USN
Portland Class Cruiser
October 1942
July 10, 1945
Sinking History
The second ship named for Indianapolis, Indiana, she was laid down on 31 March 1930 by New York Shipbuilding, Camden, New Jersey; launched on 7 November 1931; sponsored by Miss Lucy Taggart, daughter of the late Senator Thomas Taggart, a former mayor of Indianapolis; and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 15 November 1932, Captain John M. Smeallie in command.
Prewar
Following shakedown in the Atlantic and Guantánamo Bay until 23 February 1932, Indianapolis trained in the Panama Canal Zone and in the Pacific off the Chilean coast. After overhaul at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the heavy cruiser sailed to Maine to embark President Franklin Roosevelt at Campobello Island, in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, on 1 July 1933. Getting underway the same day, Indianapolis arrived at Annapolis, Maryland two days later where she entertained six members of the cabinet. After disembarking the President, she departed Annapolis on 4 July, and returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Indianapolis acted as flagship for the remainder of her peacetime career, and again welcomed President Roosevelt at Charleston, South Carolina, on 18 November 1936 for a "Good-Neighbor" cruise to South America. After carrying President Roosevelt to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo for state visits, she returned to Charleston on 15 December where the presidential party left the ship.
Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, Indianapolis was making a simulated bombardment of Johnston Island when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Afterwards, she joined Task Force 12 (TF 12) and searched for Japanese carriers reportedly still in the vicinity.
1942
Her first action came in the South Pacific about 350 mile south of Rabaul. Late in the afternoon of 20 February 1942, the American ships were attacked by 18 twin-engine bombers, flying in two waves. In the battle that followed, 16 of the planes were shot down by anti-aircraft fire of the ships and fighter planes from Lexington. All ships escaped damage, and they shot down two trailing Japanese seaplanes. On 10 March, the Task Force, reinforced by Yorktown, attacked Lae and Salamaua.
Indianapolis then returned to the United States for overhaul and alterations in the Mare Island Navy Yard. Following the refit, Indianapolis escorted a convoy to Australia, then headed for the North Pacific where Japanese landings in the Aleutian Islands had created a precarious situation. The weather along this barren chain of islands is noted for continuous coldness, persistent and unpredictable fog, constant rain and sleet, and sudden storms with violent winds and heavy seas.
On 7 August, the task force to which Indianapolis was attached finally found an opening in the thick fog which hid the Japanese stronghold at Kiska Island, and imperiled ships in the treacherous and partially uncharted nearby coasts. Indianapolis' 8 in (200 mm) guns opened up along with those of the other ships. Although fog hindered observation, floatplanes flown from the cruisers reported seeing ships sinking in the harbor and fires burning among shore installations. So complete was the tactical surprise that it was 15 minutes before shore batteries began to answer, and some of them shot into the air, believing they were being bombed. Most of them were silenced by accurate gunnery from the ships. Japanese submarines then appeared but were promptly depth-charged by American destroyers. Japanese seaplanes also made an ineffective bombing attack. The operation was considered a success despite the scanty information on its results. It also demonstrated the necessity of obtaining bases nearer the Japanese-held islands. Consequently, US forces occupied Adak Island later in the month, providing a base suitable for surface craft and planes further along the island chain from Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island.
1943
In January 1943, Indianapolis supported the occupation of Amchitka, which gave the Allies another base in the Aleutians. On the night of 19 February, while Indianapolis and two destroyers patrolled southwest of Attu Island, hoping to intercept enemy ships running reinforcements and supplies into Kiska and Attu, she contacted a Japanese cargo ship, Akagane Maru. The cargo ship tried to make a reply to the challenge but was shelled by Indianapolis. Akagane Maru exploded with great force and left no survivors, presumably because she was laden with ammunition. Throughout the spring and summer, Indianapolis operated in Aleutian waters escorting American convoys and covering amphibious assaults. In May, the Allies captured Attu, the first territory occupied by the Japanese to be reconquered by the United States. After Attu was secure, the US forces focused their attention on Kiska, the last enemy stronghold in the Aleutians. However, the Japanese managed to evacuate their entire garrison under cover of persistent, thick fog before the Allied landings there on 15 August.
