Darwin 19th February 1942

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Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:05 am

Darwin, 1942: Remembering Australia's 'Pearl Harbour'
By Duncan Kennedy BBC News, Darwin

Its 70 years since Japanese bombers swooped on Darwin, in northern Australia, sinking Allied ships in the harbour and killing hundreds of people. For years the attack was rarely mentioned, but now the story is finally being told.

If 7 December 1941 is "a date that will live in infamy" for the United States, then 19 February 1942 is surely one that will join it in the annals of shame for Australia.

That was the day, just 10 weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbour, when the same carrier-based Japanese force turned its attention to the small northern town of Darwin, with equally calamitous results.
But the world remembers one and barely recalls the other.

The seven-volume Official History of the Australian Army in World War II devotes only two pages to the attack on Darwin.

Yet in truth, Darwin was Australia's Pearl Harbour - a morning attack carried out on an unsuspecting population that ended with the deaths of hundreds of people and the sinking of numerous Allied ships.

But it's only now that the story of Darwin has been given the same kind of historical attention that's long been focused on the attack on Hawaii.

There are many reasons for this. Chief among them are that:
•it happened just three months after Pearl Harbour and was overshadowed by it
•communications out of Darwin were poor and it took time for the news to filter out
•the Australian authorities played it down, for fear of provoking national panic

On the day itself, the first wave of Japanese bombers was spotted over an island north of Darwin half an hour before the attack, but they were mistaken for American Kittyhawks.

It wasn't until a few seconds before they dropped their bombs that the first siren in Darwin was sounded, and this delay added to the casualty toll.

Over the next 40 minutes or so, some 188 Japanese aircraft strafed the docks, ships and surrounding town.

"We could see the red dots on the side of the aircraft, they were so low," says Margaret Herron, an 11-year-old girl at the time.
"We thought they were dropping silver bells, until we realised they were bombs. I was terrified and ran to shelter in a quarry."

Another deadly wave then followed.

It is not hard to make the case that when war came to our shores with the bombing of Darwin on February 19, 1942... Australians behaved abominably.

There was panic, looting, cowardice, desertion and a stampede south to get out of harm's way.

Yet we could ask ourselves today: If you were under attack from waves of Japanese aircraft dropping more bombs than fell on Pearl Harbour, were unprepared, had not received any training drills, had no warning, had no leadership and feared imminent invasion, might you have behaved in the same way?

It took many years for the awkward truth to emerge about the panic and abject failure of leadership following the bombing. By any analysis, it was not a good look. Yet the negative truth masked other, equally true, stories of courage and heroism among soldiers, sailors and civilians alike.

By the time the Japanese left, eight ships had been sunk - including the American destroyer, the USS Peary - 22 aircraft destroyed, dozens of buildings crushed and more than 240 people killed.

It was the worst wartime loss of life on Australian soil in the country's history.
More than 60 other aerial bombardments would follow, up until November 1943, but none as destructive as the first.

"It was a disaster," says Dr Tom Lewis, a historian and director of the new $12m (£7.6m) Darwin Military Museum.

"Australians had been fighting in Europe and the Far East, but now the war had come to us. We had never experienced anything like it."
What followed next helped account for the raid's absence in the Australian consciousness for decades to come?

First, Darwin had no telephones. This frontier town, of about 4,000 people at the extremities of a vast continent, had to rely on the telegraph to make contact with the outside world, so news of the attack was fragmented and inconsistent.

Second, there was a panicky response by the population and by some in the military, with an unseemly scramble to get away, for fear of a Japanese invasion.

Third, there was a shocking lack of leadership among the civilian administration and the military, which compounded the sense of chaos and incompetence.

It was a somewhat ignoble record - one that not everyone wanted to see in the history books.

A sense of partial anarchy prevailed in the hours and days immediately after the raid.

For example, the station commander of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) ordered his men to rendezvous in the bush, but as the instruction was passed around by word of mouth, its message became confused.

Four days after the bombing, nearly 300 RAAF personnel were still missing; leading to claims some had deserted. One man turned up in Melbourne, 13 days later.

The Northern Territories administrator, Aubrey Abbott, appeared to compound the problems by his ineptitude.

In an acclaimed book on the Darwin bombing, An Awkward Truth, Peter Grose writes that Abbott tried to enlist the help of military police to restore order, but that they ended up drunk and took part in the looting that followed the attacks.

Abbott himself spent his time securing his drinks cellar and making sure the bank's money was sent away for safe keeping - a strange set of priorities for a man whose town was in ruins.

However, unlike many, he did, a least, stay at his post, remaining for another 12 days after the assault.

One of the few other laudable responses to the raid had come from the gunners who'd tried to repel the Japanese onslaught, though their meagre munitions made them no match for their aerial opponents.

The federal government in Canberra was stunned by the attack, and withheld the number of fatalities for some time.

Author and blogger Lisa Hill says: "This was partly because of the confusion and partly because of misguided censorship. There were fears about public alarm and concern about awkward questions being raised about the adequacy of Australia's defences."

It didn't help that Prime Minister John Curtin was being treated in hospital for exhaustion, or that the cabinet was squabbling over where to send Australian troops in the aftermath of the fall of Singapore, which had taken place four days earlier.

So, with all the dithering, failure of leadership and generally embarrassing response to what was clearly a pre-existing Japanese threat to the strategically important harbour at Darwin in the weeks following Pearl Harbour, it's perhaps not surprising that history has been unkind to its suffering and loss.

Today, though, that is changing.
As well as the new museum, a memorial stone has been built by the quayside, bearing the names of some of the dead and recording the heroic deeds of some of the living, all of which helps bring the more illustrious side of the story back to life.

On his visit to Darwin last November, US President Barack Obama reaffirmed the importance of the raid he referred to as Australia's Pearl Harbour.

