About this title: This World War II account of survival at sea also raises questions of military justice. The USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by the Japanese after it had delivered a top secret cargo that was later revealed to be elements of one of the bombs dropped on Japan. The crew abandoned ship and endured a five-day ordeal in open sea before the survivors were ...
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780593047408ISBN:0593047400
Description: Very Good. HEAVY ITEM PLEASE EMAIL FOR POSTAGE QUOTES OUTSIDE THE UK VERY GOOD CONDITION-VERY FEW MINOR DEFECTS SECURE DAILY POSTING FROM UK. 30 DAY GUARANTEE. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books Ltd
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780553813609ISBN:0553813609
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Description: Good. Ships from the UK. Missing front flyleaf. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Your purchase also supports literacy charities. read more
Description: Good. Ships from the UK. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Your purchase also supports literacy charities. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Press, London, United Kingdom
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780593047408ISBN:0593047400
Description: Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 25% of the proceeds from this book will be donated to charity. rolled at the spine. light creasing to cover. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780593047408ISBN:0593047400
Description: Good. All orders are dispatched from our UK warehouse within one working day. Established in 2004. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780593047408ISBN:0593047400
Description: Good. All orders are dispatched from our UK warehouse within one working day. Established in 2004. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780553813609ISBN:0553813609
Description: Good. PAPERBACK BOOK-GOOD OVERALL CONDITION-TRUSTED DEVON (UK) BASED SELLER-IN STOCK-SENT WITHIN 1 WORKING DAY-AVAILABLE BY EMAIL FOR QUERIES-NO QUIBBLE REFUND IF NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED- read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780553813609ISBN:0553813609
Description: Good. All orders are dispatched from our UK warehouse within one working day. Established in 2004. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books Ltd
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780553813609ISBN:0553813609
Description: Good. This book is in GOOD overall condition. It shows signs of having been read and has general light wear to the cover, spine and pages. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780593047408ISBN:0593047400
Description: Very Good. EXCELLENT value for money and ready for dispatch. Delivery usually within 3/5 days. Our reputation is built on our Speedy Delivery Service and our Customer Service Team. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780312983376ISBN:0312983379
Description: Good. This book is in GOOD overall condition. It shows signs of having been read and has general light wear to the cover, spine and pages. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780553813609ISBN:0553813609
Description: Good. Our aim is to create value for our customers through the provision of low cost, affordable products and an overall satisfying buying experience. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780593047408ISBN:0593047400
Description: Good. Ex-library. Missing front endpaper. Ex-library. Usual library markings inside cover. All orders are dispatched from our UK warehouse within one working day. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied. read more
Binding: softcover
Publisher: Bantam
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780593047408ISBN:0593047400
Description: Very good. Very good condition large format paperback book with no marks or inscriptions internally-light edge wear, light creasing-illustrated-very good copy. read more
Description: Very good. Paperback. May contain minor creasing/scuffing to cover and mild tanning to pages. But otherwise will be of exceptional quality. FAST DISPATCH. read more
Description: Very good. Paperback. May contain minor creasing/scuffing to cover and mild tanning to pages. But otherwise will be of exceptional quality. FAST DISPATCH. read more
"The book I read is called In Harm's Way. I heard about this book from my father who read it before me. I found the book interesting since my favorite subject is history and this is during WWII. I think the author wanted to inform us about the struggle the sailors went through to survive. I would recommend this book to a history teacher because of all the history it talks about. To sum up the book, it is action packed and you don't know what will happen next. From this book I learned how poor the communication was back then and that was why it took so long for the sailors to be found. I also learned the fear the sailors went through to think that they won't survive another day."
"Remember the scene in "Jaws" where Quince tells Brody and Richard Dryfus about his experience in the Navy when his destroyer was sunk in the Pacific and the crew was hunted by sharks for 2 days before rescue? This is the book about that ship and crew. It is extremely terrifying, especially since it is a true story. The crew's encounter with sharks is only about 40% of their dangers as they cling to life waiting for help. Great book."
"Japanese torpedo slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. Just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for half an hour...Sometimes that shark looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And you know the thing about a shark, he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya he doesn't seem to be living...until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then...you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces... So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.
-- Robert Shaw as "Quint" in Jaws
The famous monologue in Jaws, one of the great scenes in all movie history, helped save the USS Indianapolis from the dustbin of history. It was one of the Navy's all-time great tragedies. A US battle cruiser is torpedoed in the South Pacific by a Japanese submarine. 300 men are killed instantly. 900 men abandon ship. They remain at sea for five days, where they are beset by sharks and hypothermia. The Navy doesn't know they're missing and rescue is accidental. Only 321 are saved. This was in the waning days of World War II, and with the news of the atomic bombs falling and the war ending, the sad tale almost escaped notice.
Since Quint's monologue, the story of the Indianapolis has been told several times, often ably. There was Richard Newcomb's Abandon Ship and Raymond Lech's All the Drowned Sailors (which traumatized me as a kid). There was also a slapdish TV movie starring Stacy Keach and Richard "John Boy" Thomas called Mission of the Shark (I believe it was spliced together with National Geographic footage of sharks and shots of Stacy Keach floating in his backyard swimming pool).
