BOOK REVIEW

USS INDIANAPOLIS
• US Naval Ship assigned to carry the atomic bomb “Little Boy’ from San Francisco to
Tinian Island to Hiroshima during WWII.
• After Delivering the bomb on 26 Jul 1945, the ship began its journey back to Guam
from where she was ordered to the Leyte Gulf to prepare for the invasion of Japan.
• The ship travelled without an escort ship and it was near the route peddie, where it
was intercepted on 30 Jul 1945 and sunk by Japanese I58 Submarine by two
torpedoes.
• The ship sank in 12 minutes killing 879 men of her crew of 1,196 men.
• For 4 days the survivors struggled through injuries, lack of food and water caused
dehydration, hallucination and the Great White Sharks.
• It was on 02 Aug 1945, it was spotted by a PV-1 Ventura patrolling the area followed
by 06 other ships that picked up the survivors.
• After the rescue Captain McVay was court-martialed and convicted for sinking the
ship for not following a zig-zag course.
• McVay took his own life in 1968.
• Capt William Totti along with the survivors spearheads a mission to exonerate the
name of Capt McVay.
• On 20 Oct 2000, a resolution was signed by President Clinton fully exonerating the
name of Capt McVay and dropping all charges.
• Highly readable and meticulously research account of the tragedy that occurs to the
crew of USS Indianapolis