In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the Uss Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors

Stanton, Doug

ISBN 10: 0694524344 ISBN 13: 9780694524341

Publisher: Harperaudio, 2001

Synopsis

July 30, 11945. After completing a top secret mission to the island of Tinian to deliver parts of the atom bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima, the battle cruiser USS Indianapolis was torpedoed in the South Pacific by a Japanese submarine. An estimated 300 men were killed on impact; close to 900 were cast into the sea. After five days, when the Navy accidentally realized the ship was missing, only 321 men were still alive, having battled hypothermia, sharks, and hallucinatory dementia. Four more would die in military hospitals shortly thereafter.

The highly unusual court-martial of the Indianapolis's captain, Charles Butler McVay, opened up the tragedy to scrutiny: How did the Navy fail to realize the ship was missing? Why was it traveling unescorted in enemy waters? And, perhaps most amazingly of all, how did these 317 men manage to survive?

In Hann's Way casts the tragedy of the USS Indianapolis not as a history of war, but as a portrait of men battling the sea. Interweaving the stories of three survivors--Captain McVay; the ship's doctor; and a young marine private--this astonishing human drama is brought to life in a narrative that is at once immediate and timeless.

Read by Boyd Gaines

About this title

Review

"The story of the 1945 sinking of the USS Indianapolis ... 1196 men went into the Pacific... their entire ordeal, from the intial fireball to the 1968 suicide of the captian, is spelt out here in vivd, horrific detail. Brilliant stuff." (Later)

"A thoroughly researched, powerfully written account of a nightmare at sea, one of the most poignant tragedies and injustices of World War II" (Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down)

"Superb...it's the stuff about the men in the sea that'll make you weep. Four days without water, being picked off one by one by sharks...and no-one in the world even realising they are missing. Gripping" (FHM)

"How could a WWII battleship carrying over 1,000 men be torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sink, leaving the survivors to bob in the Pacific Ocean at the mercy of elements and predators, without anyone realizing the loss for more than four days? Stanton not only offers a well-researched chronicle of what is widely regarded as the worst naval disaster in U.S. history, but also vividly renders the combatants' hellish ordeal during the sinking, and the ensuing days at sea as well as attempts to cope with the traumatic aftermath . . . absorbing, novelistic . . . illuminating and emotional without being maudlin" (Publishers Weekly)

Book Description

The sinking of the USS Indianapolis is one of the great survival stories of the Second World War and In Harm's Way has become a classic of war writing that offers a privileged insight into the extremes of human experience - a story now brought to life on screen in Nicolas Cage’s wartime action drama 'USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage'.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harperaudio
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0694524344
• ISBN 13: 9780694524341
• Binding: Audio CD