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USS Indianapolis

This date, July 30, 2020, marks the 75^th anniversary of one of the most fascinating and tragic events to come out of the Second World War. . .in fact, to come out of the entire history of the United States Navy. It is considered the worst sea disaster in the history of the Navy. . .the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.

The following description of what happened to the Indianapolis and her captain and crew barely scratches the surface of the full story, and I would encourage you to follow the links that I’ve provided at the end of this article to fill in many more of the details of the story.

I knew nothing about the sinking of the Indianapolis during WWII. I was barely two months past my tenth birthday when the sinking took place and don’t remember ever hearing anything about it until I was given a copy of the book ’Out of the Depths’ by a friend, Ben Souler, a few years ago. I met Ben while attending the Nazarene Church in Prescott, AZ. He had a full and interesting life that included time as a pharmacist with the US Navy during the war. Ben told me about his remembrances of the Indianapolis’ history one Sunday after church when we had lunch with him and his wife, Penny. He gave me a copy of the book a few days later. Inside the front cover of the book, Ben had included a short description of his personal remembrances of the Indianapolis’ sinking. (Ben Souler passed away on June 18, 2018 in Prescott, AZ. He was less than two months shy of his 101^st birthday. Click here to see Ben’s obituary.)

Ben Souler’s Personal Remembrances

The Indianapolis, a Portland-class heavy cruiser named after the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, with a hull symbol CL/CA-35, was commissioned 15 November 1932. Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, she served with distinction in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, embarking political dignitaries including President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and members of his cabinet as well as Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson as they carried out some of their diplomatic and political responsibilities.

At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Indianapolis was conducting a mock bombing training mission on Johnston Atoll and was part of the task force that searched for the Japanese carriers that were responsible for the Pearl Harbor attack, though they were not located.

Following the Pearl Harbor attack, the Indianapolis escorted the aircraft carrier Lexington in the New Guinea Campaign in 1942 and was part of the campaign on the Aleutian Islands. She served as flagship for the 5^th Fleet during the invasion of the Gilbert Islands and participated in the attacks on Tarawa, Kwajalein, and the Western Carolines (1944) as well as the assault on the Mariana Islands, Iwo Jima, and Chichi Jima. She was part of the first attack on the Japanese mainland since the Doolittle Raid of 1942 and supported landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

The movie ’USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage’ on Amazona Prime Video

The Indianapolis’ fate began to change, however, when, on 31 March 1945, she took a direct hit by a bomb from a Japanese fighter that left two gaping holes is its keel that flooded nearby compartments and killed nine crewmen. As a result, the ship commenced the long trip across the Pacific under her own power to Mare Island in San Francisco for repairs.

After repairs were completed, the Indianapolis received orders to undertake a top secret mission to carry to Tinian island the enriched uranium and other components for the assembly of the first atomic bomb, codenamed ’Little Boy’, to be dropped on Hiroshima a few weeks later. The ship departed San Francisco’s Hunters Point Naval Shipyard on 16 July 1945, within hours of the Trinity test in the New Mexico desert, unaccompanied to avoid drawing the enemy’s attention, setting a speed record from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor, and arriving at Tinian on 26 July. After delivering the parts for the atomic bomb, she was sent to Guam and then, leaving Guam on 28 July, set sail for Leyte in the Philippines where the crew was to receive training before proceeding to Okinawa.

Shortly after midnight on 30 July, the Indianapolis was struck by two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine. The torpedoes caused massive damage to the ship and it sank in 12 minutes, taking with it some 300 of the 1,195 members of the crew. The remainder of the crew was set adrift in the open ocean.

Remember that, from the time she departed San Francisco on 16 July until she was torpedoed, the Indianapolis had been sailing totally alone and unaccompanied by any other vessels. In addition, the ship’s commanding officer, Captain Charles McVay, had been told that the waters in which they would be traveling were safe from enemy attack, and that the typical zig-zag pattern used by war ships was optional.

As a result of the quick sinking of the ship and the fact that there were no other vessels to report the sinking, the Navy did not learn of the sinking until three and a half days later when the survivors were spotted by a plane on a routine patrol. All air and surface rescue units available were dispatched to the area at once.

While they were adrift, the survivors of the sinking endured unbelievable conditions. Many of the survivors had been injured in the original attack. They all suffered from lack of food and water (leading to dehydration and hypernatremia), exposure to the elements (dehydration from the hot sun during the day and hypothermia at night, as well as continued exposure to salt water and bunker oil from the ship), and deadly shark attacks. Others killed themselves or other survivors in various states of delirium and hallucinations. Only 316 of the nearly 900 set adrift following the sinking survived.

Several Navy officers received reprimands or letters of admonition for their failure to report the Indy’s failure to arrive in Leyte on 30 July as it should have. Captain McVay was among the survivors of the sinking though he was one of the last to abandon the ship and was among those rescued days later. McVay was court martialed for hazarding the ship. However, there was evidence that the Navy itself had put the ship in harm’s way even though his orders had stated that he was to zig-zag at his discretion, weather permitting. In addition, the Navy had failed to inform McVay that there were enemy submarines operating in the waters where the Indianapolis was traveling, even though Naval intelligence had made the determination that there were in fact Japanese submarines in the area. McVay committed suicide in 1968 using his service revolver due to the guilt placed on him by the families of those who had perished in the sinking.

In 1996, a sixth-grade student, Hunter Scott, began research into the sinking of the Indianapolis for a class history project. His research led to the passage of a resolution by the United States Congress exonerating McVay of any wrongdoing in the sinking of the Indianapolis. President Bill Clinton signed the resolution.

The oldest remaining survivor and the last living officer of the USS Indianapolis, Don Howison, Ensign, died on 3 January 2020. He was 98 years old. As of August 4, 2023, there were only 3 remaining survivors of the sinking.

PBS documentary ’USS Indianapolis: The Final Chapter’

We can only speculate about how recorded history would be different if the Indianapolis had not sustained the damage she did from the bomb that caused her to sink. It seems almost certain that another vessel would have been selected to make the delivery to Tinian Island with different personnel making different decisions and most certainly different outcomes. Nevertheless, the story of the USS Indianapolis gives us cause to pause and consider the sacrifices made by our military men and women so that we can enjoy the benefits of living in the United States of America.