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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In Harm's Way will take you there!, 3 May 2001
The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis & the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors. In July of 1945, the cruiser USS Indianapolis set out from San Francisco with a secret & dangerous cargo, headed for Tinian, a distant South Pacific island. With a record-breaking run to Hawaii & then on to Guam for fuel & fresh supplies, she delivered her load with no notable incidents.For this child of an island nation, who cut her teeth on plane & ship silhouettes & sang the Seaman's Hymn in school chapel; who never tasted a fresh orange or banana; who lived on reconstituted eggs & milk & learned to count with ration books. For this little sister who heard older brothers' incessantly talk of The War. For this daughter who listened to her father's memories of the War to End All Wars & who, with the entire family, heard the BBC Radio broadcasts of the battles on land, in the sea & in the air - In Harm's Way touched me as only naval sagas can. This is an astonishing read - which starts with the end of an old tar's life & then tells the story of one venerable ship upon which President Franklin Roosevelt had sailed to South America; of her mostly young crew with a sprinkling of seasoned hands & her captain, a scion from a naval tradition & her most secret mission. Through the memories of three particular crew members & the researching of hundreds of documents, this author unearths the accidents & snafus that cast the Indy's fate as she island-hopped across the Pacific. There were 1,196 souls aboard the USS Indianapolis, many sleeping on deck, a handful incarcerated in the brig, a few in the infirmary. The cooks & dishwashers had finished their work & were at last also off duty. Captain Butler McVay went through his usual routine & headed for his watch bunk. Unbeknownst to the US Navy & the high-level secret agents that covered the Pacific war zone, young Lieutenant Commander Hashimoto, captain of the <I>I-58</I> submarine, was prowling the same waters looking for trouble. Early one evening, his sonar man picked up a noise that was coming closer. Hashimoto ordered his submarine to surface & couldn't believe his luck when they caught a bearing on a possible enemy ship. At 12:05 A.M. on July 30, 1945 all hell broke loose aboard the USS Indianapolis. Interweaving the stories of three survivors - the captain, the ship's doctor, & a young marine - journalist Doug Stanton has brought this astonishing human drama to life in a narrative that is both immediate & timeless. As the definitive account of a little-known chapter in World War II history, In Harm's Way is destined to become a classic tale of war, survival & extraordinary courage. I learnt so much about the war in the Pacific - how it was fought, survived, its final submission & the attitude of a nation eager to be done with war. A remarkably lively, respectful & detailed read that breathes life back into a dusty tragedy of naval snafus, bureaucratic complacency & eventual punitive actions. It is, however, the valor & tenacity of every one of those souls who died & survived that earns the respect of this child of war!
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by Jim Smith
![Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis [DVD] [1991] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jD2h1ZdAL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
by Ed Offley
by Craig W. Nelson
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