At the end of July 1945, the largest marine disaster in the history of the US naval forces occurred. Shortly before the end of the war, the American cruiser Indianapolis was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine. Two torpedoes fired by the submarine claimed the lives of more than nine hundred sailors.
Navy Volunteers
After the nightmare that Japanese aviation arranged on December 7, 1941 at the American naval base Pearl Harlbor, the United States was drawn into the bloody massacre of World War II. Among the allied countries, they were given an important role in the conduct of hostilities at sea, and thousands of American guys, inspired by the stream of patriotic speeches that poured on them from radio sets and from the pages of newspapers, volunteered for the fleet.
A special reason for pride was for those whose duty station was the cruiser USS Indianapolis, and this is no coincidence. The warship launched on November 15, 1932, managed to become one of the most famous and prestigious ships. He was always preferred by President Theodore Roosevelt in his sea voyages. Crossing the ocean on board, he made goodwill visits. The deck of the cruiser also remembered many members of the royal families and world leaders.
The ship and its captain
The cruiser even in its size corresponded to such an exceptional situation. Suffice it to say that on the deck it was easy to place two football fields. The total length was 186 m, and the displacement was 12,775 tons. 1269 people served on this giant. The main striking force was three nasal guns with a caliber of 203 mm. In addition, his arsenal included a large number of airborne guns and several anti-aircraft installations.
He also had worthy captains who knew how to accurately and on time fulfill any order of the high command, which managed to create a good reputation for the ship. The last of these was Charles Butler McVey, appointed on December 18, 1944, a young and brilliantly proven officer. It was hard to imagine that it was he who was destined to lead the Indianapolis cruiser on his last trip.
On the eve of the end of the war
As a result of active hostilities in the spring of 1944, the ships of the American fleet were only a few miles off the coast of Japan. For a decisive attack, they needed to take possession of the ideal bridgehead - Okinawa Island. The awareness of the near end of the war and the imminent victory raised the morale of the sailors and doubled their strength.
At the same time, their opponents were in an extremely difficult position. The Japanese not only destroyed a large part of the fleet and spent ammunition, but all the available manpower reserve was coming to an end. In this critical situation, their command decided to introduce kamikaze — suicide pilots, fanatics, ready to give their lives for the emperor.
A year earlier, a detachment of Japanese aircraft stuffed with explosives and piloted by voluntary suicides attacked American warships during the battle for the Philippines. Then, and in the next few months, more than two thousand aircraft-shells made sorties, causing significant damage to the US Navy. In view of the current situation, the emperor gave the order to use these weapons again.
Suicide attack
According to documents, the Indianapolis cruiser was attacked by suicide bombers in the early hours of March 31. It was extremely difficult to repulse it, because it was possible to stop the kamikaze only by shooting the plane in the air, and this was not always possible.
A few minutes after the start of the battle, one of the aircraft, diving from the clouds hanging over the sea, crashed into the bow of the cruiser. The ensuing explosion claimed the lives of nine sailors, and the damage caused by it forced the command to remove the ship from combat duty and send it for repair to the docks of San Francisco. But, in spite of everything, everyone was in a good mood, because the last year of the war was going on - 1945.
Indianapolis Cruiser Fulfills Secret Order
As the surviving participants in those events later told, most of the crew were sure that the war was over for them and that the surrender of Japan would be signed before the repair was completed. But fate decreed otherwise. In early July, when the fighting was still ongoing, the captain received an order, on the basis of which the cruiser of the US Navy Indianapolis was to take on board a particularly secret cargo and deliver it to the specified destination.
Soon, two containers were lifted onto the ship, to which armed guard was immediately assigned. In those days, none of the sailors knew what this mysterious load contained, and most of them were never destined to find out. But having managed to complete the repair, the cruiser, according to the order, went to sea and headed for Hawaii. He walked at a maximum speed of thirty-four knots, covering the entire path in three days.
Carriers of atomic death
Having reached the destination of travel, Captain McVey received a radiogram to continue on to the Mariana Islands, which were two thousand miles to the west. The final destination was the island of Tinian included in their number. There, with the utmost care, the containers were removed from the deck and brought ashore.
