Category: Bombing of Darwin on 19 Feb 1942
Categories: Darwin, Northern Territory | Australia, World War II
- This category contains sub-categories of those units and ships involved on the day of the bombing, together with profiles of those who were involved but do not 'fit' into one of the sub-categories or were major players in the events of the day.
Darwin, the capital of Australia's Northern Territory, was home to both Aboriginal (full blood and 'half-caste') and non-Aboriginal Australians, Europeans, Chinese, Malays, Japanese, Philipinos and Timorese. Commercially, it was based on cattle, mining, fish and pearls. With no elected government, the Northern Territory had an appointed Administrator. In just ten weeks since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the Asian nation had successfully invaded Hong Kong, the Phippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Malaya, SIngapore, Netherlands East Indies, the Bornea nations, and the Australian Mandated Territory of New Guinea (then separate to Papua). On 19th February 1942, four days after the Fall of Singapore, Australia came under attack for the first time when Japanese forces mounted two air raids on Darwin, Northern Territory. From a Japanese viewpoint the attacks were essential, as the invasion of Timor was planned for the following day and Darwin's air and marine facilities were a threat. The two attacks on Darwin involved 188 attack aircraft launched from four Japanese aircraft-carriers in the Timor Sea and 54 land-based bombers launched from recently-captured Ambon. Twenty military aircraft were destroyed (US Curtiss P40 Kittyhawk fighters and a B17 Flying Fortress bomber, and RAAF CAC Wirraways) and the airfield extensively damaged, eight ships in the harbour were sunk (HMAS Mavie and Kelat, USS Peary, and merchant ships British Motorist, Neptuna, Zealandia, Mauna Loa and Meigs) whilst another 31 were damaged, and most civil and military facilities in Darwin were either destroyed or severely damaged. It is estimated that there were some 250 fatalities and 400 wounded on the Allied side. Casualties would have been markedly higher other than for the evacuation of civilians from the town in the weeks prior, lowering the civilian population from around 5,800 to about 2,000. Just 63 women and two children remained in Darwin. The RAN largely abandoned their Darwin base afterward, moving their ships to Brisbane, Fremantle and other small ports. The RAAF built up their offensive and defensive forces about Darwin.
Whilst air attacks on Darwin during the war continued until November 1943, a further 63 times, this Category is concerned only with that first fateful day and its immediate aftermath.
- Australian War Memorial: Bombing of Darwin; accessed 13 Sep 2022.
- Grose, Peter. 1942: The Year the War Came to Australia. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest NSW, 2021. ISBN 9-781-76106-664-1.
- Wikipedia: Bombing of Darwin; accessed 13 Sep 2022.
This category is managed by the Military and War Project in association with the Categorization Project. For assistance with this or related categories ask in G2G making sure to tag your question with both categorization and Military_and_War.
Subcategories (19)
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Person Profiles (18)
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