USS Indianapolis

A few weeks ago attended a presentation about the greatest Naval disaster in US history. The Indies is a story full of twist, turns and events that will make you squeam in horror. Such a tragic story.
The presenter started out talking about the atomic bomb and the destruction it caused, she showed pictures of what they call "Death Shadows". This is a permanent shadow made on a wall or step where people were standing or sitting. Because of the instant destruction, their shadows were literally left to mark the place where they were.
She then went on the talk about the Indie. This battleship left San Fransisco on urgent orders and so quickly that most of the men did not have a chance to say goodbye to anyone. The ship had been hit earlier and was undergoing repairs. They were ordered to Pearl Harbor to pick up cargo.
They paused for a moment as the Trinity test went off in New Mexico, in case the test did not work their ship would be turned back. For, what noone on the ship knew, they had picked up the parts of the atomic bomb. They sailed to Tinian where they dropped the bomb off and then were to travel To Guam and then Leyte.
Captain Macvey requested an escort but was told there was no need as there was no enemy known in these waters. The first of many screw-ups. The truth was that we had dechiphered the Japanese code but we couldn't avoid all their known subs or they would figure out that we knew their code. So it was decided that certain information would be randomly withheld. This information included that not long before a US ship had been sunk in these waters and that two enemy subs were known to patrol these waters.
So the Indie set off without any radar to detect enemy subs, without an escort, and without knowledge. Shortly after midnight on the first of Aug. 1945 the sip was hit twice by an enemy sub. Within twelve minutes the ship had fully sunk. There were 1,196 men aboard the ship, it was estimated that about 300 some odd men went down with the ship. The majority of the others made it out but were generally harmed.
they floated in the Mariana Trench, some for a total of five days. They syffered from Hypothermia, salt water ulcers, lack of food and water, and least of all Shark attacks and dellusions.
When finally rescued, by a miracle that probably should have never happened. Noone even knew who they were or that their ship had gone down. (Much more to this story).
But the story doesn't end here. Their survival was largely kept from the public, even their families until the Navy could get their act together and find a scape goat. That goat was Captain Macvey. They charged him on two counts, failure to zigzag and failure to call abandon ship in a timely manner.
On the first count the Cpt had been told to zigzag at descretion to avoid being hit by a sub. He had just called the cease to zigzag a little while earlier because of weather conditions, he had also been told that there was no indication of enemy subs and they were safe. As for the call to abandon ship, the ship went down in twelve minutes!!! And the majority of the men made it off the ship.
He was court martialed on the failure to zigzag count, even after the US brought the Japanese commander into testify against him and the man said he would have hit him even if he was zigzagging!!!!
In the end only 317 men survived, and in 1968 Macvey committed suicide.
What I have discribed are only a few of the facts. There are so many other details to the story. Ther was also a survivor present who answered questions and recounted his experience. The man is still afraid to fall asleep because opf what his mind recalls. He will avoid sleep at all costs.
I encourage you to study more on this topic. We are listening to a book on tape called "In Harms Way" This is one of the most complete acounts.
Others include:
Out of The Depths: David Harrell- this is a survivors tale with a huge influence of God.
Fatal Voyage, The Sinking Of The USS Indianapolis: Dan Kurzman
Left for Dead: Pere Nelson- this includes a lot of information about Hunter Scott. A young man who started with a history project and eventually gathered the survivors together to fight Captain Macvey's sentence. This one also has a lot of great pictures that really bring the men into a reality. It shows pictures of the survivors then and now.
All in all, this was an experience I will never forget. Matt, I and Seri left this event in absolute tears and gratefulness for the crud that the men who fight for our country have to put up with.
If you can't already tell, this quickly became a huge topic of interest for us. Guesse we are back to studying WWII once again. this time from another perspective. While we were in Germany we studied about it from the European view when a friend loaned us "the Candy Bomber" (another excellent book) and coincedentally it was timed with the closing of Rhein Main Air Base in Wiesbaden.
Everyone, including me is perturbed that I forgot to take the camera. How we would have loved to take pictures with Eugene and of all the memorabilia he brought with him. The saddest and yet most joyous items in the display were a lot of letters that the men had written to their families, so poignant and amazing........
You can also google USS Indianapolis and get to the survivors webpage and a lot of other sites with information on the topic.