JapanDuring the war; Australia, America, France and Britain were all
Allies, whilst Japan, Italy and Germany formed their opposition. In the events upcoming to the bombing of Darwin, Japan had successfully invaded many large parts of Asia, however to ensure their gain of power the Japanese had to make sure the Allies were not using Darwin as a base because it was a key area of defence. They could also cut of communications with many of areas of battle, as well as destroy many of the Allie’s ships. Photographs |
Evacuees and survivorsThe article ‘STOP PRESS!’ in the Cairns Post on
the 21st of February 1942 tells evacuees’ accounts and experiences of when Darwin was bombed. Read Article Douglas Lockwood was working on the wharf when the raid began; “I jumped over the side of the wharf into the water… made my way towards the elbow of the wharf. That had already been hit and the shed where men were gathered for smoko, and it had all gone… just disappeared” An anonymous survivor tells their story of the first raid; "The first raid on Darwin was for me a 40 minute period of embarrassment, my first warning being the crash of bombs and the crackle of machine gun fire which commenced whilst I was taking a shower at my home at about 10am. As these were falling sufficiently close to be uncomfortable, I sprinted to and fell into a slit trench, clad in shoes and tin hat only. Recovering composure and clothing at the conclusion of the raid, a roll call of aerodrome staff found all correct and uninjured." VeteransLieutenant Commander Eric Thompson was a survivor of the Bombings
of Darwin, he also sunk a Japanese Submarine. He had be fighting or two years as a gunnery officer in the Australian Navy, when the Japanese bombed Darwin he saw the bombs falling out of the sky and blowing up ships. Watch Video Stanley Hawker was a RAAF aircraftman during the bombing of Darwin he describes what happened on that day; ’’On 19 February 1942, I was loading 250 pound bombs with five of my mates when we sighted aircraft approaching Darwin harbour at high altitude. At first we thought they were American bombers, but one of my mates had been in the islands with No 2 Squadron and he identified them as Japanese "Betty" bombers. Then all hell broke loose. The Japanese bombed the ships in the harbour, and scored many direct hits. A bomb hit the post office and killed all in the building. They bombed the hospital and the hospital ship "Manunda". They hit the oil tanks and set them ablaze. We had Zero fighters flying low over our heads, and we jumped the security fence and took shelter up to our necks in the mangrove swamp until someone said "What about the crocs". So we left the water and returned to the main RAAF 'drome. It was a shambles. They had pattern-bombed the 'drome. Aircraft were burning, the hangers were completely destroyed, and both runways were damaged. We then made our way to the civil aerodrome, and found that the area had been shafted, and the ammo dump was burning. At this stage another wave of bombers pattern-bombed us, and I took shelter in a machine gun pit. It was very scary.” |