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Born 14th
April 1911 Launceston
Tasmania to Phillip Douglas and Emily
Smith, Charles is listed as a fitter and turner, married and
living at 63
Campbell Street , Launceston when he
enlisted and was posted to H.M.A.S. Canberra as Engine Room
Artificer 4th Class
HMAS Canberra, a 9850-ton heavy
cruiser of the British Kent
class, was built at
Glasgow , Scotland
. She was commissioned in July 1928 and soon steamed to
Australia . Following the
outbreak of World War II in September 1939,
Canberra mainly operated in Australian and
Indian Ocean waters, but also served in the
South Atlantic in 1940. In March 1941, she helped to
sink the German support ship Ketty Brovigin the
Indian Ocean .
In early August 1942, the
cruiser participated in Operation "Watchtower in the southern
Solomon Islands . During the
early hours of 9 August, while on patrol off
Guadalcanal , she was badly damaged in combat with a
force of Japanese cruisers. HMAS Canberra was scuttled several
hours later, becoming one of the first ships sunk in what would
soon be called "Iron Bottom Sound".
Canberra 's wreck was discovered
and examined in July-August 1992, almost exactly fifty years
after her loss. She lies upright on the sea floor, some 2500
feet deep, with visible signs of shell hits and fire damage
amidships. Her turrets are still trained out to the port side,
as they were during her brief and fatal engagement with the
Japanese.
Charles Sidney Smith was listed
as missing, presumed drowned with loss of ship.
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