Ww2 – Darwin Bombing

The first attack was launched with “188 Japanese planes taking off at 8:45 a.m.” and heading towards Darwin, whose harbour occupied 27 allied ships and approximately 30 aircrafts at the RAAF airfields and Darwin Civil. At approximately 9:15 a.m. the Japanese planes were spotted by an Australian Coast watcher on Melville Island. The planes were also spotted by Father John McGrath, a Catholic priest conducting missionary work on Bathurst Island. “Father McGrath sent a message saying an unusually large air formation bearing down on us from the northwest.” Believing the missionaries to be mistaken, the RAAF refused to act on the advice.

The first attack “began at 9:58 a.m.” with heavy bombers pattern-bombing 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 around 20-25 minutes. The two raids killed at least 243 people and between 300 and 400 were wounded. “While official figures put the death toll at less than 300, some veterans estimate as many as 1,500 died.” Twenty military aircraft were destroyed, eight ships at anchor in the harbour were sunk, and most civil and military facilities in Darwin were destroyed. The Post and telegraph offices were destroyed along with a Police Station, Barracks, Cable office, Government offices, RAAF hospital, Recreational Hall, and Equipment stores.  Many houses were destroyed.  The hospital was also damaged.  The Darwin Harbour and RAAF base were hit the hardest.              

In the hours following the air raids on 19 February, psychologically unprepared for the attack, the population of Darwin, believing that a Japanese invasion was imminent, began to stream southwards, as civilians took to the roads in cars, trucks, motor cycles or on foot. The Australian government “did too little too late to defend Darwin, but they were very quick to set up extensive political damage control to protect themselves.” At the end of the war in 1945, documents were stamped relating to the bombing of Darwin not to be released until 1995 with the government releasing “15 Killed, 24 hurt in Darwin Attacks, 9 Women among Dead.”

Although these first two raids were the largest, with 683 bombs dropped on Darwin that day, the Japanese were to undertake almost 100 raids on Darwin and other northern Australian towns over the next 20 months. In all, 64 raids were on Darwin. In the final Japanese attack, a raid on Darwin on the 12th of November 1943, there were no casualties and only minor damage was caused around the town. A memorial ceremony is held every year on 19 February at the Cenotaph in Darwin. It starts at 9:58am; the exact time of the first attack.