Book: In Harm's Way

[Kyle98]

I'm about halfway through it now. It's a great read! It's about the final voyage of the USS Indianapolis in WWII. She sailed from San Francisco with a secret cargo, "Little Boy", which would later be dropped on Hiroshima. From San Francisco, the Indy sailed to Tinian in the Marianas Islands where she dropped off its cargo, then sailed south to Guam before heading to Leyte in the Philippines.

She was attacked and sunk by a Japanese sub halfway to Leyte. 900 of 1200 men survived the initial attack, but due to several factors, including communication breakdowns and negligence, they weren't rescued for four days. By that time, many of the crew had died, most by shark attacks, and there were only 316 left to be saved.

With the total loss of life at 880, it was the single worst at-sea loss of life in the history of the U.S. Navy.

The book follows three of the survivors, the ship's captain, the ship's doctor, and a Marine private, through the ordeal, from sailing from San Francisco to the rescue and beyond.

As I said, I'm only a little more than halfway through, but its a great read, and a story I hadn't known before. Any history buffs out there, I definately reccomend this one.

[macduff93]

Thanks for the tip. I love WWII history and my dad is always looking for a good military book, especially if it's about Marines, so I may put that on his Christmas list.

It's sad to know that the last of our greatest generation is dying off so rapidly now. I have letters that my grandfather wrote to my grandmother from his ship during WWII as well as the telegrams announcing my dad's birth in 1939. I swear, they saved everything!

[Kyle98]

Yes, it is sad that they are dying off. My mom actually has my great-grandfather's WWI diary, where he was writing about missing my great-grandmother to be. I haven't read alot of it, because I'm afraid to handle it too much. My mom is talking about getting it typed up.

My dad's dad was in the Seabees and on Guadalcanal, and after he and then my grandmother died, my mom had his medals and insignia framed, and I have it hanging in my living room as a reminder of what he and his generation sacrificed for us. Somewhere, my dad has his certificate from crossing the equator, which is pretty cool.

[macduff93]

That's very cool. It's funny that they were lying about their age to sign up and not long after that young America's would lie to keep from joining the military. My dad really hated the hippie era. Whew! I remember a lot of that and it was ugly. He was out of the Marines and in college at the time at Arizona State and I can still remember thinking it was too liberal for me....I was 5! :p

I love the History Channel. One of my friends claims it's all Nazis, all the time. Not so. The Area 54 crap they run sporadically interrupts that for me at times and it irritates me. I need my 1940's fix.



Have you read, Left For Dead by Nelson and Scott? It might give yet another perspective on the same story as In Harm's Way.

I'm looking for objective, factual accounts of the attack on the USS Liberty by the Israelis. That still makes me mad.