Uploaded July 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
At 12:15 a.m. on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was struck on her starboard side by two Type 95 torpedoes launched by the Japanese submarine I-58, commanded by Captain Mochitsura Hashimoto. Hashimoto had initially mistaken the silhouette of the Indianapolis for a New Mexico-class battleship, possibly the USS Idaho. The torpedoes hit with devastating precision—one near the bow, the other amidships—causing catastrophic damage.
The Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser that had become increasingly top-heavy due to added armament and advanced fire-control systems over the course of the war, immediately began to list heavily. She quickly settled by the bow. Just twelve minutes after the torpedoes struck, the ship capsized, her stern rising briefly into the air before she plunged beneath the surface of the Philippine Sea.
Roughly 300 of the 1,195 sailors and Marines aboard were killed in the initial explosions or went down with the ship. The remaining 900 were cast into the dark ocean, many without life jackets and with only a few lifeboats available. Their ordeal—shark attacks, dehydration, and exposure—would become one of the most harrowing and deadly disasters in U.S. naval history.
At 12:15 a.m. on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was struck on her starboard side by two Type 95 torpedoes launched by the Japanese submarine I-58, commanded by Captain Mochitsura Hashimoto. Hashimoto had initially mistaken the silhouette of the Indianapolis for a New Mexico-class battleship, possibly the USS Idaho. The torpedoes hit with devastating precision—one near the bow, the other amidships—causing catastrophic damage.
The Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser that had become increasingly top-heavy due to added armament and advanced fire-control systems over the course of the war, immediately began to list heavily. She quickly settled by the bow. Just twelve minutes after the torpedoes struck, the ship capsized, her stern rising briefly into the air before she plunged beneath the surface of the Philippine Sea.
Roughly 300 of the 1,195 sailors and Marines aboard were killed in the initial explosions or went down with the ship. The remaining 900 were cast into the dark ocean, many without life jackets and with only a few lifeboats available. Their ordeal—shark attacks, dehydration, and exposure—would become one of the most harrowing and deadly disasters in U.S. naval history.
