WaPo: Wreckage of ship that carried Little Boy from US mainland found

[Elessar78]

Researchers find wreckage of lost WWII warship USS Indianapolis

 

Naval researchers announced Saturday that they have found the wreckage of the lost World War II cruiser USS Indianapolis on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, 72 years after the vessel sank in minutes after it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.

 

The Indianapolis had just completed a top-secret mission to deliver components of the atomic bomb “Little Boy” to the island of Tinian. The bomb was later dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/researchers-find-wreckage-of-lost-wwii-warship-uss-indianapolis/2017/08/19/9b432b1c-8520-11e7-ab27-1a21a8e006ab_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_ussindianapolis-810pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.2c1af4daa399

 

I just finished reading a book about the Manhattan Project last year. I can't remember if they sent the Indianapolis in a convoy or not. But it carried the only working bomb the MP had on hand. At the time it took a long time to enrich uranium for an explosive device, so they really couldn't just whip up another one. I think it was on the order of months or weeks, I believe. It's interesting to think how the course of WW2 and human history in general would've changed if the Japanese sub had found it 48-72 hours earlier. 

 

Dropping the bomb was a politically charged decision at the time. Congress wasn't let in on the secret project until very late in the game. So if the first one was sunk, then they may not have proceeded unless the war dragged out until they had a new one ready or we suffered severe losses in a land invasion. But there's a lot of information that arose that Japanese capitulation was imminent, because the Russians had opened a second front approaching from China. They also discovered that the Japanese had sent a envoy to Switzerland to sue for peace a day or two before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. 

 

 

 

route from mainland to Tinian

 

[Dan T.]

That real-life tragedy was the basis for this scene from Jaws:

 

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

^ Beat me to it.