Mylander |
03-14-07 07:40 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by LIGHTNING
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitman
Quote:
Hmmm... Sharks nibbling at the feet of those
poor souls that just had their ship blown from
beneath their feet.... SWEET... :D
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Sadly also historically correct :cry:
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Anybody remember the great speech in Jaws when Quint talks about him and his crew that ended up in the water. Only half then survived the other half eaten by sharks.I cant remember the name of the ship though it was the one that delivered the atomic bomb. Might have been the USS Indianapolis.
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You are referring to CA 35 USS Indianapolis. I can highly reccomend the Book In Harm's Way: The sinking of the USS Indianapolis by Doug Stanton. It is a gut-wrenching factual account of the ordeal of the crew of the "Indie". It was researched by interviewing the survivors, and is a gripping read. It follows the saga until the early 60's when Captain McVay commits suicide. He was scapegoated by the Navy brass for the loss of the ship and all of the carnage that followed. They even brought the captain of the I-boat that sunk her all the way from Japan to testify at McVay's court-martial. It is trhe only time in history that a US ship captain has been court-martialled for losing his vessel in combat to enemy action.
Fact is the Navy LOST the Indianapolis for almost a week after she delivered the A-Bomb to Tinian. They forgot about her and her crew. When she didn't show up for a gunnery exercise, oops! nobody noticed. So they floated under the blistering Pacific sun for several days watching their buddies being eaten by sharks, and succumbing to exposure one by one. My numbers are probably off here, but of a crew of 1200, 900 survived the torpedoing and went into the water, and I think only some 300 survived the next several days at sea. It was only by pure luck that they were spotted by an aircraft. The Navy wasn't even looking for them.
This is really atypical of the US armed forces, who usually bend over backwards to rescue servicemembers in harm's way, Indie's crew just was lost in the paperwork shuffle. It was tragic. Even more tragic was how they scapegoated the Captain. The surviving crew stood behind him to a man, but the brass responsible for "losing" a heavy cruiser needed their scapegoat, and they hung him out to dry.
I hope I haven't given too much away already, but this is an excellent book. Anyone interested in the Pacific war would do well to add this one to your library.
Mylander
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