This month 75 years ago Australia lost its biggest warship in battle. On 9 August 1942 HMAS Canberra (I) was part of a US Navy-RAN force screening American transports during the landing operations of US marines at Guadalcanal when she came under direct attack from a powerful Japanese naval force. Such was the ferocity of the attack Canberra was hit 24 times in less than two minutes. Eighty-four Australian sailors were killed in the onslaught and 10 later died from wounds.
Canberra was so badly damaged in the attack there was little choice but to scuttle her and on the morning of 10 August she was torpedoed.
Earlier this month Navy personnel from HMAS Success, along with crew from the current HMAS Canberra laid wreaths over the wreck site 25-kilometres north of Honiara on the Solomon Islands. The ship rests about 760 metres below the sea in Iron Bottom Sound, so named for the number of ships and crew lost to the area in WWII.
Commander Australian Fleet, Rear Admiral Stuart Mayer said the scars of the sea battle wash away with the tide and there are no graves for the killed, but he said; “these men are not forgotten as they lay in the company of their shipmates in the silent depths below.”
This month’s 75 anniversary commemoration was also attended by representatives from the Solomon Islands, the United States; Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
HMAS Canberra was recently remembered in the WW2 commemorative series which remembered the high price paid by Navy in 1942 when Japan swept through the region.
Discover the HMAS Canberra-Hobart Ltd Medallion and more!
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