USS Indianapolis (CL/CA-35) was a
Portland-class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy, named for the
city of Indianapolis, Indiana. Launched in 1931, she was the flagship
of the commander of Scouting Force 1 for eight years, then flagship
for Admiral Raymond Spruance from 1943 to 1945 while he commanded the
Fifth Fleet in battles across the Central Pacific during World War
II.
In July 1945, Indianapolis completed a
top-secret high-speed trip to deliver uranium and other components
for "Little Boy", the first nuclear weapon used in combat,
to the Tinian Naval Base, and subsequently departed for the
Philippines on training duty. At 0015 on 30 July, the ship was
torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58, and sank in
12 minutes.
Of 1,195 crewmen aboard, about 300 went
down with the ship. The remaining 890 faced exposure, dehydration,
saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks while stranded in the open
ocean, with few lifeboats and almost no food or water.
The Navy learned of the sinking four
days later, when survivors were spotted by the crew of a PV-1 Ventura
on routine patrol. A U.S. Navy PBY flying boat crew landed to save
those in the water. Only 316 survived. No U.S. warship sunk at sea
has lost more sailors.
On 19 August 2017, a search team
financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen located the wreckage in
the Philippine Sea at a depth of about 18,000 ft (5,500 m). On 20
December 2018, the crew of Indianapolis was collectively awarded a
Congressional Gold Medal.
Construction
Indianapolis was the second of two
ships in the Portland class, the third class of "treaty
cruisers" constructed by the United States Navy following the
Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, after the two vessels of the
Pensacola class, ordered in 1926, and the six of the Northampton
class, ordered in 1927. Ordered for the U.S. Navy in fiscal year
1930, Indianapolis was originally designated as a light cruiser
because of her thin armor and given the hull classification symbol
CL-35. She was reclassified a heavy cruiser, because of her 8-inch
(203 mm) guns, with the symbol CA-35 on 1 July 1931, in accordance
with the London Naval Treaty.
The Portland-class cruisers were
designed for a standard displacement of 10,258 long tons (10,423 t),
and a full-load displacement of 12,755 long tons (12,960 t). But
Indianapolis did not reach this weight, displacing 9,950 long tons
(10,110 t). The ship had two distinctive raked funnels, a tripod
foremast, and a small tower and pole mast aft. In 1943, light tripods
were added forward of the second funnel on each ship, and a prominent
naval director was installed aft.
The ship had four propeller shafts and
four Parsons GT geared turbines and eight White-Forster boilers. The
107,000 shp (80,000 kW) gave a design speed of 32.7 kn (60.6 km/h;
37.6 mph). She was designed for a range of 10,000 nmi (19,000 km;
12,000 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph). She rolled badly until fitted
with a bilge keel.
The cruiser had nine 8-inch/55-caliber
Mark 9 guns in three triple mounts, a superfiring pair fore and one
aft. For anti-aircraft defense, she had eight 5-inch/25-caliber guns
and two QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns. In 1945, she received
twenty-four 40 mm (1.57 in) Bofors guns, arrayed in six quad mounts.
Both ships were upgraded with nineteen 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon
cannons. The ship did not have torpedo tubes.
The Portland-class cruisers originally
had 1-inch (25 mm) armor for deck and side protection, but in
construction they were given belt armor between 3.25 in (83 mm) and 5
in (130 mm) (around the magazines) in thickness. Armor on the
bulkheads was between 2 in (51 mm) and 5.75 in (146 mm); that on the
deck was 2.5 in (64 mm), the barbettes 1.5 in (38 mm), the gun
turrets 2.5 in, and the conning tower 1.25 in (32 mm).
Portland-class cruisers were outfitted
as fleet flagships, with space for a flag officer and his staff. The
class also had two aircraft catapults amidships. They could carry
four aircraft. The total crew varied, with a regular designed
complement of 807 and a wartime complement of 952, which could
increase to 1,229 when the cruiser was a fleet flagship.
Indianapolis was laid down by New York
Shipbuilding Corporation on 31 March 1930. The hull and machinery
were provided by the builder. Indianapolis was launched on 7 November
1931, and commissioned on 15 November 1932. She was the second ship
named for the city of Indianapolis, following the cargo ship of the
same name in 1918. She was sponsored by Lucy M. Taggart, daughter of
former Mayor of Indianapolis Thomas Taggart.