Doug Stanton doesn't offer anything new, per se, but he gives a nice, updated retelling of this horrible event.
The book starts with Captain Charles Butler McVeigh's suicide. McVeigh was the commander of the Indianapolis. Following the disaster, in an unusual and unprecedented (and spiteful) move, the Navy court-martialed him. The only captain ever court-martialed for losing a ship in war time. To add salt to the wound, the Navy called Hashimoto, the Japanese sub commander, to testify!
After McVeigh's death, we flash back to San Francisco in 1945. The Indianapolis sets sail with the components for the atomic bomb. After dropping off its lethal cargo, it sails through enemy waters without an escort. McVeigh is not zig-zagging, which is standard anti-submarine doctrine for the day. The I-58 sees her and fires a fan of six torpedoes.
It took less than a minute for two of the torpedoes to intercept the Indianapolis. At 12:05 A.M. all hell broke loose. The first torpedo hit the forward starboard, or right, side and blew an estimated sixty-five feet of the bow skyward. It was simply obliterated. Men were thrown fifteen feet in the air. Those who weren't blown in two landed on their feet, stunned, their ears ringing. The second explosion occurred closer to midship and was even more massive. The sea itself seemed to be burning. The first torpedo had smashed one gas tank containing 3,500 gallons of high-octane aviation fuel, igniting a burning river that reduced the bulkheads and doors to red-hot slabs of steel. The fuel incinerated everything in its path. The number one smokestack, acting as a chimney for the inferno raging below, belched a volcanic streamer of fire that shot several hundred feet into the air, littering the ships with sparks and cinders."
As this excerpt shows, Stanton is a muscular writer. He uses simple, powerful sentences and often slips into standard action-movie cliches ("all hell broke loose"). Still, it makes for a propulsive read. And it gets better as it moves forward. Once in the water, Stanton follows a variety of sailors: Captain McVeigh, who found a life raft; Dr. Haynes, who bravely treated the men in the water as best he could (oil as sunscreen!); as well as a number of ordinary seamen who gave vivid accounts of the ordeal. Not only does he maintain a good narrative, but Stanton also includes fascinating bits of science, so that you really get a grasp of what happened to these men, left out in the Pacific.
As soon as the sun set, as it did with guillotine-like speed this close to the equator, the boys started shivering uncontrollably. This was the body's way of generating heat, but it quadrupled the rate of oxygen consumed. Hypothermia depresses the central nervous system as the body slows to conserve energy, and at a core temperature of 93 degrees (nearly 5 degrees below normal), speech becomes difficult, apathy develops, and amnesia typically sets in. At around 91 degrees, the kidneys stop filtering the body's waste - urination stops - and hypoxia, or poisoning, commences. Breathing becomes labored, the heart beats raggedly, and consciousness dims. The afflicted fall into an inattentive stupor.
Like Sebastian Junger in The Perfect Storm, Stanton admirably intertwines the personal stories of these men with the physiological effects of the ordeal (aside from his description of hypothermia, there is a great passage on dehydration and the disastrous consequences of drinking salt water).
The things these young men - some very young - endured defies description, though Stanton does his best. He tells of men who start hallucinating and fighting their buddies, mistaking them for the Japanese. He describes men suffering from hypothermia, hypernatremia, photophobia and dehydration. And of course he describes the sharks - the emblem of this tragedy - always circling the floating men. (Stanton estimates that of the 900 water deaths, 200 were from shark attacks, an average of 50 a day)
Stanton is an unabashed admirer of the survivors, for good reason, and does not hide his outrage over McVeigh's later treatment. One suspects that the Navy was trying to hide its own incompetence by railroading McVeigh. Indeed, it was the Navy that failed to provide an escort and the Navy that failed to realize the Indianapolis wasn't in port. It was only a fortuitous pass-over by a scout plane that saved the Indianapolis's remaining sailors.
As a side note, despite McVeigh's conviction, he stayed in the Navy and, shortly before his retirement, was promoted to rear admiral. Decades later, a school boy from Florida named Hunter Scott, as part of a school project, set out to clear McVeigh's name. Because the US Congress can't say no to a school boy (I'm looking at you Mark Foley), it passed a (nonbinding) resolution exonerating McVeigh. This was supposed to have been made into a movie, but alas, I am stuck with my VHS copy of Mission of the Shark."
"In Harm's Way is a very vivid and detailed telling of the fate of the USS Indianapolis, which was torpedoed by the Japanese in the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, leaving the survivors stranded and drifting on the sea for days. The homecoming of the survivors was marred by the court-martial of their Captain in what the author portrays as a real miscarriage of justice; furthermore, the announcement of the end of the war just two weeks after they were rescued sidelined the survivors' tragic story. As the mother of a son just the age of these boys, my heart literally ached as I learned their horrific story. In fact, I had a hard time finishing some of the passages. It is the saddest of tragedies. Thank heavens this story has been brought to full light after all these years, Historically, everyone should know what happened to the men aboard the USS Indianapolis on July 20, 1945. But brace yourselves-it's truly heartbreaking."
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