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(Captain Charles B. McVay, III, USN)

Recollections of Captain Charles B. McVay, III, USN, Commanding Officer of USS Indianapolis (CA-35) which was sunk by Japanese submarine I-58 on 30 July 1045 near the Philippines

Source: Charles B. McVay, III, interview in box 21 of World War II Interviews, Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center.

The [heavy cruiser USS] Indianapolis [CA-35] had come to the Navy Yard, Mare Island [in San Francisco Bay] in early May 1945, to get heavy underwater damage repaired from a Kamikaze [Japanese suicide aircraft] hit that she took in [the Battle of] Okinawa on 30 March [1945]. We had more time there than anticipated and knew that we were due back in the forward area at the earliest practicable date.

On about 12 July, I got orders which indicated that we had to perform some special mission, so that we knew that we would not be able to take our usual refresher course on the west coast, but had been told we would receive that in the forward area. On 15 July, I was in San Francisco, and talked with Admiral Purnell and Captain Parsons who I know were connected in an intimate way with a secret project, but I did not know what this project was. I was informed at that time that when we were ready for sea on 16 July, we would proceed as fast as possible to the forward area. On Sunday, the 15th of July, about noon, we were at Hunters Point and they put on us what we now know was the Atomic Bomb.

We sailed from San Francisco, 0800 the morning of 16th July. We ran into a little rough weather outside the Golden Gate, so the first day we only made 28 knots. The next two days we made 29 knots and we discovered when we arrived in Pearl [Harbor, Hawaii] that we had established a new record from Faralens Light Ship to Diamond Head (an extinct volcano on the Hawaiian island of Oahu - a prominent landmark from the sea). The old record, which is given in the World Almanac of 1944, was established by the [USS] Omaha [CL-4] in 1932 when she made a trip which took 75.4 hours. We made the trip in 74-1/2 hours.

When I arrived at Pearl [in Indianapolis], I knew the approximate date that I had to get out in the Marianas [island chain located 1,400 miles south of Japan] and since we were able to reach that area in within a week prior to the time that I knew I had to arrive, I said that I would make from Pearl to the Marianas a speed of 24 knots at which I would arrive out at Tinian [in the Marianas] the morning of the 26th. We made this sustained speed without any difficulty so that we arrived in Tinian the morning of 26 July and unloaded the material and the bomb which was later to be dropped over Hiroshima.

We left Tinian immediately upon unloading and went to Guam [largest island in the Marianas], an overnight trip, where we arrived the next morning and went through the usual anti-aircraft practices. We got into Guam about 1000. We replenished ammunition, stores and fuel and left Guam Saturday morning at about 0930. We were given a routing from Port Director, Guam, and a speed which we were told to maintain except under conditions which we thought we had to make a greater speed in order to avoid either navigational or other obstructions.

We had no incidents whatsoever. We passed an LST [Landing Ship Tank] headed toward Leyte [Philippine Islands], as we were also, on Sunday, and talked to them. They were north of us and were they were preparing to go further north in order to get out of our area to do some anti- aircraft shooting. My instructions from Guam called for me to make an SOA [speed over-all] of 15.7 knots and to arrive at Leyte at 1100 Tuesday, 31 July.

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(Captain Charles B. McVay, III, USN)