16 July 1945, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis leaves San Francisco with parts for the atomic bomb “Little Boy” bound for Tinian Island.
The Indianapolis was sent on a high-speed voyage to deliver cargo to a U.S. air base on Tinian, one of the Mariana Islands, in the western Pacific. No one on board knew that the cargo consisted of parts for atomic bombs. The Indianapolis traveled from San Francisco to Tinian in only 10 days. After completing the delivery on July 26, it proceeded to Guam and then was sent to Leyte Gulf, in the Philippines. The ship had traveled about halfway to Leyte when it was hit on July 30 by two torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-58. The Indianapolis sank in about 12 minutes.
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