On the morning of the 9 August 1942 the Royal Australian Navy's heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra was sunk after being severely damaged during a naval battle off Savo Island in the Solomon Islands group. HMAS Canberra had been forming part of the force screening the American invasion force which had started landing on Guadalcanal on 7 August. The object of the landing was to capture the almost completed Japanese airfield at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal and thus ensure that the vital USA-Australia supply lines could not be threatened. However, in the end, it was this campaign which was to see the strength of the Imperial Japanese Navy sapped away and eventually open the road to Tokyo. The initial landings and capture of the airfield at Lunga Point, renamed Henderson Field, met with only light resistance ashore. However air attacks on the assault force commenced at about midday on t...