Interwar period
Indianapolis in 1939
Under Captain John M. Smeallie,
Indianapolis undertook her shakedown cruise through the Atlantic and
into Guantánamo Bay, until 23 February 1932. Indianapolis then
transited the Panama Canal for training off the Chilean coast. After
overhaul at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, she sailed to Maine to
embark President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Campobello Island, New
Brunswick, on 1 July 1933. Getting underway the same day,
Indianapolis arrived at Annapolis, Maryland, on 3 July. She hosted
six members of the Cabinet, along with Roosevelt, during her stay
there. After disembarking Roosevelt, she departed Annapolis on 4
July, and steamed for Philadelphia Navy Yard.
On 6 September, she embarked United
States Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson, for an inspection of
the Navy in the Pacific. Indianapolis toured the Canal Zone, Hawaii,
and installations in San Pedro and San Diego. Swanson disembarked on
27 October. On 1 November 1933, she became the flagship of Scouting
Fleet 1, and maneuvered with the force off Long Beach, California.
She departed on 9 April 1934, and arrived at New York City, embarking
Roosevelt for a second time, for a naval review. She returned to Long
Beach on 9 November 1934 for more training with the Scouting Force.
She remained flagship of Scouting Force 1 until 1941. On 18 November
1936, she embarked Roosevelt for a third time at Charleston, South
Carolina, and conducted a goodwill cruise to South America with him.
She visited Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and
Montevideo, Uruguay, for state visits before returning to Charleston
and disembarking Roosevelt's party on 15 December. President
Roosevelt underwent his crossing the line ceremony during this cruise
on 26 November: an "intensive initiation lasting two days, but
we have all survived and are now full-fledged Shellbacks".
World War II
On 7 December 1941, Indianapolis,
leading Task Force 3, (Indianapolis and destroyer-minesweepers
Dorsey, Elliot, and Lamberton from MineDiv 6, and Southard and Long
from MineDiv 5) was conducting a mock bombardment at Johnston Atoll
during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Indianapolis was absorbed
into Task Force 12 and searched for the Japanese aircraft carriers
responsible for the attack, though the force did not locate them. She
returned to Pearl Harbor on 13 December and joined Task Force 11.
New Guinea campaign
With the task force, she steamed to the
South Pacific, to 350 mi (560 km) south of Rabaul, New Britain,
escorting the aircraft carrier Lexington. Late in the afternoon of 20
February 1942, the American ships were attacked by 18 Japanese
aircraft. Of these, 16 were shot down by aircraft from Lexington and
the other two were destroyed by anti-aircraft fire from the ships.
On 10 March, the task force, reinforced
by another force centered on the carrier Yorktown, attacked Lae and
Salamaua, New Guinea, where the Japanese were marshaling amphibious
forces. Attacking from the south through the Owen Stanley mountain
range, the US air forces surprised and inflicted heavy damage on
Japanese warships and transports, losing few aircraft. Indianapolis
returned to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for a refit before
escorting a convoy to Australia.
Aleutian Islands campaign
Indianapolis then headed for the North
Pacific to support American units in the Battle of the Aleutian
Islands. On 7 August, Indianapolis and the task force attacked Kiska
Island, a Japanese staging area. Although fog hindered observation,
Indianapolis and other ships fired their main guns into the bay.
Floatplanes from the cruisers reported Japanese ships sunk in the
harbor and damage to shore installations. After 15 minutes, Japanese
shore batteries returned fire before being destroyed by the ships'
main guns. Japanese submarines approaching the force were
depth-charged by American destroyers and Japanese seaplanes made an
ineffective bombing attack. In spite of a lack of information on the
Japanese forces, the operation was considered a success. US forces
later occupied Adak Island, providing a naval base farther from Dutch
Harbor on Unalaska Island.
1943 operations
In January 1943, Indianapolis supported
a landing and occupation on Amchitka, part of an Allied island
hopping strategy in the Aleutian Islands.
On the evening of 19 February,
Indianapolis led two destroyers on a patrol southwest of Attu Island,
searching for Japanese ships trying to reinforce Kiska and Attu. She
intercepted the Japanese 3,100-long-ton (3,150 t) cargo ship, Akagane
Maru laden with troops, munitions, and supplies. The cargo ship tried
to reply to the radio challenge but was shelled by Indianapolis.
