Tamiya 1:48 scale Vought F4U-1A Corsair

I think it was called In Harm’s Way but it’s been a few years since I read it and I don’t remember and I don’t have the book anymore. But it was one of those that you can’t put down. I thought I remember something about the Captain being blamed to a certain extent and something about the route the ship took?

 

Unfortunately, the USS Indianapolis is the largest and most well-known incident, (due to Robert Shaw's oration in the movie Jaws), but a number of similar incidents occurred during the war. To list a couple:
-The Atlanta class light cruiser, USS Juneau was sunk by the Japanese sub, I-26, while moving to Espiritu Santo along with the San Francisco and USS Helena (all three ships had been badly damaged during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in the early morning hours of 13 November). She broke in half and went down in 20 seconds. At least 115 sailors survived the sinking, including two of the five Sullivan brothers. Fearing additional attacks the remaining ships sailed away, but USS Helena did report the sinking to a nearby B-17. No rescue for eight days, only ten men survived. Exposure, wounds and sharks accounted for the rest, including the two surviving Sullivans. A survivor reported a shark got the last Sullivan. A good book on the sinking: Kurzman, Dan. Left to Die: the story of the USS Juneau. New York: Pocket Books, 1994.
-The USS Johnston DD-557, that was sunk during the battle off Samar, Of the crew of 327, only 50 were killed in action with the enemy. 277 survived to go into the water, including Captain Evans, only 141 survived the 50 hours before rescuers arrived. Many of the survivors talk about the great number of shark attacks.
Similar stories from survivors of the USS Hoel, USS Samuel B. Roberts and USS Gambier Bay, during the same engagement (USS St. Lo was also sunk, but by kamikaze attack. I do not recall having read that any of her survivors mentioned extensive time in the water or shark attacks, so I didn't include her with the other three).

So, a number of sailors experienced the same thing.

 

A title cannot be copyrighted.

Nice cover of a Spruance class DD surrounded by smoke and shell splashes Of course there are so few photos of WWII ships available........

 

Captain McVay was court martialed, the only captain in US Navy history to be charged for losing his ship in combat. One of the specifications against him was that the ship was not zigzagging, but the Japanese sub commander, Hashimoto Mochitsura, testified that he would have gotten Indianapolis anyway.

 

While that sucked for McVay, what they did to Captain Gilbert C. Hoover of the USS Helena for his actions in the Juneau sinking were unconscionable. He'd already been awarded the Navy Cross, the nation's second highest award for heroism, not once, not twice but three times. (Coral Sea, Cape Esperance and Naval Battle of Guadalcanal)
Halsey relieved him of command, ending his career, for not stopping to search for and pickup survivors of the USS Juneau. Read this description and decide if you think it justified: from Wikipedia--"As a result of the night action off Guadalcanal (12-13 November 1942) only six of the thirteen U.S. Navy ships involved were able to steam away under their own power. The six included Helena. By dawn, these survivors had been gathered together by the senior surviving officer, Captain Hoover, in the southeast end of Indispensable Strait. In Captain Hoover's preliminary action report to Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, Commander, South Pacific, Hoover stated that he was concerned that radio emissions might disclose the location of the ships, so he sent the report over to the USS O'Bannon and ordered her north of San Cristobal Island to transmit it by radio. Captain Hoover then turned the five ships south of San Cristobal and, in a loose formation, headed for Espiritu Santo. In the southeast end of Indispensable Strait the USS Juneau was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-26. Having received reports that three more Japanese submarines lurked along his route and with a submarine present in his area Hoover made the decision to not search for survivors of the USS Juneau, thereby abandoning 100 survivors, of which only ten survived.[16] Hoover was left with Helena and the USS San Francisco, which was in shambles, and two destroyers, the USS Sterett DD-407 and USS Fletcher DD-445. The Sterett's sonar was out of commission leaving the Fletcher as Hoover's only effective ASW ship. Hoover sent a signal to an overhead USAAF bomber to ask ComSoPac (Halsey) to rescue Juneau's survivors. The message was reportedly never received by Halsey. Admiral William Halsey, angered by Hoover's decision, had Captain Hoover removed from command, effectively ending his career."

 

This is reminiscent of the sinking of the British armoured cruisers Aboukir, Hogue, and Cressy in 1914 by U-9. When the first ship (Aboukir?) was torpedoed, the other two stopped and lowered boats to rescue survivors; in fairness, it was thought that Aboukir might have hit a mine. A second ship was torpedoed, and the third continued rescue efforts. IIRC U-9's periscope had been spotted and fired on, but the rescue attempt continued until the last ship was sunk.

I would say Captain Hoover's action at the time of Juneau's sinking was justified; the pity is that a search for survivors was not organized promptly.