In the novel "Left For Dead", there is a line that says: "Knowing how the men died is not the same things as knowing why they died". This explains that you may know the way they passed away, but not the the cause of their death. One of the reasons why most of the crew members passed away is the fact that crew was simply not prepared enough for the trip.
In the novel there were multiple incidents on why the Indianapolis did not succeed to get home. The most popular reason is that Captain McVay did not zigzag. This is not true considering that he did not have to zigzag in cloudy or foggy weather, which was the current weather at that time. Mcvay told the crew to cease zigzagging and continue on leading to the unseen japanese submarine sinking
In the novel there were multiple incidents on why the Indianapolis did not succeed to get home. The most popular reason is that Captain McVay did not zigzag. This is not true considering that he did not have to zigzag in cloudy or foggy weather, which was the current weather at that time. Mcvay told the crew to cease zigzagging and continue on leading to the unseen japanese submarine sinking