Akagane Maru exploded and sank with all hands. Through mid-1943,
Indianapolis remained near the Aleutian Islands, escorting American
convoys and providing shore bombardments supporting amphibious
assaults. In May, the Allies captured Attu, then turned on Kiska,
thought to be the final Japanese holdout in the Aleutians. Allied
landings there began on 15 August, but the Japanese had already
abandoned the Aleutian Islands, unbeknownst to the Allies.
After refitting at Mare Island,
Indianapolis moved to Hawaii as flagship of Vice Admiral Raymond A.
Spruance, commanding the 5th Fleet. She sortied from Pearl Harbor on
10 November, with the main body of the Southern Attack Force for
Operation Galvanic, the invasion of the Gilbert Islands. On 19
November, Indianapolis bombarded Tarawa Atoll, and next day pounded
Makin (see Battle of Makin). The ship then returned to Tarawa as
fire-support for the landings. Her guns shot down an enemy plane and
shelled enemy strongpoints as landing parties fought Japanese
defenders in the Battle of Tarawa. She continued this role until the
island was secure three days later. The conquest of the Marshall
Islands followed victory in the Gilberts. Indianapolis was again 5th
Fleet flagship.
1944
The cruiser met other ships of her task
force at Tarawa, and on D-Day minus 1, 31 January 1944, she was one
of the cruisers that bombarded the islands of Kwajalein Atoll. The
shelling continued on D-Day, with Indianapolis suppressing two enemy
shore batteries. Next day, she destroyed a blockhouse and other shore
installations and supported advancing troops with a creeping barrage.
The ship entered Kwajalein Lagoon, on 4 February, and remained until
resistance disappeared (see Battle of Kwajalein).
In March and April, Indianapolis, still
flagship of the 5th Fleet, attacked the Western Carolines. Carrier
planes at the Palau Islands on 30–31 March, sank three destroyers,
17 freighters, five oilers and damaged 17 other ships. Airfields were
bombed and surrounding water mined. Yap and Ulithi were struck on 31
March, and Woleai on 1 April. Japanese planes attacked but were
driven off without damaging the American ships. Indianapolis shot
down her second plane, a torpedo bomber, and the Japanese lost 160
planes, including 46 on the ground. These attacks prevented Japanese
forces stationed in the Carolines from interfering with the US
landings on New Guinea.
In June, the 5th Fleet was busy with
the assault on the Mariana Islands. Raids on Saipan began with
carrier-based planes on 11 June, followed by surface bombardment, in
which Indianapolis had a major role, from 13 June (see Battle of
Saipan). On D-Day, 15 June, Admiral Spruance heard that battleships,
carriers, cruisers, and destroyers were headed south to relieve
threatened garrisons in the Marianas. Since amphibious operations at
Saipan had to be protected, Spruance could not withdraw too far.
Consequently, a fast carrier force was sent to meet this threat while
another force attacked Japanese air bases on Iwo Jima and Chichi
Jima, in the Bonin and Volcano Islands, bases for potential enemy air
attacks.
A combined US fleet fought the Japanese
on 19 June in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Japanese carrier
planes, which planned to use the airfields of Guam and Tinian to
refuel and rearm, were met by carrier planes and the guns of the
Allied escorting ships. That day, the U.S. Navy destroyed a reported
426 Japanese planes while losing 29. Indianapolis shot down one
torpedo plane. This day of aerial combat became known as the "Great
Marianas Turkey Shoot". With Japanese air opposition wiped out,
the US carrier planes sank Hiyō, two destroyers, and one tanker and
damaged others. Two other carriers, Taihō and Shōkaku, were sunk by
submarines.
Indianapolis returned to Saipan on 23
June to resume fire support and six days later moved to Tinian to
attack shore installations. Meanwhile, Guam had been taken, and
Indianapolis became the first ship to enter Apra Harbor since early
in the war. The ship operated in the Marianas for the next few weeks,
then moved to the Western Carolines, where further landings were
planned. From 12 to 29 September, she bombarded Peleliu, in the Palau
Group, before and after the landings. She then sailed to Manus
Island, in the Admiralty Islands, where she operated for 10 days
before returning to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California for
refitting.
1945
Overhauled, Indianapolis joined Vice
Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's fast carrier task force on 14 February
1945. Two days later, the task force launched an attack on Tokyo to
cover the landings on Iwo Jima, scheduled for 19 February. This was
the first carrier attack on mainland Japan since the Doolittle Raid.
