Attack on Darwin Australia 1942
Japanese B54s Bomb the City, Civilians Flee in Adelaide River Stakes
Apr 12, 2007
The morning of February 19, 1942 saw the American 10 Kitty Hawk aircraft stationed at the local base as their mission to Java was called off. At around 10:00am the local army commander heard a call over the radio that a large group of aircraft had just passed Bathurst Island on the way to Darwin. He was not to know that they were Japanese enemy aircraft. At first he didn’t sound the alarm as they could have been American allies and cause false panic among the people. It wasn’t long afterwards that the attack began in earnest.
The first wave brought the bombers who targeted the harbour and town. These were followed closely by dive-bombers and fighters machine gunning and bombing the RAAF, civil airfields and the hospital. The attackers left around 10:30am only to return before noon with a squad of 54 bombers from Ambon. The Japanese may have lost between 5 and 10 aircraft, but at least 243 people were killed in the attack. The police station, police barracks, post office and the administrators office were totally demolished.
Either the raids on Darwin were aimed at erasing the Allied counter-attack against the Japanese invasion of Timor or Darwin was being softened up for invasion. By mid-afternoon people left Darwin in The Adelaide River Stakes. Breakdowns occurred in discipline in military and civilian people, with soldiers leaving their posts and looting of the town.
It was only days before the attack that Singapore fell. The government ,concerned about the effect the attack would have on the population, announced that only 17 people had been killed. Media were kept under extremely tight security.
