The USS "Indianapolis" was torpedoed in 1945. 1196 men went into the water, 317 survived . . . This is their terrible story. A harrowing, adrenaline-charged account of America's worst naval disaster.
On 30 July 1945 the USS "Indianapolis" was returning to America after delivering the atom bomb that was to decimate Hiroshima seven days later, when she was torpedoed in the South Pacific by a Japanese submarine. An estimated 300 men were killed upon impact; nearly 900 sailors were cast into the Pacific Ocean, where they remained, undetected by the Navy, for nearly five days. Battered by a savage sea, they struggled to stay alive. Fighting off sharks, hypothermia and dementia. By the time rescue arrived, all but 317 men had died.
The captain's subsequent court martial left many questions unanswered. How did the Navy fail to realise that the "Indianapolis" was missing? Why was the cruiser travelling unescorted in enemy waters? And, perhaps most amazingly of all, how did these 317 men manage to survive?
Interweaving the stories of three survivors - the captain, the ship's doctor and a young marine - Doug Stanton has brought this incredible human drama to life in a narrative that is at once immediate and timeless. The definitive account of a little-known chapter in Second World War history, 'In Harm's Way' is destined to become a classic.
