Sinking of HMAS Canberra - contoversy over friendly fire

Short Documentary that appeared on Australian TV, revealing that HMAS Canberra was possibly struck by torpedoes from the USS Bagly, immobilising the ship, and turning her into a sitting duck for approaching Japanese warships.

This short doco was shown in 1995 on prime-time Australian TV. I have never seen it replayed since.

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Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• sinking
• HMAS
• Canberra
• WW2
• wwII
• wwii
• controversy
• friendly
• fire
• USS
• Bagly

[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 .

[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.

[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!

[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!

[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.

[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!