The mission was to destroy Japanese air facilities and other
installations in the Home Islands. The fleet achieved complete
tactical surprise by approaching the Japanese coast under cover of
bad weather. The attacks were pressed home for two days. The U.S.
Navy lost 49 carrier planes while claiming 499 enemy planes, a
10-to-1 kill/loss ratio. The task force also sank a carrier, nine
coastal ships, a destroyer, two destroyer escorts, and a cargo ship.
They destroyed hangars, shops, aircraft installations, factories, and
other industrial targets.
Immediately after the strikes, the task
force raced to the Bonin Islands to support the landings on Iwo Jima.
The ship remained there until 1 March, protecting the invasion ships
and bombarding targets in support of the landings. Indianapolis
returned to VADM Mitscher's task force in time to strike Tokyo, again
on 25 February, and Hachijō, off the southern coast of Honshū, the
following day. Although weather was extremely bad, the American force
destroyed 158 planes and sank five small ships while pounding ground
installations and destroying trains.
The next target for the US forces was
Okinawa, in the Ryukyu Islands, which were in range of aircraft from
the Japanese mainland. The fast carrier force was tasked with
attacking airfields in southern Japan until they were incapable of
launching effective airborne opposition to the impending invasion.
The fast carrier force departed for Japan from Ulithi on 14 March. On
18 March, she launched an attack from a position 100 mi (160 km)
southeast of the island of Kyūshū. The attack targeted airfields on
Kyūshū, as well as ships of the Japanese fleet in the harbors of
Kobe and Kure, on southern Honshū. The Japanese located the American
task force on 21 March, sending 48 planes to attack the ships.
Twenty-four fighters from the task force intercepted and shot down
all the Japanese aircraft.
Indianapolis was assigned to Task Force
54 (TF 54) for the invasion of Okinawa. When TF 54 began pre-invasion
bombardment of Okinawa on 24 March, Indianapolis spent seven days
pouring 8-inch shells into the beach defenses. During this time,
enemy aircraft repeatedly attacked the American ships. Indianapolis
shot down six planes and damaged two others. On 31 March, the day
before the Tenth Army (combined U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps)
started its assault landings, the Indianapolis lookouts spotted a
Japanese Nakajima Ki-43 "Oscar" fighter as it emerged from
the morning twilight and dived vertically towards the bridge. The
ship's 20 mm guns opened fire, but within 15 seconds the plane was
over the ship. Tracers converged on it, causing it to swerve, but the
pilot managed to release his bomb from a height of 25 ft (7.6 m),
then crashed his plane into the sea near the port stern. The bomb
plummeted through the deck, into the crew's mess hall, down through
the berthing compartment, and through the fuel tanks before crashing
through the keel and exploding in the water underneath. The
concussion blew two gaping holes in the keel which flooded nearby
compartments, killing nine crewmen. The ship's bulkheads prevented
any progressive flooding. Indianapolis, settling slightly by the
stern and listing to port, steamed to a salvage ship for emergency
repairs. Here, inspection revealed that her propeller shafts were
damaged, her fuel tanks ruptured, and her water-distilling equipment
ruined. Indianapolis then steamed under her own power to the Mare
Island Naval Shipyard for repairs.
Transporting the atomic bomb
After major repairs and an overhaul,
Indianapolis received orders to undertake a top-secret mission:
transporting a "critical shipment" of material for the
first atomic bomb to Tinian Island. In its hold was loaded the
complete non-nuclear parts for a Little Boy gun-type atomic bomb unit
(L-11) and several hundred pounds of scientific instruments and
tools. Also on board was the bomb's enriched uranium "projectile",
in the form of 38.5-kilogram (85 lb) discs, which were kept inside a
lead-lined steel container that was bolted and chained to the floor
of Captain McVay's quarters for the duration of the journey. Two
representatives of the Manhattan Project, Major Robert R. Furman and
Dr. James F. Nolan, accompanied them on the journey incognito. Nolan,
the Chief Medical Officer for Project Y, was there to monitor the
uranium's radioactivity. Nolan was frequently seasick on the journey,
which he used as an excuse to surreptitiously monitor the container.
