitchell delivers a vivid and humane account of enemy action, command responsibility, institutional failure and delayed justice.



This is more than a story of sharks. It is the story of a warship, a crew and the refusal of its survivors to allow responsibility for one of America's greatest naval tragedies to be placed upon one man.