A little past midnight on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis, a US Navy cruiser, had just delivered the uranium that would be used in the first nuclear bomb dropped on Japan, and was returning to the Philippines when it was struck by a Japanese torpedo. The ship was badly damaged in the attack and within ten minutes it rolled onto its side, dumping 890 crewmen into the pitch-black ocean and dragging the remaining 300 down with the ship.Those who survived the torpedo strike did what they could to grab supplies before abandoning ship, but there were very few life boats or life jackets, so many of the sailors had to float in the water or cling to the few rafts they did manage to take before jumping from the boat. To make matters worse, their mission had been highly confidential and no one in the Navy knew where the Indianapolis was, much less that it had sank. The surviving crew thought things were about as bad as they could get, then the sharks began showing up.Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!ReferencesAssociated Press. 1945. "Indianapolis sunk with 883 killed." Los Angeles Times, August 15: 1.Austin, Daryl. 2021. "How a WWII Japanese sub commander helped exonerate a U.S. Navy captain." Washington Post, June 6.Buckley, Chris. 2017. "Wreckage of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, lost for 72 years, is found in Pacific." New York Times, August 21.Charles B. McVay, III, interview by US Naval History and Heritage Command. 2003. Recollections of Captain Charles B. McVay, III, USN, Commanding Officer of USS Indianapolis (CA-35) which was sunk by Japanese submarine I-58 on 30 July 1945 near the Philippines (April 20).Newcomb, Richard F. 1958. "Court's verdict surprises, irks public." Indianapolis Star, November 30: 22.—. 1958. "Rescue operation put in motion." Indianapolis Star, November 24: 1.—. 1958. "Survivors begin ordeal in sea." Indianapolis Star, November 22: 1.Paridon, Seth. n.d. "Surviving the sinking of the USS Indianapolis." National World War II Museum. Phillips, Kristine. 2017. "USS Indianapolis survivor recalls four days in shark-filled sea." Washington Post, August 20.1975. Jaws. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Performed by Robert Shaw.US Navy Court of Inquiry. 1945. Summary findings regarding all circumstances connected with the sinking of the USS Indianapolis (CA-35), and the delay in reporting the loss of that ship August 13, 1945. Summary, Washington, DC: United States Government.Vincent, Lynn, and Sara Vladic. 2018. Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What is the episode about the USS Indianapolis sinking?
Did you see Oppenheimer?
I have not yet, actually. Wildly. Because I did want to see it. I really like Killian Murphy. I didn't mean that, I guess. This was like a fascinating and like really terrifying and horrifying time in history. No, it is interesting. So it's always really interesting to see how it's done in these things. And I heard great things about it.
But the whole goal of this project was to design a crazy atomic bomb that would give the Allies the destructive power they believed they needed to stop the Japanese army and end the war. By the summer of 1945, the Manhattan Project had succeeded. It created two atomic bombs, and they nicknamed them Fat Man and Little Boy.
The two bombs would eventually be dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, respectively. As we know. In San Francisco, Charles McVeigh had been given the details of the Indianapolis latest mission, but only so many details. They had to transport the components of Little Boy, including the highly radioactive uranium that would ultimately make the bomb so destructive.
And in addition to the critical mission, McVeigh would be sailing with nearly 300 new crewmen. Many of them were new recruits to the Navy within the last 90 days. Oh, shit. So brand new. Not all the crew was new, but at least... A good chunk of it. 300 of them were brand new. Can you imagine?
That's your first working mission?
Yeah. Damn. From the moment the plans were made in Washington, D.C., everything about this mission was so highly confidential. Even Captain McVeigh, the literal captain of the Indianapolis, was only given the details necessary to just execute the mission, like execute the delivery, and that's it. Right. Like didn't need to know basis, essentially.
On the morning of July 16th, 1945, the Indianapolis departed San Francisco on the way to Pearl Harbor, where they were going to drop off any non-essential passengers and refuel. Right. The ship arrived in Hawaii on July 19th and refueled and then departed for Tinian, a small island in the northern Mariana Islands. And that's where the bomb was going to be assembled. Okay. Like on the island?
Like very complex, yeah. The missions and activities surrounding Fat Man and Little Boy were deemed top secret ultra, which is the highest level of clearance that few in the government or military would ever receive. According to author Lynn Vincent, ultra's dissemination was choke point narrow, closely held and tightly guarded. It seeped out daily to only a tiny group of Pacific Fleet commanders.
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