USS Indianapolis - Guide 191

My Great Grandfather served on the USS Indianapolis!

We have our own USS Indianapolis. INS Khukri. We lost 194 Seamen.

Of course your choice of the Indianapolis has nothing to do with this being Shark Week.

It was actually a remarkable circumstance that the Pilot spotted men in the water at all. If not for making an adjustment to an antenna (I believe) and deciding to take a closer look, each man would have been lost to the Ocean.

Drac, you need to build the Elbonian Navy, Gun Jesus and The Chieftain have done Infantry weapons and Armour, your turn....we are asking Bismarck to do the Airforce too!!

Going by memory here. A set of World Book Encyclopedia edition for kids with illustrations from the 60s included the story of the Indianapolis' sinking. Don't remember anything about its final mission or the courtmartial but the survival struggle with sharks and without fresh water was indelible in my young mind a decade prior to Jaws the movie.

This is one of the saddest and most maddening situations of WWII.

Just an interesting little side note for Drach if this ship does get it's own wednesday special a mention of one of the main characters from Jaws was portrayed as a survivor of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and actually did the grim monologue of the sinking completely off script and totally drunk what a legend of an actor :D

No mention of Admiral Spruance who used it as a flagship for some major operations?

“...blew the ship into confetti and bad memories.” Great line

Portland: Burn admiral King! What he did to Indy-chan's captain is unforgivable!!

I actually found a newspaper clipping of McVeigh's exoneration on my copy of At Dawn We Slept. It's now on my corkboard.

Jaws theme plays

Not my favorite ship build. What happened to the Indianapolis itself is an epically sad story

Were the shark attacks really slightly over exaggerated?? I don't know seems pretty terrifying

: o

Its obvious that the captain knew what he delivered was going to end the war sooner than later. He wasn't interested in getting back in the war.He seemed to be killing time rather than getting back into action. He had the speed and radar and sonar and hydro phones to avoid any possiblity of a submarine attack. Anything over 17 knots and zigzagging is written in stone that a submarine cannot hit a warship. 33 knots and zigzagging is a absolute impossibility of a torpedo attack. If the captain would have been transporting his family or Winston Churchill or president Truman or Marylin Monroe theres no way he would have been taking a day or night off for rest and relaxation. He would have been focused on his next mission after delivering the bomb and he would have been going max speed to his destination. The greatest sea captain that was ever born was the captain of the Queen Mary. His mission was to transport 8k to 15k troops from NYC to England. On his own discretion he made every trip with no escort successfully. I listened to his interview. They asked him how he did this so successfully with no escort through the Atlantic with 100s of German submarines without even a reported attack. He said I would depart on my own planning secretly and at 31 knots he said he would alternate a slight zigzag every 8 minutes. He said there's no possibility of an successful submarine attack at that speed and he said it takes 10 minutes to prepare a torpedo attack from a submarine and he would zigzag at 8 minutes. He was obviously the number one target for the German navy. There were many similarities in the Indianapolis and the Queen mary and the queen Elizabeth. They were both carrying the most important cargo that was possible and they were traveling independently from other ships.and they both could go extreme ranges at over 31 knots. What could be more important than transporting 10k army infantry in a single ship every 3 weeks? Maybe the bomb.

The issue is not that Mc vay did not zigzag, but rather that he took the direct route from Guam the Philippines, which would have been the route that enemy submarines should be watching.

I heard that the crews of the Indianapolis was playing bet who gets eatin first by the sharks while she sunk .

Just so everyone knows there is a movie about u.s.s. indianapolis'

drachinifel is anti-american

Kawaii indy!!!

I actually managed to meet a Indianapolis survivor last year. There were only like 11 of them left.

