Encore: USS Indianapolis: Disaster at Sea I Rescued | 4

Against The Odds

Wondery

Cassie De Pecol, History, Society & Culture, Dolby, Mike Corey, Dolby Atmos, Atmos

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

By sheer chance, an American bomber pilot on a routine test flight has spotted the survivors of U.S.S. Indianapolis, who have been floating in the middle of the Philippine Sea for over three days. But rescuing them will be easier said than done. The survivors are hundreds of miles from the nearest land, and the ocean waters are getting rough. To get the men out of the water as quickly as possible, some of the rescuers will have to put their own lives on the line.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wundery Plus subscribers can listen to against the odds early in ad free right now.
0:05.0	Join Wundery Plus in the Wundery App or on Apple Podcasts.
0:09.0	This series originally aired in 2022.
0:13.0	Lieutenant Chuck Gwynne grabs the radio of his Lockheed PV1 Ventura bomber and calls out an order to his crew.
0:27.0	Abort bombing mission, I repeat, abort bombing mission, men in the water.
0:33.0	It's 11-18 a.m. on the morning of August 2nd, 1945, high above the Philippine Sea.
0:41.0	A few minutes ago, Gwyn looked out the window of his plane and spotted a trail of oil in the ocean
0:46.8	below, which he took as a sign that a Japanese sub was nearby.
0:51.5	His crew sprang into action to prepare an attack, but then Gwynne saw something else in the water that he didn't expect. People.
1:00.0	He circles back around for another pass to make sure he's not seeing things.
1:06.0	He brings the plane down low just 300 feet above the water and sure enough he sees them again.
1:13.0	About 30 men waving their arms and splashing frantically to get his attention.
1:18.0	Some of them are in life rafts, but even more are treading water. All of them appear to be covered in oil.
1:26.0	They must be survivors from a shipwreck.
1:29.0	Gwyn knows that they could very well be Japanese, or that could be from a commercial vessel,
1:35.5	judging from the size of the oil slick, the ship that went down wasn't small.
1:41.3	But could they possibly be American sailors?
1:45.0	That seems unlikely.
1:46.0	If an American ship had gone missing, Gwen would have heard about it.
1:50.0	Still, whoever these men are, it's his duty to help them.
1:55.0	Gwyn dips his wings so the survivors know he spotted them,
1:59.0	then grabs the radio and calls out new instructions for the crew.
	...

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