After refitting at Mare Island, Indianapolis moved to Hawaii where she became the flagship of Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance commanding the 5th Fleet. She sortied from Pearl Harbor on 10 November with the main body of the Southern Attack Force for Operation Galvanic, the invasion of the Gilbert Islands. On 19 November, Indianapolis bombarded Tarawa Atoll and next day pounded Makin (see Battle of Makin). The ship then returned to Tarawa and acted as a fire-support ship for the landings. That day her guns shot down an enemy plane and shelled enemy strong points as landing parties struggled against Japanese defenders in the bloody and costly battle of Tarawa. She continued this role until the leveled island was declared secure 3 days later. The conquest of the Marshall Islands followed hard on victory in the Gilberts. Indianapolis was again 5th Fleet Flagship.
1944
The cruiser rendezvoused with other ships of her task force at Tarawa, and on D-Day minus 1, 31 January 1944, she was a unit of the cruiser group which bombarded the islands of Kwajalein Atoll. The shelling continued on D-Day with Indianapolis silencing two enemy shore batteries. Next day she obliterated a blockhouse and other shore installations and supported advancing troops with a creeping barrage. The ship entered Kwajalein Lagoon on 4 February, and remained until all resistance disappeared.
In March-April, Indianapolis, still flagship of the 5th Fleet, attacked the Western Carolines. Carrier planes struck at the Palau Islands on 30-31 March with shipping as their primary target. They sank three destroyers, 17 freighters, five oilers and damaged 17 other ships. In addition, airfields were bombed and surrounding waters mined to immobilize enemy ships. Yap and Ulithi were struck on the 31st and Woleai on 1 April. During these three days, Japanese planes attacked the US fleet but were driven off without damaging the American ships. Indianapolis shot down her second plane, a torpedo bomber, and the Japanese lost 160 planes in all, including 46 destroyed on the ground. These attacks successfully prevented Japanese forces from the Carolines from interfering with the US landings on New Guinea.
In June, the 5th Fleet was busy with the assault on the Mariana Islands. Raids on Saipan began with carrier-based planes on 11 June, followed by surface bombardment, in which Indianapolis had a major role, from 13 June. (See Battle of Saipan.) On D-Day, 15 June, Admiral Spruance received reports that a large fleet of battleships, carriers, cruisers, and destroyers was headed south to relieve their threatened garrisons in the Marianas. Since amphibious operations at Saipan had to be protected at all costs, Admiral Spruance could not draw his powerful surface units too far from the scene. Consequently, a fast carrier force was sent to meet this threat while another force attacked Japanese air bases on Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima in the Bonin and Volcano Islands, bases for potential enemy air attacks.
A combined US fleet fought the Japanese on 19 June in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Japanese carrier planes, which hoped to use the airfields of Guam and Tinian to refuel and rearm and attack American off-shore shipping, were met by carrier planes and the guns of the Allied escorting ships. That day, the US Navy destroyed a reported 426 Japanese planes while losing only 29.[3] Indianapolis herself shot down one torpedo plane. This day of aerial combat became known throughout the fleet as the "Marianas Turkey Shoot". With Japanese air opposition wiped out, the US carrier planes pursued and sank Hiyō, two destroyers, and one tanker and inflicted severe damage on other ships. Two other carriers, Taihō and Shōkaku, were sunk by submarines.
Indianapolis returned to Saipan on 23 June to resume fire support there and six days later moved to Tinian to smash shore installations (see Battle of Tinian). Meanwhile, Guam had been taken; and Indianapolis was the first ship to enter Apra Harbor since that American base had fallen early in the war. The ship operated in the Marianas for the next few weeks, then moved to the Western Carolines where further landings were planned. From 12-29 September, she bombarded the Island of Peleliu in the Palau Group, both before and after the landings (see Battle of Peleliu). She then sailed to Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands where she operated for 10 days before returning to the Mare Island Navy Yard.
1945
Overhauled, Indianapolis joined Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's fast carrier task force on 14 February 1945, two days before it made an attack on Tokyo, the first since the Doolittle Raid. The operation covered American landings on Iwo Jima, scheduled for 19 February, by destroying Japanese air facilities and other installations in the "Home Islands". Complete tactical surprise was achieved by approaching the Japanese coast under cover of bad weather, and attacks were pressed home for two days. On 16-17 February, the American Navy lost 49 carrier planes while shooting down or destroying on the ground 499 enemy planes. Besides this 10:1 edge in aircraft victories, Mitscher's Force sank a carrier, nine coastal ships, a destroyer, two destroyer escorts, and a cargo ship. Moreover, they wrecked hangars, shops, aircraft installations, factories, and other industrial targets. Throughout the action, Indianapolis played her vital role of support ship.
