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Anderson, Vincent Udell, BM1c.
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Casualty Info
Last Address 163 Ada St Ontario, CA
Casualty Date Jul 30, 1945
Cause KIA-Body Not Recovered
Reason Torpedoed
Location Pacific Ocean
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Manila American Cemetery and Memorial - Manila, Philippines
Wall/Plot Coordinates (cenotaph)
Military Service Number 3 759 184
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
On 30 July 1945, after delivering parts for the first atomic bomb to the United States air base at Tinian, the ship was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-58. She sank in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 crewmen aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remaining 900 faced exposure, dehydration, and shark attacks while floating with few lifeboats and almost no food or water. Only 317 of the 900 survived.
BM1 Anderson was among those listed as missing in action and later declared dead.
Comments/Citation:
Navy Boatswain’s Mate First Class Vincent Udell Anderson, 30, of Santa Cruz, California, was lost at sea near the Philippines during World War II on July 30, 1945, about two weeks before World War II ended.
He perished in the sinking of USS Indianapolis (CA-35). The cruiser had engaged in battles at New Guinea, the Aleutian Islands, Tarawa, Kwajalein, Saipan, the Philippines, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where it was heavily damaged by a Japanese kamikaze on March 31, 1945. On July 26, 1945, Indianapolis completed a top-secret, high-speed trip to deliver to the U.S. Army Air Forces Base on Tinian Island components of Little Boy, the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. It sailed from Guam on July 28, headed for Leyte in the Philippines with a crew of almost 1,200.
At 12:15 a.m. on July 30, Indianapolis was struck on its starboard side by two type-95 torpedoes, one in the bow and one amidships, from Japanese submarine I-58, captained by Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto. To add to the damage, the ship’s store of aviation fuel exploded. Indianapolis listed heavily and rolled over completely before sinking bow first after only 15 minutes, taking approximately 300 sailors down with her. The remaining 900 were set adrift with a few lifeboats and many without life jackets.
Many of those in the water had been injured and died soon after going in the water, and all suffered from a lack of food and water, dehydration, the hot sun during the day and hypothermia at night, continued exposure to salt water and oil, and shark attacks. Some killed themselves or other survivors because of various states of delirium and hallucinations.
The Navy was unaware of the ship's sinking until survivors were spotted almost four days later. Air and surface units capable of rescue operations were dispatched to the scene and rescued 317 survivors, meaning that 879 died at sea, either in the ship or in the water. It is impossible to know if Vincent died when the ship went down or in the water afterwards.
The Navy was reluctant to release news about the disaster because it wanted to notify families and because of fears that it would reflect negatively on the Navy. Press coverage was dominated by news of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6 and on Nagasaki on August 9. President Harry Truman announced the end of the war on August 14, 1945, the same day that the Navy released a 25-word statement about the fate of Indianapolis. Families were notified then that their loved one had been declared missing in action, but they did not receive official confirmation of his death until later.
On August 15, the Associated Press news service told the story of the last minutes of Indianapolis, based on interviews with Captain McVay and other survivors. Fifteen minutes after the torpedoes struck, the ship had rolled over a full 90 degrees, and McVay was washed off the sinking ship. “I saw two life rafts within twenty feet, with nobody aboard,” McVay recounted. “I got one, then secured the other.” He thought that he and others who made their way to his rafts were the only survivors. “We didn’t hear anyone call for help and thought we were the only survivors.” They saw plenty of planes overhead while they were in the water, but “wondered how in God’s name they could miss us. They didn’t know to look for survivors.”
In early October McVay wrote to the families of every sailor who had died on the ship. “Nothing I can say,” McVay said, “will lighten the burden which is yours at this time, but I do want you to know that your son had done his part in the team work which made the Indianapolis an efficient fighting part of the fleet.”
McVay was court martialed and convicted of negligence, the only Navy captain in history punished for the loss of a ship. Interest in the Indianapolis story was rekindled in 1956 when a survivor published an account of the tragedy in a national magazine, and the 1975 movie “Jaws” caused a greater resurgence of interest. In October 2000, the U.S. Congress exonerated McVay and awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to all crew members, living and dead. Wreckage of Indianapolis was discovered on the ocean bed, 18,000 feet below the surface, on August 19, 2017.
