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Letters
William D. Dyke, casualty in HMAS Canberra Hello (is it ) Mac, I'm doing research for the family and have my wifes uncle William (Doug) Dykes PO or CPO stoker on HMAS Canberra, killed at Savo Island. I noticed various letters including the US one about medals. I am looking for photos of him or crew or other relevent history including alive members who might remember him. Regards
There is no S after his surname, and the Ty in brackets would mean Temporary. At this stage I do not have any photographs of him or crew members. I am President in Victoria of the Canberra/Shropshire Association. My Secretary Roy. Stephens was Stoker in Canberra, and I will ask Roy if he can recall Stoker Petty Officer Dyke.
6 September 2004 Paul, Today I had a meeting of my HMAS Canberra/HMAS Shropshire Association here in Melbourne, and was able to bring up the subject of your Uncle, Stoker Petty Officer William. Dyke, who was unfortunately killed on the night of August 9 1942 at The Battle of Savo Island. Roy Stephens my Secretary of the Association was a stoker in Canberra. He told me he recalls your Uncle well, but was not absolutely sure of his action station on board her, but had a feeling it may have been in one of her boiler rooms. With the torpedo hit we took on the starboard side which had emanated from our escort destroyer USS Bagley, there were absolutely no survivors from either the forward or aft of the ship's two boiler rooms. Having lost all steam supplied to the engines from the boiler rooms, we immediately lost way, stopped, and were then unable to steam at all. Thus, the cruiser just sat in the water, with a list developing to starboard ( our right hand side ) . All the dynamos supplying electricity to all parts of the ships also stopped, in the middle of the night it all became pitch black, the main 8 inch armament was then left helpless, and unable to be fired, so we just a sitting duck for the nearby Japanese cruisers who just pounded us from the port side. We took something like 24 hits from incoming shells, wrecking the bridge, mortally wounding Captain Frank Getting, killing the Gunnery Officer, and wounding most of the bridge personnel, and starting fierce fires on both the upper deck and below. Water could not be pumped to fight the fires, and we were generally helpless, without the where with all to attack these fires. Shell rooms with burnable cordite needed to be flooded, and only when the US destroyer Patterson came alongside, and passed over her fire hoses were we able to try and put out some of the upper deck fires. Ammunition on the upper deck needed to be dumped, and our Aircraft on the catapult was blazing away madly. It was not possiblke to pass from forward to the after end of the ship, or vice versa as the intensity of the fires prevented such a move. I had been the Officer of the Watch on the bridge when the action first started, and was relieved by the Navigating Officer, and was lucky to walk around about three incoming shell hits to avoid being either killed or wounded, when going to my action station in the fore contro position l. A nasty night, when 84, including your Uncle William died, and 110 were wounded in Canberra, indeed we were perhaps lucky to lose only 84, the Japanese force swept past us, divided into two separate divisions, and passed both sides of the three American cruisers in the Northern force, sinking all three, Quincy, Astoria, and Vincennes, and hastily withdrew intact. The American Navy lost over 1,000 officers and sailors from their three cruisers. The worst blue water defeat for the US Navy in their history to that night. A total disaster. The US destroyers Patterson and Blue collected the Canberra survivors, taking them to two US Transports,and on the oncoming morning, the Transports which had not unloaded all the Marines supplies onto the beaches of Guadalcanal and Tulagi Islands, plus all the Naval escorts were withdrawn. We sailed away, as we had no air cover, the covering US carriers had left the night before, notwithstanding that Admiral Fletcher had earlier promised to cover the landings longer. I believed then, and have never changed my view in 60 years, that Fletcher and his carriers by his early withdrawal put the whole operation at risk, leaving the landed Marines almost bereft., and forcing us to evacuate. We just had to maintain our foothold on the Solomons, it straddled the life line from the US to Australia, which needed to be kept open, so that Australia could be built up as a base and the Solomons to become a springboard to allow the Allies to go forward on the road to Tokyo and Victory in the long haul. I have always subscribed to the view that the Guadalcanal and Tulagi landings and the holding of the Solomons were the turning point in the Pacific war. The Coral Sea and Midway battles were important, but the Solomans were crucial. Paul, please forgive my carrying on at such length, but felt you may like to hear why I think the Battle of Savo Island was so important, and the lives lost to achieve the result that was obtained, were not lost in vain. Small consolation to family who sustained the death of a loved one, but unfortunately in time of war, some die, and some lucky ones live. With my kindest regards,
How sad to read the exact details of that night. Thank you for taking the time. I shall tell the family tonight. Just a part of family history that includes Changi POW (died) RAAF ,Coral sea, Gallipoli etc . Thanks
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