The Fat Man atomic bomb, used against
Nagasaki, was transported by air to Tinian. Other equipment necessary
for the atomic bomb mission, including "spare" non-nuclear
assemblies, had been previously sent to Tinian on other surface
ships. Ships were the preferred method for sending critical
materials, when time allowed for it, because the risk of loss was
considered smaller than going by air. While not particularly
radioactive by itself, the amount of enriched uranium in the shipment
was large enough to pose a criticality risk under certain
circumstances, such as being submerged in water (which acts as a
neutron moderator, decreasing the critical mass).
Indianapolis departed San Francisco's
Hunters Point Naval Shipyard on 16 July 1945, within hours of the
Trinity test in New Mexico. She set a speed record of 74+1⁄2 hours
from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor, an average speed of 29 kn (54
km/h; 33 mph). Arriving at Pearl Harbor on 19 July, she raced on
unaccompanied, delivering the atomic bomb components to Tinian on 26
July.
On the same day that Indianapolis
offloaded its cargo at Tinian, the remaining 25.6 kilograms (56 lb)
of enriched uranium used for the "target" piece of the bomb
was divided into three pieces and sent on three different C-54 cargo
planes from Albuquerque, New Mexico. By 29 July, all three had
arrived at Tinian and the next day the assembly of the L-11 atomic
bomb unit began. The weapon, which would be dropped on Hiroshima on
the morning of 6 August, would be inscribed with numerous autographs
and graffiti by ground crews who loaded it into the plane. One of
them read: "Greetings to the Emperor from the men of the
Indianapolis". Later General Groves learned that the ship was a
"very poor choice" to carry the expensive bomb components,
as she had "no underwater sound equipment, and was so designed
that a single torpedo was able to sink her quickly".
After its stop at Tinian, Indianapolis
then continued on its route to Guam, where a number of the crew who
had completed their tours of duty were relieved by other sailors.
Leaving Guam on 28 July, she began sailing toward Leyte, where her
crew was to receive training before continuing on to Okinawa to join
Vice Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf's Task Force 95.
Sinking
At 00:15 on 30 July 1945, Indianapolis
was struck on her starboard side by two Type 95 torpedoes, one in the
bow and one amidships, from the Japanese submarine I-58, captained by
Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto, who initially thought he had spotted
the New Mexico-class battleship Idaho. The explosions caused massive
damage. Indianapolis took on a heavy list (the ship had a great deal
of armament and gun-firing directors added as the war went on, and
was therefore top-heavy) and settled by the bow. Twelve minutes
later, she rolled completely over, then her stern rose into the air
and she sank. Some 300 of the 1,195 crewmen aboard went down with the
ship. With few lifeboats and many without life jackets, the remainder
of the crew was set adrift.
Rescue
Navy command did not know of the ship's
sinking until survivors were spotted in the open ocean three and a
half days later. At 11:25 on 2 August, a PV-1 Ventura flown by
Lieutenant Wilbur "Chuck" Gwinn and his copilot, Lieutenant
Warren Colwell, and a crew of three other men spotted the men adrift
while on a routine patrol flight. Gwinn reported his findings of up
to 150 men back to his base at Peleliu. He immediately dropped a life
raft, other life-saving equipment and radio transmitter. All air and
surface units capable of rescue operations were dispatched to the
scene at once.
First to arrive was Gwinn's commanding
officer, Lieutenant Richard Atteberry. He and his PV-1 crew relieved
Gwinn's crew, ordering them to return to base because of very low
fuel. Atteberry continued to circle the area and guided the arrival
on scene by an amphibious PBY-5A Catalina patrol plane flown by
Lieutenant Commander (USN) Robert Adrian Marks. Marks and his flight
crew spotted the survivors and dropped life rafts; one raft was
destroyed by the drop while others were too far away from the
exhausted crew. Against standing orders not to land in the open
ocean, Marks took a vote of his crew and decided to land the aircraft
in twelve-foot (3.7 m) swells. He was able to maneuver his craft to
pick up 56 survivors. Space in the plane was limited, so Marks had
men lashed to the wing with parachute cord. His actions rendered the
aircraft unflyable. After nightfall, the destroyer escort USS Cecil
J. Doyle, the first of seven rescue ships, used its searchlight as a
beacon and instilled hope in those still in the water. Cecil J. Doyle
and six other ships picked up the remaining survivors. After the
rescue, Marks' plane was sunk by Cecil J. Doyle as it could not be
recovered.
