Anzac Parade HMAS Canberra lost 1942 and HMS Shropshire is a photograph by Miroslava Jurcik which was uploaded on August 17th, 2016.
Anzac Parade HMAS Canberra lost 1942 and HMS Shropshire
In the darkness of the early hours of the morning of 9 August 1942 the RAN heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra was severely damaged off Guadalcanal (Solomon... more
Title
Anzac Parade HMAS Canberra lost 1942 and HMS Shropshire
Artist
Miroslava Jurcik
Medium
Photograph
Description
In the darkness of the early hours of the morning of 9 August 1942 the RAN heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra was severely damaged off Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands) in a surprise attack by a powerful Japanese naval force in an action that became known as the Battle of Savo Island. Canberra was hit 24 times in less than two minutes and 84 of her crew were killed including Captain Frank Getting. Following an order to abandon ship the Canberra was sunk the next day by a torpedo from a US destroyer.
At the time of the action the Canberra had formed part of a US Navy-RAN force screening American transports during the landing operations of US marines at Guadalcanal, which begun on 7 August 1942.
Following the loss of the Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra, a County-class cruiser of the Kent sub-class, at the Battle of Savo Island, it was announced that Shropshire would be transferred to the RAN as a gift. King George VI announced on 10 September 1943 that the ship would be renamed Canberra. However, around the same time, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt chose to commemorate the Australian warship's loss by renaming the under-construction Baltimore-class cruiser Pittsburgh as USS Canberra.
The Australian government decided to retain Shropshire's old name after learning that the US offer had come directly from President Roosevelt.
A silver bugle presented to the ship by the King's Shropshire Light Infantry was kept by the RAN after Shropshire's decommissioning, and was later placed on display at the Russell Offices (which houses the Department of Defence) until at least the mid-1980s.
Uploaded
August 17th, 2016