Vincent Anderson was born in 1914 in Tennessee and traveled across the U.S. before settling in California. He was the oldest child of William Howard Anderson (1886-1960), a farmer, and Annie Belle Simmons Anderson (1890-1979), a homemaker. He had four brothers – James, William, Roy and Charlie – and three sisters – Estelle, Annie Mae and Geraldine. The family lived on Franciscan Street in San Antonio, Texas, in 1920 and at 54 Elk Street in Santa Cruz, California, in 1930.
He enlisted in the Navy in San Francisco on October 4, 1938, and joined Indianapolis on December 31 of that year.
Vincent is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines and at the USS Indianapolis Memorial in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Stories Behind the Stars: This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/), a national effort of volunteers to write stories of all 407,000+ of the U.S. World War II fallen on Together We Served and on Fold3.. Eventually, a smartphone app will be available to allow people to visit a war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen soldier's name and read their story. If you would like to help with the project, you can find details on the website. If you have details, photos or corrections for this story, please email me at [email protected].
Tom Bowers- Contributing Author, Stories Behind the Stars
Western Caroline Islands Operation/Battle for Ulithi Atoll
From Month/Year
September / 1944
To Month/Year
September / 1944
Description Ulithi Atoll, also known as the Mackenzie Islands is a coral atoll in the Yap Islands, the western part of the Carolines. There are some 40 islets withn a total land area of 1.75 square miles (4.5 square km). It is located about 190 km east of Yap. The atoll’s inhabitants are probably of mixed Polynesian and Micronesian origins and speak Ulithian, an Austronesian language. It is one of the greatest natural harbors in the world. Ulithi appears to have been first sighted by Portuguese navigators (1526). No other record exists until Spanish Jesuit missionaries led by Juan Antonio Cantova landed (1731). Along with rest of the Carolines, the Germans purchased it from the Spanish and Japan seized it during World War I. After the War, the League of Nations awarded a mandate to the Japanese. The Japanese made little use of Ulithi, but did site a seaplane base there. They had a radio and weather station on Ulithi and the Imperial Navy had occasionally used the lagoon as an anchorage. The United States used it very differently. The Pacific Fleet at first avoided landinfs in The Carolines. What they wanted was the Marianas to the north wherevair bases could be used to bomb the Japanese Home Islands. Japanese garrisons in the Carlines, luke Truk, were neutralized rather than invaded, avoiding costly landings. As the Americans moved west toward the Philippines, it became obvious that a forward supply base was needed. Naval planners bgan asessing Ulithi. The Japanese who has established garison all over the Central Pacific, somehow failed to perceive the vast strategic importance of Ulithi. The atoll with its magnificent harbor was precisely what the pacific Fleet needed for its operations in the Western Pacific. The decisive Japanese defeat in the Battle of the Philippines Sea meant that the Pacific Fleet faced no naval opposition (June 1944). The Japanese withdrw to bases west of the Philippines and the Home Islands and began tom plan a naval battle to resist the anticipated American invasion of the Philippines. More surprising, the Japanese did not garrison Ulithi Atoll. A regiment of the US Army's 81st Division landed unopposed (September 23, 1944). A regiment of the US Army's 81st Division landed unopposed (September 23, 1944). They simply walked ashore and took possession of the Atoll. It was a gift of unimaginable value, a starategic prize that would play an important role in the final phase of the Pacific War. Tragically, the Americans and Japnese in the same month would fight an extended pitched battle for Pelilu in the Palaus, another chain in the Carolines of virtually no value. A battalion of Seabees followed. While a magificent natural harbor, it was totally undeveloped. The survey ship USS Sumner) assessed the lagoon and concluded it was capable of accomodating an stonishing 700 vessels. This was more than Pearl Harbor and then Majuro after the seizure of the Marshalls could handle. The Pacific Fleet rapidly turned it into the major supply base for major operations in the last year of the War (the Philippines and Okinawa). This was done with little publicity, but the Japanese eventually found out what they had conceded to the Americans without a fight. Japanese midgit subnarines attacked islamd in the harbor, but despite their success had no real impact on the supply operations there. After the War, Ulithi was used as a military radio outpost.