Now it’s no secret to anyone that they contained uranium cores for atomic bombs, one of which was dropped on Hiroshima ten days later, and its explosion, which, according to conservative estimates, destroyed one hundred and sixty thousand people, made the world shudder. But then no one knew this yet, and humanity did not imagine all the consequences of a nuclear apocalypse. It was still a military secret.
The death of the Indianapolis cruiser was preceded by an order received by the captain immediately after unloading the containers. He was instructed to follow the western part of the Pacific Ocean to the island of Guam, and then to the Philippines. The war ended, and the next order was perceived by the Indianopolis crew as an invitation to a boat trip, not fraught with any danger.
Captain McVey's mistake
The Indianapolis cruiser left Docks San Francisco on July 16, and on the same day, a submarine, number I-58, inaudibly departed from the pier of the Japanese naval base. Her captain Mochitsura Hashimoto was an experienced submariner who sailed through the war and used to face death. This time, he led his ship to hunt for the Americans, whom the hunch of an imminent victory often deprived of elementary caution.
According to the established rules, surface ships in order to avoid being detected by enemy submarines must move in zigzags. This is exactly what Captain McVey led his ships throughout the war, but the victory euphoria that reigned around played a cruel joke with him. Since there was no evidence of the presence of enemy submarines in the area, he neglected the usual precaution. This criminal frivolity later became a nightmare that haunted him until the end of his life.
Submarine chaser
Meanwhile, the echo sounders of the Japanese submarine caught the sound made by the cruiser's propellers, and this was immediately reported to the commander. Mochitsura Hashimoto ordered to prepare torpedoes for battle and follow the ship, choosing the best moment for the attack. For the cruiser’s crew, this campaign was an ordinary routine, and no one even suspected that their ship was being pursued by an enemy submarine. This allowed the Japanese to secretly follow the Americans for several more miles.
Finally, when the distance allowed for a combat launch with sufficient confidence in the hit, the Japanese submarine fired two torpedoes at the cruiser. A minute later, Hashimoto saw through the eyepieces of the periscope a water fountain soaring towards the sky. This testified to the fact that one of them reached the goal. Having completed the combat mission, the submarine hid in the depths of the ocean as imperceptibly as it appeared.
Catastrophe
Yes, indeed, it was a direct hit on the trouble of the sailors. The explosion that occurred in the engine room area destroyed the entire team in it. Water poured into the resulting hole, and, despite its enormous size, the heavy cruiser Indianapolis began to roll on its right side. In this situation, a catastrophe was inevitable, and Captain McVey ordered the crew to leave the ship.
The attack of the submarine, which came as a complete surprise to everyone, the explosion and the fateful team that followed it became the causes of panic and chaos that engulfed the sinking ship. One thousand two hundred crew members simultaneously sought salvation, putting on life vests and throwing themselves into the water on the go. Surprisingly, it turned out that there weren’t enough emergency floating facilities for everyone - their number did not match the crew size. For this reason, most sailors, while waiting for help, were doomed to a long stay in the water.
The beginning of a four-day nightmare
Caught in the midst of a huge oil stain spreading around a wrecked cruiser, they witnessed the death of a ship that had only recently been considered the beauty and pride of the American fleet. In front of their eyes, the cruiser slowly capsized to one side, the bow completely went under water, causing the stern to go up, and finally, the whole ship, as if having exhausted its last forces in the fight against the ocean, had sunk in depth.
On this day, for the nine hundred sailors who survived the torpedo attack of the Japanese submarine and ended up in the middle of the ocean without boats, without drinking water and food, a real tragedy began to unfold. Many were in a state of shock. Cries for help came from all sides, but there was no one to render it. In order to somehow cheer up the team, the captain tried to assure everyone that they were on one of the main sea lanes and would undoubtedly be discovered soon.
However, everything turned out differently. Since the ship’s radio station was damaged by the explosion and it was not possible to send a distress signal in time, the fleet command did not even suspect what had happened. On the island of Guam, where the cruiser followed, his absence was explained by a possible change in course and did not raise an alarm. As a result, four days passed before those in distress were accidentally spotted by an American bomber on a patrol flight in the area.
