Darwin Bombed

[weisyboy]

just been reading a book of back isues of the corier mail and found an article from the war.

it read

"darwin bombed"
"darwin was bombed today ---- there were no injurys exept a watch tower clerk that broke his arm after being run over by an american jeep"

no dought running for there lives.

[DavidG]

So nothing has changed.

[bsrlee]

You really need to read a good account of the first Japanese raid on Darwin - an entire squadron of U.S. crewed P40's was destroyed, many of them trying to take off with near empty fuel tanks to attack the Japanese - they had just flown back from the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) as the airfield they were to land at there had just been over run.

The first raid on Darwin was bigger than Pearl Harbour & a monumental stuff-up on the part of the Military & Civilian authorities. IIRC the raids went on for something like 2 years, so a raid with only a broken arm was probably considered a 'good thing'.

[BazzaDLB]

Hi there,

For anybody interested in getting an insight into what really happened get hold of the book titled "Australia's Pearl Harbour, Darwin 1942" by Douglas Lockwood.

A brief summary from PRSC Library catalogue "An account of the Japanese attack on Darwin in 1942, first published in 1966 and reissued in the 'Australian War Classics' series. Also examines the royal commission reports which revealed Darwin's civil and military authorities to have been disastrously unprepared."

Is a very easy and good read if you're interested in Australian history.

I'm sure it would be available at most public libraries.

[Christopha]

Could someone tell me why this in the jokes forum????

[echnidna]

Maybe we don't have a War History section