The USS Indianapolis’ Secret Mission Turns into Tragedy

HISTORY This Week

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History, Education, Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

July 16, 1945. It’s the summer of 1945 and World War II is underway. The USS Indianapolis has just set out from Mare Island on a top-secret mission. The famous vessel is delivering enriched uranium and other components of “Little Boy” to Tinian Island. The mission is technically a success, but for the men aboard the Indianapolis, the challenges are just beginning. On July 30, the ship is struck by two Japanese torpedoes, stranding its sailors at sea. For three and a half days, survivors are left floating in the Pacific Ocean, fending off sun exposure, dehydration, and shark attacks – and waiting for help. Were any able to survive? And could this attack have been prevented?

Special thanks to our guest: Sara Vladic, co-author of Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man. She’s also the director of the documentary USS Indianapolis: The Legacy.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The History Channel, Original Podcast.
0:04.8	History this week, July 16, 1945.
0:13.3	I'm Sally Helm.
0:17.0	The crew doesn't know what it is they're carrying in the port hangar of this
0:21.3	warship crossing the Pacific Ocean, the USS Indianapolis.
0:26.9	They start placing bets.
0:29.7	Maybe it's a car because it's so big.
0:32.2	One-sailor jokes that it's probably a special delivery of sentent toilet paper
0:36.3	for famed general Douglas MacArthur.
0:39.2	Or maybe it's a special map with instructions on how best to invade Japan?
0:44.8	That would make some sense.
0:46.5	They're traveling at a breakneck speed, so whatever it is, it must be important.
0:52.0	One-sailor guesses, hopefully, that it's whiskey to toast the end of World War II,
0:58.5	which they all hope is close at hand.
1:05.6	Not long before, ship captain Charles McVeigh had been called to an ultra-secret meeting
1:12.2	at Naval headquarters in San Francisco.
1:15.4	The ship had docked at Mayor Island to repair damage from a Japanese kamikaze plane.
1:21.3	McVeigh's superiors gave him a mission.
1:24.5	Deliver this package to Tinian Island about 1500 miles south of Tokyo.
1:30.5	He tells his men, even I don't know what's in there.
1:35.2	What's in there is enriched uranium and other components of the atomic bomb that will come
1:41.3	to be called Little Boy. It will be dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, a terrible act
	...

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