Death among the sharks
But only a few survived to this day. In addition to thirst, hunger and hypothermia, sailors in the open ocean faced another terrible danger - sharks. At first, several single fins appeared on the surface of the water, then their number increased, and soon the entire space around the sailors literally teeming with them. Among the people began to panic. No one knew what to do and how to defend themselves against these ruthless ocean predators.
And the sharks tightened around the ring around their victims. They either surfaced, lifting their open mouths high above the surface, then again went deep. Suddenly, blocking the sound of the waves, a piercing human scream rang out, and the water became stained with blood. This served as a signal for the remaining sharks. They began to grab the helpless people and still alive to carry in depth.
Continuation of the tragedy
The infernal feast then ceased, then resumed within three days. Of the nine hundred sailors who ended up in the water after the tragedy that occurred with the Indianapolis cruiser, the United States Navy, almost half were victims of sharks.
But soon another danger was added to this danger. The fact is that life jackets, thanks to which sailors continued to stay on the water, were designed for three days. Having exhausted their resources, they were saturated with water and lost buoyancy. Thus, death became inevitable.
Rescuers Arrival
Only on August 2, that is, on the fourth day of the tragedy, those few who were still alive heard the sound of an airplane above their heads. The pilot who discovered them immediately reported to the headquarters, and from that moment the rescue operation began. Before the main ships approached the place where the Indianapolis cruiser disaster occurred, a seaplane arrived and, making a risky landing among the foaming waves, became a kind of marina for everyone who managed to survive.
Soon two ships approached the scene of the tragedy - the USS Bassett destroyer and the USS Tranquility hospital ship, which delivered the survivors to Guam, where they received medical assistance. Of the 1,189 people on board, only 316 survived. For the rest of the sailors, the wreck of the Indianapolis cruiser cost their lives. Only 17 days remained until the end of the war.
Tribunal verdict
The tragedy of the cruiser Indianapolis caused a wide resonance among the American and world public. Having barely survived the horrors of war, people demanded to immediately find and punish the perpetrators of the incident. The Ministry of Defense demanded to bring Captain McVay to justice, incriminating him with criminal negligence, as a result of which the vessel did not commit the zigzag motion prescribed in such cases and became easy prey for the enemy submarine.
By a decision of the tribunal on December 19, 1945, the captain of the cruiser Indianapolis was demoted, but escaped prison. It is curious that the former commander of the Japanese submarine Mochitsur Hashimoto, the one who sent the unfortunate cruiser to the bottom, was invited as a witness in the case. The war ended, and former enemies now resolved important legal issues together.
Captain's personal tragedy
The verdict handed down by the tribunal was the cause of much controversy. At all levels, voices were heard accusing the fleet command of wanting to blame the death of the Indianopolis cruiser on one McVey and thereby avoid the share of responsibility that fell on them. It ended, however, in a few months that Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz reinstated him in his personal rank by decree, and after another four years quietly and quietly sent him to retire.
However, it was he who ultimately was destined to become another victim, which led to the death of the cruiser Indianapolis. The story of his death was in itself a tragedy. It is known that over the next years McVey regularly received letters from family members of sailors for whose death he was accused. Despite the fact that he was officially released from liability, many considered him the main culprit of what happened. Obviously, the voice of his conscience echoed these accusations. Unable to overcome moral torment, in 1968 Captain McVey shot himself.
The story of the Indianapolis cruiser again became a topic of discussion in 2000, when the US Congress passed a resolution on the basis of which all charges brought against McVey were completely dropped. This document was approved by his signature, President of America Bill Clinton, then the corresponding entry was made in the personal file of the captain, which was stored in the archive of the Navy.
In the city of Indianopolis, whose name was the dead cruiser, a memorial was created in his honor. Once every two years, on July 30, the day the Japanese torpedo put an end to the ship’s combat path, all surviving participants in the events of those days come to the monument to once again share the pain of general loss. But time is inexorable, and every year they are becoming less and less.