Immediately after the strikes, the Task Force raced to Bonin to support the landings on Iwo Jima. The ship remained there until 1 March, protecting the invasion ships and training her guns on any targets spotted on the beach. The ship returned to Admiral Mitscher's Task Force in time to strike Tokyo again on 25 February and Hachijo off the southern coast of Honshū the following day. Although weather was extremely bad, the American force destroyed 158 planes and sank five small ships while pounding ground installations and demolishing trains.
A large base close to the home islands was needed to press the attack, and Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands seemed ideal for the part. To capture it with minimum losses, airfields in southern Japan had to be pounded until they were incapable of launching effective airborne opposition to the impending invasion. Indianapolis, with the fast carrier force, departed Ulithi on 14 March, and proceeded toward the Japanese coast. On 18 March, from a position 100 mi (160 km) southeast of Kyūshū, the flat-tops launched strikes against airfields on the island, ships of the Japanese fleet in the harbors of Kobe and Kure on southern Honshū. After locating the American Task Force 21 March, Japan sent 48 planes to attack the ships, but 24 planes from the carriers intercepted the enemy aircraft some 60 mi (97 km) away. By the end of the battle, every plane in the Japanese attack force had been destroyed.
Preinvasion bombardment of Okinawa began on 24 March, and for seven days Indianapolis poured 8 in (200 mm) shells into the beach defenses. Meanwhile, enemy aircraft repeatedly attacked the ships, and Indianapolis shot down six planes and damaged two others. On 31 March, the ship's lookouts spotted a Japanese fighter as it emerged from the morning twilight and roared at the bridge in a vertical dive. The ship's 20 mm guns opened fire, but less than 15 seconds after it was spotted, the plane was over the ship. Tracers converged on it, causing it to swerve, but the enemy pilot managed to release his bomb from a height of 25 ft (7.6 m) and crash his plane near the port stern. The plane toppled harmlessly into the sea, but the bomb plummeted through the deck, into the crew's mess hall, down through the berthing compartment, and through the fuel tanks before crashing through the keel and exploding in the water underneath. The concussion blew two gaping holes in the keel and flooded nearby compartments, killing nine crewmen. Although Indianapolis settled slightly by the stern and listed to port, there was no progressive flooding, and the cruiser steamed to a salvage ship for emergency repairs. Here, inspection revealed that her propeller shafts were damaged, her fuel tanks ruptured, her water-distilling equipment ruined. Nevertheless, the cruiser made the long trip across the Pacific to Mare Island under her own power.
After major repairs and an overhaul, Indianapolis received orders to proceed to Tinian island, carrying parts and the uranium projectile for the atomic bomb Little Boy which would later be dropped on Hiroshima. Indianapolis departed San Francisco on 16 July. Arriving at Pearl Harbor on 19 July, she raced on unaccompanied and arrived in Tinian on 26 July. After delivering her top secret cargo to Tinian, Indianapolis was sent to Guam where a number of the crew who had completed their tours of duty were replaced by other sailors. Leaving Guam on 28 July, she began sailing toward Leyte where her crew was to receive training before continuing on to Okinawa to join Vice Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf's TF 95.
However, at 0014 on 30 July, two large explosions on the vessel's starboard side caused massive damage to Indianapolis. 12 minutes later, as a result of the unexpected attack by the Japanese submarine I-58 under the command of Mochitsura Hashimoto, Indianapolis sank. The Japanese vessel had gone undetected prior to the attack due to the lack of effective submarine detection equipment on the American ship.
Sinking History
At 12:14 a.m. on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis
was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine I-58 in the Philippine Sea and sank
in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 men on board, approximately 300 went down with
the ship. The remainder, about 900 men, were left floating in shark-infested
waters with no lifeboats and most with no food or water.
The ship's failure to arrive not detected at its scheduled arrival point and by the time the survivors were spotted by accident four days later by a PBY Catalina from Peleliu on August 3. Only 316 men were still alive.
