Today is a special day here in the NT, we remember the 19th February 1942.
My aim today is to show not the photo’s of
Darwin Damage , I think you all have probably seen those many times, but to show some of the many Documents I have and a Video YouTube clip I made up last year showing many of the buildings damaged not normally seen before accompanied by some interesting Audio.
I will be heading off to
Darwin later this morning for today’s events.
On 19 February 1942 mainland Australia came under attack for the first time when Japanese forces mounted two air raids on
Darwin. The two attacks, which were planned and led by the commander responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbour ten weeks earlier, involved 54 land-based bombers and approximately 188 attack aircraft which were launched from four Japanese aircraft-carriers in the Timor Sea. In the first attack, which began just before 10.00 am, heavy bombers pattern-bombed the harbour and town; dive bombers escorted by Zero fighters then attacked shipping in the harbour, the military and civil aerodromes, and the hospital at Berrimah. The attack ceased after about 40 minutes. The second attack, which began an hour later, involved high altitude bombing of the Royal Australian Air Force base at Parap which lasted for 20–25 minutes. The two raids killed at least 243 people and between 300 and 400 were wounded. Twenty military aircraft were destroyed, eight ships at anchor in the harbour were sunk, and most civil and military facilities in
Darwin were destroyed.
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Contrary to widespread belief at the time, the attacks were not a precursor to an invasion. The Japanese were preparing to invade Timor, and anticipated that a disruptive air attack would hinder
Darwin's potential as a base from which the Allies could launch a counter-offensive, and at the same time would damage Australian morale. With Singapore having fallen to the Japanese only days earlier, and concerned at the effect of the bombing on national morale, the government announced that only 17 people had been killed.
The air attacks on
Darwin area continued until November 1943, by which time the Japanese had bombed
Darwin and other Top End sites 64 times. During the war other towns and bases in Northern Territory were also the target of Japanese air attacks, with bombs being dropped on
Katherine,
Adelaide River, and Hughes, Fenton,
Batchelor and Long Airstrips.