Okla-homey
7/29/2009, 05:54 AM
July 29, 1945 Japanese sink the USS Indianapolis
http://img283.imageshack.us/img283/4199/bfatefulvoyage2wr.jpg
64 years ago on this day in 1945, an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine sank the American cruiser USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen in the worst single ship loss in the history of the U.S. Navy.
As a prelude to a proposed invasion of the Japanese mainland, scheduled for November 1, U.S. forces bombed the Japanese home islands with both Navy and Army Air Forces aircraft, as well as blowing Japanese warships out of the water. The end was near for Imperial Japan, but it was determined to go down fighting.
Just before midnight of the 29th, Indianapolis, an American cruiser that was the flagship of the Fifth Fleet, was on its way, unescorted, to Guam, then Okinawa. She never made it. She was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. That sub was commanded by a Japanese lieutenant who had also participated in the Pearl Harbor attacks.
http://img283.imageshack.us/img283/4954/indybutl6yy.gif
There were 1,196 crewmen onboard Indianapolis; over 350 died upon impact of the torpedo or went down with the ship. More than 800 went into the Pacific. Of those, approximately 50 died that first night in the water from injuries suffered in the torpedo explosion; the remaining seamen were left to flounder in the Pacific, fend off sharks, drink sea water (which drove some insane), and wait to be rescued.
Because there was no time for a distress signal before Indianapolis went down, it was 84 hours before help arrived. This was despite the fact that American naval headquarters had intercepted a message on July 30 from the Japanese sub commander responsible for sinking Indianapolis, describing the type of ship sunk and its location. (The Americans assumed it was an exaggerated boast and didn't bother to follow up.)
Only 318 survived; the rest were eaten by sharks or drowned. The Indianapolis's skipper, Captain Charles McVay, was the only officer ever to be court-martialed for the loss of a ship during wartime in the history of the U.S. Navy.
McVay had neglected to order routine anti-submarine procedures during Indy's voyage which well may have prevented her loss to the Japanese submarine.
http://img283.imageshack.us/img283/5853/monunight2dc.jpg
Memorial in Indianapolis
Had the attack happened only three days earlier, Indianapolis would have been sunk carrying special cargo - the first atomic bomb, which it delivered to Tinian Island, northeast of Guam, for scientists to assemble.
As an aside, Peter Benchley's fictional character "Quint" told the Indianapolis story aboard his fishing boat as he and his companions sought the man-eating great white shark in "Jaws."
http://img283.imageshack.us/img283/5741/jaws13ze.jpg
"Quint"
Years after the loss of Indianapolis, the surviving crewmembers, assisted by the captain of the Japanese sub which sank her, petitioned Congress to exonerate Captain McVay which they did in 2001. They all believed that McVay's failure to "zig-zag" his ship did not contribute to her loss or facilitate the Japanese task of sinking her.
Their view was "someone had to take a fall in the wake of this disaster, and McVay was the most logical target"There is no overturning or set aside of a court-martial conviction under the UCMJ, but Congress's formal resolution went a long way to clear the name of Captain McVay.
The text of letter to Congress from the Japanese sub commander who sank Indianapolis follows:
"November 24, 1999
Attn: The Honorable John W. Warner
Chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee
Russell Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
I hear that your legislature is considering resolutions which would clear the name of the late Charles Butler McVay III, captain of the USS Indianapolis which was sunk on July 30, 1945, by torpedoes fired from the submarine which was under my command.
I do not understand why Captain McVay was court-martialed. I do not understand why he was convicted on the charge of hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag because I would have been able to launch a successful torpedo attack against his ship whether it had been zigzagging or not.
I have met may of your brave men who survived the sinking of the Indianapolis. I would like to join them in urging that your national legislature clear their captain's name.
Our peoples have forgiven each other for that terrible war and its consequences. Perhaps it is time your peoples forgave Captain McVay for the humiliation of his unjust conviction.
Mochitsura Hashimoto
former captain of I-58
Japanese Navy in WWII
Umenomiya Taisha
30 Fukeno Kawa Machi, Umezu
Ukyo-ku, Kyoto 615-0921, Japan"
USS Indianapolis Survivors Association (http://www.ussindianapolis.org/index.htm)
http://img312.imageshack.us/img312/6224/insane7zo0wr.jpg
http://img283.imageshack.us/img283/4199/bfatefulvoyage2wr.jpg
64 years ago on this day in 1945, an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine sank the American cruiser USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen in the worst single ship loss in the history of the U.S. Navy.