Many of the survivors were injured. All
suffered from lack of food and water (leading to dehydration and
hypernatremia; some found rations, such as Spam and crackers, among
the flotsam of Indianapolis), exposure to the elements (dehydration
from the hot sun during the day and hypothermia at night, as well as
severe desquamation due to continued exposure to saltwater and bunker
oil), and shark attacks, while some killed themselves. Other
survivors were found in various states of delirium or suffered from
hallucinations. Only 316 of the 890 men set adrift after the sinking
survived. Two of the rescued survivors, Robert Lee Shipman and
Frederick Harrison, died in August 1945.
Hundreds of sharks were apparently
drawn to the wreck. After picking off the dead and wounded, they
began attacking survivors. The number of deaths attributed to sharks
ranges from a few dozen to 150.
Ocean of Fear, a 2007 documentary film
that was part of Discovery Channel's Shark Week, states that the
sinking of Indianapolis resulted in the most shark attacks on humans
in history, attributing the attacks to the oceanic whitetip shark
species. Tiger sharks may also have killed some sailors. The same
show attributed most of the deaths on Indianapolis to exposure, salt
poisoning, and thirst/dehydration, with the dead being dragged off by
sharks.
Navy failure to learn of the sinking
The Headquarters of Commander Marianas
on Guam and of the Commander Philippine Sea Frontier on Leyte kept
Operations plotting boards on which were plotted the positions of all
vessels with which the headquarters were concerned. However, it was
assumed that ships as large as Indianapolis would reach their
destinations on time, unless reported otherwise. Therefore, their
positions were based on predictions and not on reports. On 31 July,
when she should have arrived at Leyte, Indianapolis was removed from
the board in the headquarters of Commander Marianas. She was also
recorded as having arrived at Leyte by the headquarters of Commander
Philippine Sea Frontier. Lieutenant Stuart B. Gibson, the operations
officer under the Port Director, Tacloban, was the officer blamed for
not tracking the movements of Indianapolis. The vessel's failure to
arrive on schedule was known at once to Gibson, who failed to
investigate the matter and made no immediate report of the fact to
his superiors. It was common for expected vessels to not arrive, and
there was no directive for the port director to report the nonarrival
of any ship. Gibson received a letter of reprimand in connection with
the incident. The acting commander and operations officer of the
Philippine Sea Frontier also received reprimands, while Gibson's
immediate superior received a letter of admonition (a less severe
military punishment than a reprimand). These letters were later
withdrawn.
Survivors of Indianapolis on Guam in
August 1945
In the first official statement, the
Navy said that distress calls "were keyed by radio operators and
possibly were actually transmitted" but that "no evidence
has been developed that any distress message from the ship was
received by any ship, aircraft or shore station". Declassified
records later showed that three stations received the signals but
none acted upon the call. One commander was drunk, another had
ordered his men not to disturb him, and a third thought it was a
Japanese trap.
Immediately prior to the attack, the
seas had been moderate, the visibility fluctuating but poor in
general, and Indianapolis had been steaming at 17 kn (20 mph; 31
km/h). When the ship failed to reach Leyte on 31 July, as scheduled,
no report was made that she was overdue. From lessons learned by the
disaster, the Navy created the Movement Report System to prevent such
disasters in the future.
Court-martial of Captain McVay
Captain Charles B. McVay III, who had
commanded Indianapolis since November 1944 through several battles,
survived the sinking, though he was one of the last to abandon ship,
and was among those rescued days later. In November 1945, he was
court-martialed on two charges: failing to order his men to abandon
ship and hazarding the ship. Cleared of the charge of failing to
order abandon ship, McVay was convicted of "hazarding his ship
by failing to zigzag". Several aspects of the court-martial were
controversial. There was evidence that the Navy itself had placed the
ship in harm's way. McVay's orders were to "zigzag at his
discretion, weather permitting"; however, McVay was not informed
that a Japanese submarine was operating in the vicinity of his route
from Guam to Leyte. Further, Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto,
commanding officer of I-58, wrote in his testimony to Senator John
Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, that
zigzagging would have made no difference. Fleet Admiral Chester
Nimitz remitted McVay's sentence and restored him to active duty.
McVay retired in 1949 as a rear admiral.
While many of Indianapolis's survivors
said McVay was not to blame for the sinking, the families of some of
the men who died thought otherwise: "Merry Christmas! Our
family's holiday would be a lot merrier if you hadn't killed my son",
read one piece of mail. The guilt that was placed on his shoulders
mounted until he killed himself in 1968, aged 70.
