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Fatal Voyage

The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

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Fatal Voyage

By: Dan Kurzman
Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
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About this listen

 Shortly after midnight on July 30, 1945, the Navy cruiser USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea. The ship had just left the island of Tinian, delivering components of the atomic bomb destined for Hiroshima. As the torpedoes hit, the Indianapolis erupted into a fiery coffin, sinking in less than fifteen minutes and leaving nine hundred crewmen fighting for life in shark-infested waters. They expected a swift, routine rescue, unaware that the Navy high command didn’t even realize that the Indianapolis was missing. Help would not arrive for another five days.

Drawn from definitive interviews with key figures, Fatal Voyage recounts the horrific events endured as the number of water-treading survivors dwindled to just 316. Each gruesome day brought more madness and slow death, from explosion-related injuries, dehydration, and, most terrifying of all, shark attacks. But the pain did not end when the men finally returned home: The Indianapolis’s commander, Captain Charles B. McVay III, was court-martialed for causing the clearly unavoidable disaster.

With a new afterword chronicling the fifty-five-year campaign by Indianapolis survivors and their supporters to win public vindication for Captain McVay, this classic is restored, along with memories of the Indianapolis crew. Armed Forces Military Military & War Naval Forces World War II War Submarine Imperial Japan Survival

Critic Reviews

"Mr. Kurzman’s description of the Indianapolis…lingers in the memory…A well-told–and disturbing–disaster story."
--New York Times Book Review

"Kurzman’s gripping book paints a…horrible scene. The sinking of the Indianapolis was–and remains–perhaps the most shameful naval disaster in American history."
--People
All stars
Most relevant
Incredible. This story of to Captain McViegh and USS Indianapolis has strong similarities to what happened to the Captain's of HMAS Melbourne and the court marshals regarding Melboures involvement in the sinkings of U.S.S. Frank E Evans and H.M.A.S VOYAGER.

Incredible

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