Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his team has just made one of the biggest discoveries in WW2 Naval history.
For 72-years researchers have looked for the sunken heavy cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis (CA-35).
The sinking of U.S.S. Indianapolis is considered to be worst loss of life in the history of the U.S. Navy.
It happened towards the end of WW2, July of 1945, when a Japanese sub launched torpedoes that brought the ship down in a mere 12-minutes.
But that’s not the terrifying part…SHARKS.
During the attack, 300 of the 1,200 total crew died in the torpedo blast.
This left 900 un-lucky souls out in the Pacific Ocean.
Five days later a total of 317 lived to tell the tale.
18-year-old survivor Harold Eck :
“There soon were hundreds of fins around us.”
“The first attack I saw was on a sailor who had drifted away from the group.”
“I heard yelling and screaming and saw him thrashing…then I just saw red foamy water.”
Mr. Eck continued with details about how the surviving crew had to remove the dead men’s life-jackets and let their bodies drift away from the group.
“The floating dead were taken in a feeding frenzy.”
Survivors’ accounts told in the 2002 book “Only 317 Survived”.
One of the crazy details about this sinking is that just days earlier, the USS Indy delivered enriched uranium to a US base on Tinian island.
The crew was unaware of this cargo…that package’s content was used in the weapon named “Little Boy”…over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, on August 6th of 1945, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay” dropped history’s first war-time atomic bomb.
Only 32 of the crew are living today, one of them is Arthur Leenerman. 72-years later, he said the following about the news of discovering the sunken USS Indianapolis:
“The lost-at-sea families will feel pretty sad, but I think finding the ship will also give them some closure.”
From Paul Allen:
“To be able to honor the brave men of the USS Indianapolis and their families through the discovery of a ship that played such a significant role in ending (the war) is truly humbling.”
In the movie JAWS their is an iconic scene in which,
Quint (Robert Shaw) reveals to Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and Brody (Roy Scheider) the chilling shark-infested nightmare of his past.
The story is based on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.
Outpouring of emotions were then Tweeted to Mr. Allen announcing the discovery of USS Indy; the worst loss of lives in U.S. Naval history.
Tweets to Paul Allen Source
also, learn more at:
Paul Allen’s website Photo and Story Source
