The jaws massacre: How 900 stricken men were surrounded by killer sharks (USS Indianapolis)

UK Daily Mail ^ | 8/17/07 | Tony Rennell

[wagglebee]

The story of the Indianapolis has always intrigued me.

[wagglebee]

Ping

[Samwise]

It’s a horrific story. We have several of the memorabilia that the survivors sell to raise money for their group. Brave men. Brave families. I read their book in their own words. I can’t even imagine.

[Red Badger]

Was a movie ever made from this horrible nightmare?.............

[wagglebee]

As far as I know, the only movie reference was Robert Shaw’s story in “Jaws.”

[KantianBurke]

“In 2000 he was exonerated by the U.S. Congress”

An inappropriate move. There were other reasons he should not have been let off the hook with the key one being as to how the ship was first discovered by the Japanese sub - noise transcience originating from the galley. Sorry. The captain failed in his job.

Excellent thread btw. Thank you for posting it!

[ozzymandus]

Book, movie, and TV show. The worst part is that nobody bothered to search for the ship for a few days after it disappeared.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

Yes they did.

[wagglebee]

What was the movie?

[Lou L]

noise transcience originating from the galley.

Let me tell you something--galley noises are the least of your concerns when you're driving a WWII-era battle cruiser. As a former sonarman, I think I know a little about that.

Furthermore, McVay had asked for an escort ship, prior to setting out to the Philippines; he was denied.

Sometimes in the fog of war, when you're time is up, you're time is up. The Japanese submarine captain did not have one kill throughout the entire war. Then, with only weeks left, with the Japanese navy in a shambles, this sub stumbles across a big target, one not designed for sub-hunting. In fact, the Japanese captain testified: it would not have made one bit of difference if the Indianapolis was zig-zagging or not. She was a relatively easy kill.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

Mission of the Shark was one...

[FlingWingFlyer]

Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis - Stacy Keach.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

I horrify my greenie friends by asserting that, due to the tragedy of the Indy, Americans can eat all the shark, including yummy sharkfin soup, that they want whereas the Japanese should eschew shark as a gesture of expiation.

[wagglebee]

Thanks, I had never heard of that.

[FlingWingFlyer]

They do a pretty good job. Goes into the courts martial quite a bit. I think I read recently that the captain of the Japanese submarine had died. They used him to nail the Captain of the Indianapolis. He wasn’t “zigzaging” so therefore, he presented an easy target. I think the sub would have gotten them anyway.

[KantianBurke]

In Stanton’s book “In Harm’s Way,” that line of thinking is debunked.

First, the galley noise was cited by the Japanese sub commander during McVay’s courtmartial as preciesly what gave him away. Second, even though the “Japanese navy was a shambles” the war was still on, McVay was still in command and thus those evolutions should have been secured. He took a laid back approach thinking the war for him and his crew was over and they paid a terrible price for it. His court martial was the right punishment and its removal was due probably more to placate aging WWII survivors rather than as a rectification of a miscarriage of justice.

http://www.amazon.com/Harms-Way-Indianapolis-Extraordinary-Survivors/dp/0805073663/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0133012-9739229?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187459894&sr=8-1

[advertising guy]

always overlooked is the fact more men died from drinking salt water than died to sharks. Still the story is horrific

[Joe Boucher]

About 8 years ago I ran into an older gent in a grocery store with an Indianapolis baseball cap on.
I went up to him and asked if he was a crewmember? He said he was. I told him I was so very sorry and thanked him for his incredible service.
He started crying like a little boy and shook his head and walked away.
So very painful.
GOD bless them all.

[taxesareforever]

Was a movie ever made from this horrible nightmare?.............

I just saw a movie on the history channel of this about a week ago. Very well done. The history channel was pushing its agenda on shark week and tried telling us in commercial breaks that there wasn't that many actually killed by sharks. The movie showed otherwise and, to me, was very well done.

[Vision]

May we be as great Americans as they are.


Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes.

Didn’t see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you’re in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn’t know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week.

Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin’, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named “The Battle of Waterloo” and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and screamin’ and sometimes the shark go away... but sometimes he wouldn’t go away. Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark... he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin’ and the hollerin’, they all come in and they... rip you to pieces.

You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been bitten in half below the waist. Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us... he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper.

Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened... waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again.

So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

Anyway...we delivered the bomb.