Non-Fiction
1 Best Non-Fiction Book About Sinking of USS Indianapolis
Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.
Phase
Sinking of USS Indianapolis
30 July 1945
After delivering components connected with the atomic bomb to Tinian, USS Indianapolis sailed towards the Philippines in late July 1945. Shortly after midnight on 30 July, the Japanese submarine I-58, commanded by Mochitsura Hashimoto, torpedoed the cruiser. Indianapolis sank rapidly, leaving hundreds of surviving sailors in the water.
No immediate rescue followed because the ship’s failure to arrive was not acted upon effectively. Survivors endured exposure, dehydration, injuries and shark attacks until an aircraft spotted them several days later. The disaster caused one of the largest losses of life from a single ship in United States naval history.
The aftermath became controversial when Captain Charles B. McVay III was court-martialled for failing to zigzag, despite evidence about the circumstances of the attack. David Boyle’s Lost at Sea follows both the sinking and the later struggle to reassess responsibility for the disaster.