McVay's record cleared
In 1996, sixth-grade student Hunter
Scott began his research on the sinking of Indianapolis for a class
history project. Scott's effort led to an increase in national
publicity, which got the attention of retired Congressional lobbyist
Michael Monroney, who had been scheduled to be assigned to
Indianapolis before she shipped out on her final voyage. Around the
same time, Captain William J. Toti, USN, final commanding officer of
the fast attack nuclear submarine USS Indianapolis (SSN-697) received
an appeal from several Indianapolis survivors to assist with the
exoneration effort. Toti then demonstrated through analysis that the
tactic of zigzagging would not have spared the Indianapolis from at
least one torpedo hit by the I-58. Monroney brought the matter to the
attention of his son-in-law, who was on the staff of Senator Bob
Smith (R, NH) and was able to get the issue in front of Smith. Smith
convinced Senator John Warner (R, VA) to hold hearings on the Senate
Armed Services Committee on 14 September 1999, in which several
Indianapolis survivors testified. Also called to testify in the
hearings were Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Donald Pilling,
Director of the Naval History Center Dr. William Dudley, and the
Judge Advocate General of the Navy Rear Admiral John Hutson. The
hearings were reported to sway Senator Warner into allowing a "Sense
of Congress" resolution clearing Captain McVay's name to be
passed to full Congress for a vote. In October 2000, the United
States Congress passed a resolution that Captain McVay's record
should state that "he is exonerated for the loss of
Indianapolis". President Bill Clinton also signed the
resolution. The resolution noted that, although several hundred ships
of the U.S. Navy were lost in combat during World War II, McVay was
the only captain to be court-martialed for the loss of his ship due
to enemy action in combat. In July 2001, United States Secretary of
the Navy Gordon England directed Captain Toti to enter the
Congressional language into McVay's official Navy service record,
clearing him of all wrongdoing. Scott, the sixth-grade student, later
in his life joined the Navy and became a naval aviator, served as the
protocol officer for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the
Pentagon, and currently holds the rank of commander.
Commanders
Commanders of USS Indianapolis:
Rank Name
Date
Captain John M. Smeallie 15 November
1932 – 10 December 1934
Captain William S. McClintic 10
December 1934 – 16 March 1936
Captain Henry Kent Hewitt 16 March 1936
– 5 June 1937
Captain Thomas C. Kinkaid 5 June 1937 –
1 July 1938
Captain John F. Shafroth Jr. 1 July
1938 – 1 October 1941
Captain Edward Hanson 1 October 1941 –
11 July 1942
Captain Morton L. Deyo 11 July 1942 –
12 January 1943
Captain Nicholas Vytlacil 12 January
1943 – 30 July 1943
Captain Einar R. Johnson 30 July 1943 –
18 November 1944
Captain Charles B. McVay III 18
November 1944 – 30 July 1945
Awards
Silver starSilver star
Combat Action Ribbon
American Defense Service Medal with
fleet clasp
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with ten
battle stars[50]
American Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Wreck discovery
The wreck of Indianapolis is in the
Philippine Sea. In July–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 2005, a second expedition was mounted to find the wreck.
National Geographic covered the story and released it in July.
Submersibles were launched to find any sign of wreckage, although
they only located pieces of metal that were not proven conclusively
to be from the ship.
In July 2016, new information emerged
regarding the possible location of Indianapolis when naval records
were discovered indicating that the tank landing ship LST-779
recorded passing by Indianapolis 11 hours before the torpedoes
struck. This information allowed researchers to determine that
Indianapolis had been moving faster and was therefore farther west
than previously assumed, as well as slightly off the route taken.
Using this information, National Geographic planned to mount an
expedition to search for the wreck in the summer of 2017. Reports
estimated that Indianapolis was actually 25 miles (40 km) west of the
reported sinking position, in water over three miles (4,800 m) deep,
and likely on the side of an underwater mountain.
A year after the discovery of the
records, the wreck was located by Paul Allen's "USS Indianapolis
Project" aboard the research vessel Petrel on 19 August 2017,
at a depth of 18,000 ft (5,500 m). The wreck was revealed to the
public on 13 September 2017, in a live TV show on PBS titled "USS
Indianapolis, Live from the Deep", starring Miles O'Brien and
also including now-retired Captain William Toti. The wreck is
well-preserved due to the great depth at which Indianapolis rests,
among the rocky mountain ranges of the North Philippine Sea.
