War is a devil that brings harm to the world. It devours human lives wantonly. Because war is so terrifying, humans have the obligation to resist war and strive for world peace.

War is a devil that brings harm to the world. It devours human lives wantonly. Because war is so terrifying, humans have the obligation to resist war and strive for world peace. Those who suffered in the war years and those warriors who fought for peace are a strong part of human memory.

Article 1 of Chapter 1 of the Charter of the United Nations states: The purpose of the United Nations is, first, to maintain international peace and security; and to this end: to adopt effective collective measures to prevent and eliminate threats to peace. Threaten and stop acts of aggression or other disruptions of peace; and adjust or resolve international disputes or situations that may disrupt peace by peaceful means and in accordance with the principles of justice and international law. Maintaining world peace is one of the important reasons for the establishment of the United Nations.

Living in a peaceful era, it may be difficult for us to realize how hard-won peace is. In our effective memory, the precious scene that ushered in peace is probably Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, which was also a symbol of the victory of our country's anti-Japanese war. However, just before Japan surrendered, the largest shipwreck in the history of the U.S. Navy actually occurred in the United States. This disaster also taught people a profound lesson.

We all know that the reason why Japan surrendered was because after the Pearl Harbor incident, the United States joined the war and dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. However, before dropping the atomic bomb, a lot of preparation work needs to be done. One of the tasks is to transport the parts of the atomic bomb and the nuclear fuel . The United States handed over this important task to the then-famous cruiser USS Indianapolis (hereinafter referred to as the "Indian Ship"), whose captain was Charles McVeigh, who participated in many important battles in the United States.

The Indian ship has played an important role in the history of American wars and is equipped with the latest equipment. Charles also has rich combat and driving experience, so this mission is basically foolproof. However, before Charles set out, his commander gave him an order not to equip any escort ships.

This order is actually reasonable, because the task of transporting atomic bomb parts and fuel is top secret, and only the Indian ships can avoid being discovered by the Japanese army by traveling lightly. However, they ignored one detail. Although the Indian ship was equipped with very advanced equipment, only the sonar system was lagging behind. This system was set up to prevent sneak attacks by the enemy submarine during the battle. When the Indian ship is usually working, there will be escort ships nearby to monitor the surrounding environment for it, so the Indian ship does not need to worry about this situation at all. Nowadays, Indian ships are not equipped with any escort ships, which poses huge hidden dangers.

After receiving the order, Charles set out on July 15, passing through Pearl Harbor, and finally successfully delivered the supplies to the designated island. Then he received instructions from his superiors to immediately go to Leyte Island in the Philippines to participate in the battle, so Charles led the entire fleet of 1,198 navy sailors to sail on the Indian ship. This time he also did not equip an escort ship.

The danger occurred late at night on July 30. Due to strong winds and waves at night, the Indian ship was originally supposed to move forward in a "Z" shape according to the basic combat rules to avoid attacks from artillery shells and submarines. However, the ship's hull was bumpy to a large extent, which made many officers and soldiers on the ship feel uncomfortable. In addition, at that time, the Japanese Navy had been basically beaten to pieces. There was no backbone and the deterrent effect on the US Navy was almost zero, so Charles changed to advance in a straight line.

Unfortunately, however, after almost all the officers and soldiers on the ship fell asleep, a submarine quietly appeared around the Indian ship - the Japanese I-58 submarine. The Indian ship's sonar system did not notice the approaching danger. After the Japanese troops on the submarine inspected the Indian ship, they were surprised to find that such a large cruiser was not equipped with an escort at all, so they immediately launched three torpedoes at the Indian ship.

What is even more coincidental is that of these three torpedoes, one hit the fuel depot of the Indian ship, and the other hit the ammunition depot . In an instant, a huge explosion occurred, and more than 300 American officers and soldiers were nearby. Directly killed suddenly. The last torpedo hit the keel of the Indian ship, which was equivalent to directly disintegrating the structure of the entire ship. In about ten minutes or so, the Indian ship was torn apart.

The more than 900 surviving officers and soldiers only had time to put on life jackets. Before they could realize what happened, they fell directly from their warm beds into the cold sea water. Fortunately for them, Captain Charles sent a distress signal to the relevant authorities before the ship was about to break up, so they only had to float in the sea for a while to be rescued.

However, fear was only beginning to spread.

Until the first ray of sunshine in the morning came out, the officers and soldiers waited all night. Instead of waiting for the support of the troops, they waited for the most ferocious killing monster on the sea-the tiger shark. It was summer, a time when sharks were active. They were very sensitive to the smell of blood and soon swam towards the corpses of more than 300 officers and soldiers.

The survivors witnessed their comrades being devoured and bitten by tiger sharks, and suffered a serious mental blow; however, this did not end. After the tiger sharks devoured the dead officers and soldiers, they gradually changed their targets and began to attack survivors floating on the sea. those. One after another, officers and soldiers were bitten to death. In order to survive, the remaining people even reluctantly abandoned their comrades who were bleeding and asking for help, because once they were with them, they would be attacked by tiger sharks.

In the next three days, they not only had to battle wits and courage with tiger sharks, but also suffered from the natural weather and physiological limits. Exposure in the scorching sun caused their skin to crack, and they were extremely painful when exposed to seawater. What was even more fatal was that they suffered from varying degrees of dehydration symptoms. Even though some people knew not to drink seawater with excessive salinity, they still swallowed it to quench their thirst. As he continued, he not only became thirstier and thirstier, but also became infected with various bacteria in seawater.

Until August 2, a US military plane accidentally discovered them while patrolling. Shocked, they quickly launched rescue activities and made an emergency report to the country. It took the rescue team six days to finally fish out all the survivors and some of the dead. Later statistics showed that of the 1,199 officers and men in the fleet, only 321 survived.

After this incident, some people reprimanded the Indian ship for not acting alone. Some people thought that the captain’s direct order became a reminder for the entire fleet. But what more people did not understand was that the captain clearly sent a distress signal. Why did the accident happen three times? Why is there no rescue team to help? It turned out that after Charles sent the signal, a total of three units received the signal, but one of the staff members was drunk and fell asleep at his post. The other two receivers thought it was from the Japanese military after seeing the distress signal. "Smoke bombs" because they felt that it was impossible for a cruiser as big as the Indian ship to be hit by a submarine.

Afterwards, Captain Charles was sent to a military court and convicted. Although he was not punished later, he finally chose to commit suicide because of guilt, accusations and abuse from relatives of the crew; and the three signal receivers also be punished. However, it was not until 1996 that an American college student studied the accident and believed that Charles actually took the blame and that he did not make any fault when driving the Indian ship. Four years later, the United States cleared Charles' name and dropped all charges against him.

Regardless of whether Charles is at fault or not, the most important reminder from this case is that he loves peace and opposes war. The victims of this accident were actually victims of the war, who unfortunately fell down just before the dawn of peace. Countless historical facts prove that peace is extremely precious.

(Some of the pictures in this article are Internet images; reprinting and plagiarism are prohibited.)