Customer Reviews

The Tragic Fate of the U.S.S. Indianapolis: The U.S. Navy's Worst Disaster at Sea

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The first history of the sinking of the USS INDIANAPOLIS to have access to governmental papers and records on the tragedy (an earlier book, Richard F. Newcomb's ABANDON SHIP!, relied primarily on the sailors' often contradictory first-hand accounts of what little they observed), this book paints a vivid portrait of the horror of the disaster, as well as the Naval blunders that led to it, and the fifty-year cover-up that followed.

In the final days of World War II, the USS INDIANAPOLIS was sunk en route back to the United States, having delivered components for the atomic bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima. Of the 1200 men on board, 400 were killed in the torpedoing. The remaining 800 would float in the shark-infested waters of the Pacific for four days without the US Navy being aware they were missing. When the men were at last spotted by accident and rescued, only 300 were still alive. A Naval court-martial would declare the INDIANAPOLIS' Captain Charles Butler McVay culpable for the loss of his ship.

Although Lech's primary thesis -- that Captain McVay was innocent -- has become outdated by the course of history (the US Congress posthumously exonerated McVay in October 2000, nearly 20 years after the publication of this book and over 30 years after McVay's suicide -- a history briefly laid out in the latest Afterword to Newcomb's book and in the more recent IN HARM'S WAY by Doug Stanton), there is still plenty to find here. Lech carefully dissects the chain of accidents and circumstances leading up to the sinking. He has a talent for bringing the key figures to life and for vividly describing the horrors they witnessed. Within his larger portrait of a naval blunder, Lech reveals some incredible anecdotes and side stories, most notably the story of the Japanese Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto, who found himself in the unusual position of being a witness in the trial of a captain whose ship he had sunk after the war in which they both fought was over.

At the end of his story, Mr. Lech aids those hoping to delve further into the incident by providing over 60 pages of Appendices, including the full text of several Naval dispatches and of Hashimoto's testimony, as well as a 15-page bibliography including a complete list by number of the Naval dispatches he consulted in his research.

Whether for the history buff or the serious scholar, Lech's well-researched, thorough, vivid history of the tragedy is a great starting place for research into one of the most compelling stories of the World War II Pacific theater, and is highly recommended.

This book I gave to my son-in law. He told me he couldn't put it down. You see his grandfather was on the USS Indianapolis when it went down. His grandfather was one of the survivors. The book, he said, was close to what is grandfather had told him.

In July, 1945, Japan was on the brink of defeat. Her navy had been destroyed, her cities reduced to rubble, and her fighting men beaten. All that remained was the coup de grace; the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The USS Indianapolis was charged with delivering the bomb's internal components to the island of Tinian. This part of the Indy's mission was a success, but after leaving Tinian for the Philippines, things took an historic turn for the worse as the Japanese submarine I-58, commanded by Lt. Cmdr. Mochitsura Hashimoto, fired two torpedoes into Indy's starboard side. The ship sank in fifteen minutes, and over 800 men ended up in the ocean. This began a harrowing four day battle for survival against the beating sun, salt water, and blood-thirsty sharks.

Due to grievous and unforgivable errors on the part of the U.S. Navy, the non-arrival of the Indianapolis went unnoticed at Leyte. Further, Captain Charles McVay was denied vital information about a group of four Japanese submarines operating close to the Indianapolis' route. McVay was also denied an escort vessel, so the Indianapolis, with no underwater sonar gear, was left alone. All of these errors converged on the fateful night of July 30, 1945, when the I-58 sent the Indianapolis to the bottom of the Pacific.

Some 800 men, including Captain McVay, managed to abandon the sinking ship and make it into the water. Unfortunately for them, their ordeal was just beginning. Due to the earlier comedy of errors by the Navy, no one knew what had happened to the Indianapolis. These men endured 4 days in the unforgiving Pacific ocean. Ultimately, only 316 men out of a crew of 1,199 survived. As so eloquently noted by author Raymond B. Lech, these men were not killed in action, but killed by inaction.

Captain McVay was to be the scapegoat for the sinking of the Indianapolis, despite the monumental blunders by other members of the U.S. Navy. McVay was eventually found guilty of failure to sail his ship in a zigzag pattern which, according to Hashimoto's own testimony at McVay's trial, wouldn't have mattered anyway. McVay stayed in the Navy until he retired in June, 1949. But the deaths of those men in the ocean continued to haunt McVay until, on November 6, 1968, Captain McVay shot himself. The Indianapolis had tragically claimed its last victim.

I found this to be a very good book. Author Raymond B. Lech has done a fine job of telling the entire story of the Indianapolis and the struggle the survivors faced. I was somewhat disappointed that more attention was not paid to McVay's trial, but the use of recently declassified documents really helped clear up some of the previously censored materials related to the sinking. The appendices at the end of the book are very useful to the reader, too. Highly recommended.

A well-researched, written story of the sinking of the cruiser Indianapolis by a Japanese submarine,and the story of the survivors and the vicious sharks; and of course, the series of blunders by the Navy Command. The previous reviewer summed it quite adequately, but suffice to say, the captain became the scapegoat and whipping boy by the admirals. The record was set straight by Admiral Nimitz and the US Congress, but not soon enough for the captain who committed suicide at his home in Connecticutt. There are several other good books about this disaster, and also a movie starring Stacy Keach. It is also interesting to note that for all the US ships sank by enemies in World War II, that this captain was the only one court-martialed and convicted.