My grandfather was a Boatswain mate who wore an Asbestos sleeve to wipe the bore of her forward center turret. He told stories of leaving pearl the night before the bombing. Everyone including himself getting sick while in the bearing. Earning his shellback, and emerald shellback, and bombardment of many islands. He claimed they could fire a salvo and get out on deck to watch the first rounds hit the beach. He spoke only twice about her kamikaze attack and really only said he lost a lot of friends on that boat. He got off in San Fran before the trip to deliver the “device”. Threw everything including awards and medals in the dumpster save for his paperwork showing work qualifications and shell back card. Carried that in his wallet until he died and when asked about it would claim, “I went through hell to get that card. I’ll never do that again.”

He was the hardest man I knew. Taught me a lot about life, death and all that should be appreciated in between.

Rest in piece grandpa.

The Indianapolis was a Proud ship. My father, uncle & their best friend served on the ship from '37 - '40. Dad was a signalman. He made the equator crossing twice with FDR. South American Conference. Still have the ship banner with FDR signature on it. I had the Honor of meeting one of the survivors about 1999 at the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, CA. Quite a memorable day.

The last word of the Captain hearing is


A

Why didnt they just name it the Indiana

The Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands was not a diversion. The Japanese invaded because they were very close to the home islands and they had no idea that the prevailing weather made large scale bomber operations from them impractical. Otherwise great video

Captain Nicholas Cage. 🤣

How about one on the USS Portland herself. She was pretty well decorated herself.

maybe someone can help me out..im doing a 1/350 Uss Indy with photo etch (yea not easy but fun).. on the stern are a pair of cylinders.. 4x4 on each rack..does anyone know what they are called and used for? tks! been looking and no luck so far..

Fr. Thomas Conway, Chaplin from Connecticut perished after giving last rites to survivors in the water. He served as a priest in the Buffalo, NY diocese prior to his service. We at the Buffalo Naval Park have a bust in honor of him, and a 45 rpm recording of him speaking to his congregations here in Buffalo. He was finally recognized with the Navy Cross in a ceremony in January of 2021. We honor his sacrifice!

At least some of the crew survived, unlike HMAS Sydney.

I hope there is a special place in hell for those that tried to blame McVay.

The poor man killed him self out of guilt. They say he keept all the letters from the families that wrote him blaming him for the loss of there sons and husband's.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My great uncle was a helmsman on the Indianapolis. Douglas F Degroote was his name. He wrote a book titled Seek and Destroy. Interesting content for sure. According to Unlce Doug, the Indy was hit by a torpedo in the North Pacific before going to CA for refit but the torpedo didn’t go off cuz the water was too cold for the thing to work. The crew heard it hit the hull but leadership on board said they were all nuts. When they put her in dry dock there was a huge torpedo shaped dent in her port side. Never heard that story anywhere else. I will gladly purchase a copy of the book from anyone who has one for obvious reasons

Thank you for this interesting bit of history.

People don’t realise she was the ship that ended Ww2

I visited the memorial in downtown Indianapolis this past summer. Very moving experience. I highly recommend the visit.

Great video, thanks!

i58.

I always thought the survivors were found by a Ventura out of Peleliu.

According to Captain McVay III's father, Admiral Charles B. McVay Jr., King ordered Captain the court-martial to get back at him. King had been under the command of Admiral McVay Jr. when he was a junior officer. Admiral McVay Jr. once had a letter of reprimand placed on King's record for sneaking some women aboard a ship.

If this is true, it would be the most shameful action King had ever done.

I love how similar this class looks to the preceding Northampton class… and I really like the Northamptons.
They were front and center in the game Battlestations Pacific, and which I played heavily when I was younger and it probably contributed to my interest in Naval design and warfare.

Another sterling example of US NAVY jurisprudence. Too bad they couldn't blame the sinking on some Ordinary Seaman. I don't mean this to be an indictment of the Captain, he got done over undeservedly by the Navy trying to cover their asses. Sad end for a great ship. RIP all who served on her.

One of the absolute worst examples of the good ol boy club. Whichever admiral refused him destroyer escort should have been the one being court-martialed for negligence

Visited the memorial this afternoon. God bless our veterans!

Pinned post for Q&A :)