Sinking of HMAS Canberra - contoversy over friendly fire

[howling59]

I am a Cold War Submariner, so this is before my time. Even with todays technology we still have cases of friendly fire casualties. Imagine what the men on the USS Bagley had for equipment and how terrible they must have felt for the rest of their lives. This is a very unfornunate and terrible accident where Brother's of the Sea were lost. Sailor rest your oar........

[gnarkillkicksass]

I think the County Class was very ill-suited for that sort of combat. Though we must thank the Royal Navy for donating our Cruiser fleet and straight away transversing the Shropshire to the RAN. NZ Supported the UK in the Falklands, we didn't. Should have though.

[tournon71]

"An Englishman, rear admiral Gould"...so Australian!

[peterm3964]

Japanese naval superiority sank the Canberra . end of story .

[prudenceislandboy]

The Chicago fucked up badly...Captain Bode coulda saved the Canberra.

[terrymwalsh]

My father J.W.Walsh, a stoker on Canberra, was one of the sailors interviewed in this clip and I know that he was very, very grateful that he was picked up by USS Blue, so was I!

[supercrevolution]

My Grandfather Reginald Loxley was a stoker on the HMAS Canberra during the Battle of the Coral sea too! He had not long been on leave.

[terrymwalsh]

@supercrevolution - Canberra didn't play any part in the Coral Sea Battle, she was in Sydney under a refit in early May 1942. Canberra did however carry out patrols in the Coral Sea during June before heading to Fiji and then Wellington in NZ. There she was assembled with a huge armarda of vessels in readiness for what was to become known as the Battle of Savo Island. Being Stokers, your Grandfather and my Dad probably knew each other over this period from May through to 9 August 1942!

[Wallys3rdSon]

Thanks for this video. Good to see the old footage. They did mess up some of the details though: was a heavy cruiser not light (as has been said), 84 died not 85, and the Canberra didn't drift for a day - the attack was in the early hours of 9 Aug 1942 and she was eventually sunk, after some earlier unsuccessful attempts, about 8 am the same day, this time by a deliberate US torpedo from USS Ellet. They also failed to identify the sailor other than Bruce Loxton. But good footage.

[Mrbob200]

this sound like today tonight ... -_- they dont even know it was a Heavy Crusier

[carnex333]

There are posts missing from my previous sequence, thanks you tube.I was making a point that I think a bit of editing in the doco is unfair, the Aust sailors who were so thankfull I think were genuinely so. As primarily USS BAGELY then the USS Patterson came into rescue HMAS Canberras crew while she was on fire and UNDER FIRE at night and in the face of salvos from the IJN cruisers.I think the archival footage of the AUST sailors is missused here.Nothing to be gained stickin to our allies/Govt.

[Wallys3rdSon]

I agree. It wasn't propoganda. The Aussie sailors were genuinely thankful of the efforts of the US in getting the wounded and other survivors off the Canberra. My Dad was bugler and bosun's mate on the Canberra and on duty near (not on) the bridge when the attack started. He survived and later got onto USS Blue. He couldn't speak highly enough of the US sailors of the Blue and Patterson (I don't think Bagley took off any survivors).

[ilox11]

Extracts from HMAS Australia log (by JW Roberts): 08/08/42 2230 Adm Crutchley in conf with Adm Turner USN 09/08/42 0130 Australia left Transport area 0150 flares and surface action seen near Savo Isl 0155 burning ship was seen to be Canberra 0224 3 burning ships seen - no action reports given 0226 Crutchley enquired if screening forces in action - answer in negative 0547 Crutchley ordered escort forces prepare for dawn action Canberra to be sunk if not ready to steam by 0630 0800 Canberra sunk

[carnex333]

Not starting an argument here, but the poster of this clip in (further info) has got the chronology wrong. HMAS Canberra was hit by several salvos from the IJN cruisers before she was ever torpedoed these first salvos which were completely by surprise caused great damage before she was ever torpedoed.

[carnex333]

The U.S Bagely and the U.S Patterson continued to fight(destroyers) while the U.S Chicago(heavy cruiser)legged it.Canberra was not a light cruiser as reported in this doco it was a County class cruiser.Its sister ship HMAS Australia(flagship) had left the Task force for a meeting 20miles with the rest of the commanders involevd in the Guadalcanal landings.I am Australian by the way, credit were credit is due is all I am saying.

[carnex333]

Commander of USS Chicago who was at that particular moment also the Task Force commander broke of contact, in itself probably the right thing to do. But he did not report the action to the rest of the task force which led to the almost immediate loss of 3 more U.S cruisers. He also abandoned the task force prime directive which was the protection of the landing force at Guadalcanal. He fled in the oppossite direction. The battle had to be taken up by the 2 remaining U.S destroyers.

[kiewadave]

My Uncle, Vic Ward, was the Chief petty officer in the boiler room, he told me they were hit by a torpedo and every bloke in that boiler room was killed except him, and he only survived because the flood door was opened by an officer who disobeyed battle stations protocol, to check on how badly damaged Canberra was, Uncle Vic had most of his upper body skin steamed off him. it was the Yanks who sank Canberra

[terrymwalsh]

@kiewadave - Your Uncle (Arthur) Vic Ward was a Stoker not a CPO, the same as my Dad, James W. Walsh and 'supercrevolutions' grandfather, Reginald Loxley. My Dad must have been off watch at the time as he wrote a story about throwing 20 gallon milk containers overboard and hauling them back up to help put out the fires. Nothing wrong with the good old Stokers!

[supercrevolution]

True that!  Grandad used to say he started off as Rear Admiral and worked his way down. Yeah he had a real dry sense of humor. BTW thanks for correcting me on the Battle Of Coral Sea and HMAS Canberra, I must have had the scenes mixed up.

[granskare]

excellent video! it's always the brasshats that seek to cover up things like this. USS Liberty was deliberately attacked by the Israelis in 1967 and Washington was eager to cover it up and even gave the Israelis money to pay the compensation. Incredible what governments can and will do.

[sutinelli]

What dou you think about Pearl Harbour and 9/11?

What makes a nation to stick...a mean "stand" together and fight for something like Terror.

[granskare]

huh?

[aussiestormer]

GREAT VIDEO THANKS