The ship sank in just fifteen minutes on July 30, 1945, in the war's final days. It took the Navy four days to realize the ship was missing.
About 800 of the crew's 1200 sailors and Marines made it off the cruiser before it sank. But almost 600 died the next four to five days from exposure, dehydration, drowning and shark attacks.
The Indianapolis had just completed a top-secret mission to deliver components of the atomic bomb "Little Boy" to the island of Tinian. The bomb was later dropped on Hiroshima.
--GreGen
My Cooter's History Blog has become about 80% World War II anyway, so I figured to start a blog specific to it, especially since we're commemorating its 70th anniversary and we are quickly losing this "Greatest Generation." The quote is taken from Pearl Harbor survivor Frank Curre, who was on the USS Tennessee that day. He died Dec. 7, 2011, seventy years to the day. His photo is below at right.
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