In September 2017, a map detailing the
wreckage was released. The main part of the wreck lies in an enormous
impact crater; her bow, which broke off before the ship sank, lies
1.5 miles (2.4 km) east. The two forward 8-inch gun turrets, which
also broke off on the surface and mark the ship's last position on
the surface, lie 0.5 miles (0.80 km) east of the main wreck. The
bridge, which broke off the ship due to the torpedoes, lies in a
debris field near the forward guns. The single 8-inch gun turret on
the stern remains in place, though the stern's roof collapsed over
itself. Airplane wreckage from the ship lies about 0.6 miles (0.97
km) north of the main part of the wreck.The full exposition of the
method by which the wreck was located and documented was released in
another PBS documentary on 8 January 2019 titled USS Indianapolis:
The Final Chapter.
Reunions
Since 1960, surviving crew members met
for reunions in Indianapolis. Fourteen of the thirty-two remaining
survivors attended the 70th reunion, held 23–26 July 2015. Held
only sporadically at first, then biannually, the reunions were later
held annually. By 2015 most of the survivors were in their nineties,
voted every year whether to continue. Seven out of twenty remaining
survivors attended the 2017 reunion. With the death of Cleatus Lebow
on 29 September 2022,[64] there is only one crew member still alive,
Harold Bray.
Memorials
USS Indianapolis National Memorial in
Indianapolis, Indiana, 2024
The USS Indianapolis Museum had its
grand opening on 7 July 2007, with its gallery in the Indiana War
Memorial Museum at the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza.
The USS Indianapolis National Memorial
was dedicated on 2 August 1995. It is located in Indianapolis,
Indiana, in the city's Canal and White River State Park cultural
district. The heavy cruiser is depicted in limestone and granite and
sits adjacent to the downtown canal. The crewmembers' names are
listed on the monument, with special notations for those who died. It
was designated a national memorial by Congress in 1993.
In May 2011, the I-465 beltway around
Indianapolis was named the USS Indianapolis Memorial Highway.
USS Indianapolis is the name of the
Navy's combat training pool, located at RTC Great Lakes. This
facility is used during Navy boot camp to test recruit swimming
ability, and to instruct recruits who lack those skills. The building
was dedicated to those who lost their lives at sea, with the intent
of providing training to recruits on how to survive until a rescue is
made.
Some material relating to Indianapolis
is held by the Indiana State Museum. Her bell and a commissioning
pennant were formerly located at Heslar Naval Armory but currently
reside at the Indiana War Memorial Museum.
In popular culture
In a scene in the 1975 movie Jaws, one
of the main characters, Quint, who is a survivor of Indianapolis,
recounts the sinking and shark attacks. This scene brought
Indianapolis, and her sinking, into a much wider public spotlight 30
years after the events occurred. The 2019 play The Shark Is Broken,
which opened on Broadway in 2023, both explores Robert Shaw (Quint's
actor) rewriting the dialogue to the scene, as well as doing a full
rendition of the famous scene at the end.
The sinking is the subject of the 1991
made-for-TV film Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S.
Indianapolis, starring Stacy Keach.
The 2014 novel Shark, by English writer
Will Self, is based on the sinking of Indianapolis.
The 2016 film USS Indianapolis: Men of
Courage, directed by Mario Van Peebles and starring Nicolas Cage, is
based on the sinking.
Notes
While the loss of Indianapolis is the
worst-ever loss of life from a single ship sinking at sea for the
U.S. Navy, it is not the worst naval disaster for the U.S. Navy nor
the United States military as a whole. Earlier in World War II, the
battleship USS Arizona and the troopship HMT Rohna were lost with
more American lives, but Arizona was in port at Pearl Harbor when
sunk and Rohna was primarily carrying United States Army personnel,
not U.S. Navy personnel, when it was sunk at sea. The complement of
the aircraft carrier USS Franklin would also suffer upwards of 900
killed at sea throughout the war, although Franklin was not sunk.
Additionally, the accidental loss of the steamboat Sultana, which
exploded on the Mississippi River while carrying Union soldiers in
the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War, was the worst
maritime disaster in U.S. history. The 1,700 U.S. military prisoners
of war from the Philippines (out of a total of 1,773 Allied troops
missing and killed) who died on the sunken Japanese hell ship Arisan
Maru from a torpedo launched by the submarine USS Shark was the
greatest loss of life from a single ship in U.S. military history.