As a prelude to a proposed invasion of the Japanese mainland, scheduled for November 1, U.S. forces bombed the Japanese home islands with both Navy and Army Air Forces aircraft, as well as blowing Japanese warships out of the water. The end was near for Imperial Japan, but it was determined to go down fighting.
Just before midnight of the 29th, Indianapolis, an American cruiser that was the flagship of the Fifth Fleet, was on its way, unescorted, to Guam, then Okinawa. She never made it. She was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. That sub was commanded by a Japanese lieutenant who had also participated in the Pearl Harbor attacks.
http://img283.imageshack.us/img283/4954/indybutl6yy.gif
There were 1,196 crewmen onboard Indianapolis; over 350 died upon impact of the torpedo or went down with the ship. More than 800 went into the Pacific. Of those, approximately 50 died that first night in the water from injuries suffered in the torpedo explosion; the remaining seamen were left to flounder in the Pacific, fend off sharks, drink sea water (which drove some insane), and wait to be rescued.
Because there was no time for a distress signal before Indianapolis went down, it was 84 hours before help arrived. This was despite the fact that American naval headquarters had intercepted a message on July 30 from the Japanese sub commander responsible for sinking Indianapolis, describing the type of ship sunk and its location. (The Americans assumed it was an exaggerated boast and didn't bother to follow up.)
Only 318 survived; the rest were eaten by sharks or drowned. The Indianapolis's skipper, Captain Charles McVay, was the only officer ever to be court-martialed for the loss of a ship during wartime in the history of the U.S. Navy.
McVay had neglected to order routine anti-submarine procedures during Indy's voyage which well may have prevented her loss to the Japanese submarine.
http://img283.imageshack.us/img283/5853/monunight2dc.jpg
Memorial in Indianapolis
Had the attack happened only three days earlier, Indianapolis would have been sunk carrying special cargo - the first atomic bomb, which it delivered to Tinian Island, northeast of Guam, for scientists to assemble.
As an aside, Peter Benchley's fictional character "Quint" told the Indianapolis story aboard his fishing boat as he and his companions sought the man-eating great white shark in "Jaws."
http://img283.imageshack.us/img283/5741/jaws13ze.jpg
"Quint"
Years after the loss of Indianapolis, the surviving crewmembers, assisted by the captain of the Japanese sub which sank her, petitioned Congress to exonerate Captain McVay which they did in 2001. They all believed that McVay's failure to "zig-zag" his ship did not contribute to her loss or facilitate the Japanese task of sinking her.
Their view was "someone had to take a fall in the wake of this disaster, and McVay was the most logical target"There is no overturning or set aside of a court-martial conviction under the UCMJ, but Congress's formal resolution went a long way to clear the name of Captain McVay.
The text of letter to Congress from the Japanese sub commander who sank Indianapolis follows:
"November 24, 1999
Attn: The Honorable John W. Warner
Chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee
Russell Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
I hear that your legislature is considering resolutions which would clear the name of the late Charles Butler McVay III, captain of the USS Indianapolis which was sunk on July 30, 1945, by torpedoes fired from the submarine which was under my command.
I do not understand why Captain McVay was court-martialed. I do not understand why he was convicted on the charge of hazarding his ship by failing to zigzag because I would have been able to launch a successful torpedo attack against his ship whether it had been zigzagging or not.
I have met may of your brave men who survived the sinking of the Indianapolis. I would like to join them in urging that your national legislature clear their captain's name.
Our peoples have forgiven each other for that terrible war and its consequences. Perhaps it is time your peoples forgave Captain McVay for the humiliation of his unjust conviction.
Mochitsura Hashimoto
former captain of I-58
Japanese Navy in WWII
Umenomiya Taisha
30 Fukeno Kawa Machi, Umezu
Ukyo-ku, Kyoto 615-0921, Japan"
USS Indianapolis Survivors Association (http://www.ussindianapolis.org/index.htm)
http://img312.imageshack.us/img312/6224/insane7zo0wr.jpg