Indeed, given the perennial debate about the date of Australia’s national day, could it be a possible replacement? During the bombing numerous servicemen deserted their posts and took to the road with the civilians. This is an exaggeration. Drunken Provost Corps troops took advantage of the swift desertion of the town by looting shops left behind by civilian proprietors. Grose should have named those who are the subject of his disparaging words. first raid by 188 aircraft caused massive damage to the town and the It appears in all general histories of Australia in the twentieth century and features in every account of the Second World War. sinking of 8 of the 45 ships in the harbour at the time. of a flight of US P-40E Kittyhawk fighters and ignored.Wartime defence bunkers can be found along Nightcliff and Casuarina Beaches.This But the Japanese decision not to invade Australia did not mean the continent would be spared.War came to the Australian mainland when Darwin was attacked by a large detachment of Japanese carrier-borne aircraft on the morning of February 19, 1942. His complaint that only two pages of the seven-volume history of the Australian Army during the Second World War mentions the bombing neglects the fact that it is covered in great detail in the RAN and RAAF volumes of the same series.This is an unfair depiction of the conflict between professional historians and amateur writers, with the former only raising their voices in response to the publicity generated by mistaken claims that Australia was “saved” from invasion.
Their judgment was suspect and their decision-making was poor.While the Japanese never staged a repeat of the February 19 bombing, Grose points out that “over the next 21 months, the town faced no fewer than 64 attacks by Japanese bombers.
Without unfettered access to the Coral Sea, coastal shipping bound from Townsville to the Top End would be forced to sail clockwise around the continent and take more than a month to reach its destination instead of the usual week-long passage through Torres Strait. This latter plan, code-named “MO”, would be executed simultaneously with an attack on the Solomon Islands.Although the Japanese carrier strength available for Plan MO was limited to Two important points need to be made about Plan MO. Before the Midway plan, code-named “MI”, was executed, New Guinea needed to be completely cleared of Allied forces with the capture of Port Moresby. He singles out the Admin-istrator of the Northern Territory, Aubrey Abbott, and Wing Commander Sturt Griffith, the Commanding Officer at the RAAF base, for special criticism. Second, it was a strategic victory in that Japan was forced to fight a land campaign in New Guinea—an advance that highlighted the paucity of the support they were able to provide for their troops so far from home. Hong Kong had fallen, the battleship HMSAfter examining the British appreciation of the Far East situation in the period to February 1942, the Australian Chiefs of Staff stated that the prevailing strategic outlook “was most unsatisfactory … the US Pacific Fleet, on which we had based great hopes, is unable and unwilling to assist”. The combined Allied naval effort in the Pacific was the victim of insufficient co-operation in peacetime and was even now poorly organised. Airport. In the final analysis, only Canberra could be relied upon to protect Australian assets and to promote the national interest. In a review in the Sydney Morning Herald, Ross Fitzgerald wonders why Grose did not connect the bombing of Darwin with the continuing war around Australia’s northern coastline.
Darwin, Katherine, Adelaide River, Batchelor Airfield, Broome, Accusing historians of engaging in mockery is a serious charge because such conduct is unprofessional and antithetical to open debate. Australia was a focus for shipping across the two ocean basins, the Indian and Pacific, either side of the continent. It was not until February 7 that Captain Arthur Phillip “formally inaugurated the colony” with a prepared speech, an organised ceremony and a dedicated parade.I don’t expect that Australia Day will be relocated in the calendar during my lifetime. destroyer USS Peary was one of the ships sunk on the first bombing As the air raids caused chaos in Darwin, half of the city’s population fled inland, and many civilian refugees never returned, or did not return for many years. He commends the Royal Commission conducted into the attack by Charles Lowe, a judge of the Victorian Supreme Court, and believes that Lowe was fair in his findings and right in his principal recommendations.Grose concludes that Darwin was not expecting an attack despite its strategically significant location; that preparations for a massive air raid had been neglected; and that the failure of local civil and military leadership had deadly consequences.
The onslaught ended with a final raid on 12 November 1943.” In all, the northern towns of “Broome, Wyndham, Derby, Katherine, Horn Island, Townsville, Mossman, Port Hedland, Noonamah, Exmouth Gulf, Onslow, Drysdale River Mission, Coomalie Creek” and Darwin were subjected to ninety-seven attacks.In researching his book, Grose said he was “astonished by how little Australians know of the succession of bloody battles fought under their skies”. Read Quadrant online or as a printed magazine should the bombing of Darwin be remembered? National Day of Observance, known as the "Bombing of Darwin Day" is pointing towards the position where she was found after the war.Damage The distinguished journalist Douglas Lockwood published Given some of the controversies that he addresses and the existence of competing accounts, Grose should have used endnote references and identified his sources.
In a review in the Grose is not the first to write about the bombing of Darwin. Darwin’s main medical facility and MV In the aftermath, chaos, panic and looting broke out. On 19 February 1942 Darwin was bombed by two separate Japanese air raids becoming the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia.