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World War II: A chronology

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USS Indianapolis

Four of the survivors of the USS Indianapolis tragedy examine a model of the ship

In the film Jaws, the character 'Quint', played by Robert Shaw, describes how his vendetta against sharks was based on a wartime experience of being sunk and left floating in the ocean under attack by sharks. Quint was really telling the story of the USS Indianapolis.

Goodwill
Built in 1932, the Indianapolis spent part of the time before the outbreak of World War II ferrying US President Franklin D Roosevelt on goodwill tours, notably the 'Good Neighbor' cruise to South America in 1936.

At the outbreak of war, Indianapolis was in the Pacific, assigned to Task Force 11. In early 1942, it took part in operations in the waters around New Britain and New Guinea, and saw action in the Aleutians from August 1942 to spring 1943. Later that year, it flew the flag of Vice Admiral Raymond Spruance, sailing to the Gilbert Islands, the Marshalls, the Carolines and, in September, the Marianas.

Kamikaze bomb
Detailed to Vice Admiral Marc A Mitscher's fast-carrier attack force, on 31 March 1945 it took part in operations against the Japanese Home Islands off Okinawa. It was hit by a kamikaze bomb, which fortunately exploded after passing through the bottom of the hull. The Indianapolis was able to return to San Francisco under its own speed.

When repairs were complete, the ship was ordered to carry to Tinian Island the trigger and radioactive core of the atom bomb destined to be dropped on Hiroshima. Under Captain Charles Butler McVay III, it sailed from Farallon Light at San Francisco to Diamond Head on the Hawaiian island of Oahu in a record 74.5 hours. Stopping briefly for fuel at Pearl Harbor, the Indianapolis proceeded to Tinian, reaching it on 26 July.

Torpedoes
After discharging its top-secret cargo, the ship, with a complement of 1,196 crew, left for Guam and then Leyte in the Philippines, which had been liberated only a few weeks before. It was to join the American invasion fleet bound for Japan.

Shortly before midnight on the night of 29/30 July, Indianapolis was spotted by the Japanese submarine I-58 under Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto. At 12.14am, the Japanese fired six torpedoes: one blew off the bow and another hit just below the bridge. Indianapolis – then lying at 12º02'N, 134º48'E – sank in 12 minutes, taking about 300 crew with it.

They were the lucky ones. Through a series of mistakes, the ship was not designated as overdue and no search was initiated. The men in the water – approximately 900 floating in life jackets, without food or water – had to wait almost three days before being accidentally spotted by a passing American aircraft on routine patrol on 2 August. When rescue finally arrived, just 317 men (some sources say 316) were still alive, including Captain McVay – 580 had been lost to the sea and the sharks. It had been the US Navy's second-greatest loss of life from a single ship.

Sharks
Expecting a rescue attempt at any moment, the survivors had waited ... and waited. Scorched by the midday sun, frozen at night, the men had floated in a mile-long slick of poisonous fuel until sharks had begun to attack them. And, attracted by the smell of blood, more and more sharks had arrived on the scene to feed ...

For four days and nights, the men had been left in the sea, abandoned by the US Navy, which, in one of the greatest blunders of World War II, had not even noticed that one of their biggest ships had gone missing.

Court martial and suicide
As if what the great maritime historian Samuel Eliot Morison described as 'routine stupidity and unnecessary suffering' were not enough, the US Navy proceeded to court-martial Captain McVay for failing to order a zigzag course (which he admitted, but defended) and for not abandoning ship sooner. Among the prosecution's star witnesses was Commander Hashimoto, who had sunk the ship.

McVay was found guilty on the first charge and acquitted of the second. In 1968, he committed suicide. In July 2001, he was posthumously exonerated by the Navy.

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Find out more

Websites

USS Indianapolis: Still at Sea
www.ussindianapolis.org/
Official site of the survivors' organisation. Excellent in all respects and very moving.

USS Indianapolis (CA-35), 1932-1945, Selected Views
www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-i/
ca35.htm
Photographs of the Indianapolis, from the archives of the Naval Historical Center.

Oral History – The Sinking of USS Indianapolis
www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq30-7.htm
The interview that Captain McVay gave the US Navy after the sinking.

Oral History – The Sinking of USS Indianapolis
www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq30-8.htm
Interrogation of Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto, former commanding officer of the Japanese submarine I-58 regarding the sinking of USS Indianapolis, as well as Japanese navy tactics and technology.

The Search for the USS Indianapolis
www.discovery.com/exp/indianapolis/
indianapolis.html
Website by the Discovery Channel. Details of the final voyage, survivors' stories and information on the fate of Captain McVay.

Books

In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton (Bantam, 2002) £6.99
On 30 July 1945 the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. By the time rescue arrived, only 317 men were left alive. Interweaving the stories of some of these survivors, Doug Stanton brings this human drama to life. The definitive account of a near-forgotten chapter in the history of the last war.

Fatal Voyage: The sinking of the USS Indianapolis by Dan Kurzman (Broadway Books, 2001). US edition only; may be available from online bookshops.
Recounts one of the worst US naval disasters, explains how bureaucracy prevented a timely rescue, and describes the five-day ordeal that only a quarter of the crew survived.

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