"Against overwhelming odds, our forces [US and Australian] fought back, with honour and with courage," he said. "The days after Darwin were tough. Some thought Australia might fall. But we dusted ourselves off. We picked ourselves up. We rebuilt."

To emphasise Darwin's renewed relevance, he announced that hundreds of US marines are to be stationed there, implicitly underlining the current American concern with China.

The aftermath of the Darwin attack might not have covered Australians in glory and dignity.

But that's no reason not to remember the day itself, when, like Pearl Harbour, Darwin's skies were darkened by the menacing presence of an unforgiving enemy.

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 11:36 am

It was not Australia's brightest day, no.

Courage and irresolution was blended in equal measure. The low morale among some of the defenders was understandable given the lack of weapons (the men in the airbase had fewer than sixty rifles for several hundred men) and the contemptuous ease of the Japanese attack, including precise pattern-bombing of the main airbase by the second wave, would have been devastating for green, untrained troops and unprepared civilians.

One thing to mention is that of the 250+ killed, more than 100 were Americans, mainly sailors aboard USSs Peary and Preston. The only fighter defence offered was by USAAC P-40s, five of which were jumped over Darwin (only one escaped, shooting down a Zero and two dive-bombers) and the rest were hacked down trying to get into the air. Five of the pilots were killed.

Honour would later be restored by the Australian soldiers and airmen who inflicted the first defeats on land suffered by the Japanese in WWII.

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:10 pm

Why isn't this day recognized?? I have never heard of it myself, now I know. Thank you for sharing.

If the world remembers Pearl Harbor, they need to remember Darwin too!!

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3877

there are many things not recognized, that happened in WWII.

I would like to point on an incident, that happend in 25th march 2011! (not in the early 40ties of the last century)

http://www.viennareview.net/news-briefs/wwii-bomb-graz-4904.html

http://www.kleinezeitung.at/steiermark/graz/graz/2707382/bei-grabungsarbeiten-fliegerbombe-entdeckt.story (german)

The central train station in Graz got renewed and rebuilt at that time. They found a 250kg bomb from WWII, that was equipped with a time trigger. These time triggers were used to avoid quick repairs. The bombs drop, destroy buildings, the time triggered bombs lay around and explode a few days later, taking everybody with them, who try to rebuild, or search for still useable goods.
Some of those bombs, normal and time triggered failed to explode, but are still fully functional. till today. This special bomb was found during the built of the new trainstation. Because it was not possible to disarm the bomb, the authorities decided to detonate it.

3 months later, a second bomb of the same size was found.

experts think, that 10-20% of all bombs dropped in germany and austria are unexploded ordnance, and because targets were mainly Industry and Transport, these bombs are in highly populated areas.

Imagine a bomb detonates today, killing hundreds of people, who have absolutely no connection to the wwII.

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 8:18 pm

^In the south east of England, mines are constantly being found, they dont find many bombs on land.
This ship is the main worry, still 1400 tons of bombs on board.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/mca/mcga07-home/emergencyresponse/mcga-receiverofwreck/mcga-ssrichardmontgomery.htm

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:06 pm

As I understand it,the French military has a unit devoted to disposing of munitions from WW1.Some of the chemical stuff must be unstable as hell after almost a century in the ground.

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3877

Yes, so is here in Austria (Germany aswell). Both states have special units trained to dismantle bombs.

I'm here in a district of vienna, that was heavily bombed in WWII because of a lot of heavy industry (which was... hmmm... the term is "kriegswichtig", directly translated "important for war"). And now, they build a new part of the subway line U1. let's see, how many bombs they find.

My hometown with ~15.000 citizens survived a heavy bombing only because the allied forces had (of course) no gps and had to rely on a certain kind of balloon with a lightsource. 4 of those balloon span up a rectangle showing the target area. this night, there was a heavy wind, blowing those balloons away, and the planes bombed some mountains.

Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 12:09 am

This is not a proud day in the US involvement in World War II, either.

On the same day as the Darwin raid, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which allowed the Secretary of War to designate certain geographic areas as military zones. This resulted in the forced relocation of about 110,000 persons of Japanese descent, about two thirds of whom were native born US citizens. They were given only a few days notice to report to assembly points, which meant they had to sell their businesses and property at fire sale prices. Most spent the war in islolated god-forsaken camps in places like Tooele, Utah and Heart Mountain, Wyoming.

Executive Order 9066 stood up to court challenge and remained in effect until 1976, when it was rescinded by President Ford.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 689

The people of Darwin sound like they were the guilty party in this event .... somewhat like the victims of a rape .... so sad.

Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 12:58 pm

^ To be fair, I think the people of Darwin were trying to survive in a state of terror, confusion and zero leadership. The Japanese were the guilty party for dropping the bombs on Darwin. But then they were only making a logical pre-emptive strike against an important dock, which should be anticipated in wartime, so perhaps the Australian authorities were the guilty party for not realising and preparing for the threat. Then again, such steps for both sides would not have been necessary if there hadn't been a war in the first place.
So it's all Hitler's fault. Little runt.

Someone here has/had a tagline "War does not determine who is right, only who is left". So true.

Thanks Fo and all for this thread, it is fascinating reading.

Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 6:36 pm

The P-40's were called “Warhawks” in the US, but were called “Kittyhawks” by other nations. They were fairly obsolete by WW2 but performed well with certain tactics.

In the US we tend to think of Kitty Hawk as a class of aircraft carrier, although some carriers were named USS Kitty Hawk. The Forrestal class carriers made with improvements were termed the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier class.

Sorry for the bit of history on the aircraft carriers. Was Navy wife with hubby on many carriers. It is now in the blood.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 689

bad bad bad N N N ... meant to say "sounds like they felt they were the guilty party in this event"

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