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The war hits home
The following is an extract from: Australia and World War II
© NSW Department of Education and Training, Learning Materials
Production, Open Training and Education Network, 2001.
Darwin
19 February 1942 was the day war first came to Australian shores. Darwin
was thought to have been under threat from the time the Japanese first
attacked Malaya so it was decided to evacuate civilians from the city.
Women, children, sick and disabled people were moved south during
December 1941 and January 1942 in case of a Japanese attack. However,
although the civilians were moved out of Darwin, little else was done in
preparation for an attack by the Japanese.
The fears of an attack on Darwin were realised on 19 February when
Japanese aircraft bombed the city causing substantial damage. There was an
immediate concern that Japanese troops were preparing to invade Australia.
We have since learnt that the Japanese did not plan on invading Australia.
However, the concern at the time saw Curtin ask for the American general,
Douglas MacArthur, to be stationed in Australia and take over the command
of the troops preparing to defend the south-west Pacific.
A further 60 raids on Darwin occurred between March 1942 and November
1943 resulting in 17 more deaths and even more people wounded and
property damaged.
Invasion?
The bombing of Darwin caused great panic as many believed the raids
would lead to a full-scale invasion of Australia. Most of the civilians who
remained behind in Darwin after the evacuations in December 1941–
January 1942 fled after the raids on 19 February. Several service personnel
also deserted their posts and joined the exodus south.
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© NSW DET 2009
The bombing of Darwin was followed by looting of shops and homes. Both
Australian civilians and servicemen stole furniture, radios, cameras, clothes,
etc, from homes and shops.
The Australian government wanted to avoid panic in the southern states so
they censored the information provided to the public. Although 243 people
died during the raid the news given out at the time was that only 11 had
died.
The government was unsuccessful in trying to stop the panic caused by the
threat of Japanese invasion. Civilians and servicemen who fled south gave
eyewitness accounts of the death and destruction.
Sydney
As well as the air raids on Darwin, some places in Australia, such as
Newcastle and Sydney in NSW, were also shelled by Japanese submarines.
World War II reached the largest populated Australian city when Japanese
submarines surfaced just outside Sydney Heads. Three midget submarines
entered Sydney Harbour intending to sink the Australian and American
ships docked there.
The Sydney ferry, Kuttabul, was being used as a naval depot (pronounced
dep – o) when it was hit by a torpedo from one of the Japanese submarines
and 19 people were killed.
The Allies defending Sydney Harbour managed to destroy two of the
Japanese midget submarines within the harbour without any further damage
to their own vessels. After being fired upon by the USS Chicago and HMAS
Geelong, the third midget submarine was never heard of again.
Japanese submarines continued to travel along the east coast of Australia
attacking Allied vessels. A number of ships carrying war supplies were sunk
by the Japanese.
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© NSW DET 2009