On this day in history....

[Ducimus]

On this day in history, july 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis, was torpedoed At 0014 on 30 July, by Japanese submarine I-58 under the command of Mochitsura Hashimoto. After having delievered the parts for the Atomic bomb to Tinian on 26 July. Out of 1,196 crew, only 317 survived. Their were many reasons why so many men died from this ship, but the most famous reason was the number of shark attacks that occured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_%28CA-35%29

Insert Inaccurate, but cool Speech from the movie Jaws here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nrvMNf-HEg

[WernherVonTrapp]

Now there's a book I would like to read. Admittedly, I first (really) became aware of the ship after watching the movie "Jaws" for the fisrt time at the theater. As I understand it, the ship went down pretty fast but there were still a lot of men left adrift in shark infested waters (Tiger Sharks). Those poor guys, and what they had to endure.:nope:

[ETR3(SS)]

A sad day in US Naval history.

[Randomizer]

Any thoughts on the court martial, (some would say scapegoating) of her Commanding Officer, Captain Charles Butler McVay III USN.

In my opinion a huge miscarriage of military justice and I believe that to this day he is the only American officer in World War 2 to be convicted in a court martial of crimes related to losing his ship in combat.

[Sailor Steve]

Aside from some technical problems (several ships filling in for Indianapolis) this little film is quite good. It includes the court martial, which itself includes the testimony from Commander Hashimoto.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102455/fullcredits#cast

Overall not a bad flick.

[Jan Kyster]

Some time ago I came across these papers:

"The Congress Resolution of the Hearings"
"Interview from History Detectives" and
"STATEMENT OF RADM JOHN D. HUTSON, JAGC, USN"


Took the liberty to upload here. (http://www.mediafire.com/file/l3adkcbgcai57d1/U.S.S. Indianapolis.zip)


Sad story. In any way.

[ichso]

The Indianapolis sent distress calls before sinking. Three stations received the signals; however, 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 prank.

I thought military was about dicipline and such. I might be wrong though, never been there.

[Randomizer]

Some time ago I came across these papers... Sad story. In any way.
Thanks for the docs, I have never believed there was any real issue or impropriety with the legality of the McVay court martial and the charges brought. However, what is legal is not automatically just and a letter of admonishment or reprimand for Capt. McVay's record following the Court of Inquiry into the loss of Indianapolis would not have hurt service discipline.

[Jan Kyster]

67 years ago, on this day - August 2, 1943 - John F. Kennedy got sunk...


Was just passing Naval History & Heritage, when spotted this: http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq60-2.htm