DARWIN
By February 1942 the war against the Japanese was not going well for Australia and the Allies. The collapse of Singapore and the loss of fifteen thousand Australian troops of the 8th Division had convinced the country that invasion might no longer be just a bad dream. An invasion of northern Australia was considered a real possibility, and this fear was well founded.
The Japanese had taken Rabaul in New Britain before the fall of the Philippines and had invaded Burma before the surrender of Singapore. It was more than conceivable that they might try to eliminate Darwin as they moved on Java, Timor and New Guinea in their remorseless drive south.
Japanese incursions in the Darwin area had already taken place. On 1st January, 1942, a Japanese submarine was detected in the harbour. On 20th January, another Japanese submarine was sunk by HMAS Deloraine, 80 kilometres from Darwin. On 28th January, Japanese planes were spotted on reconnaissance flights 3 kilometres from the centre of Darwin. Despite these sightings and engagements, Australia did little to prepare or guard against a full-scale Japanese attack. And the Japanese were fully aware of this. On the night of 18th February 1942 Vice Admiral Nagumo of the Imperial Japanese Navy led a force of 4 aircraft carriers, 4 heavy cruisers and 9 destroyers south from the Celebes to a point east of Timor Island to fly off their aircraft.
The task force Nagumo commanded included four of the carriers Kaga, Hiryu, Akagi, Soryu that had launched the devastating 7th December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Task force Air Commander Fuchida, had also been the air leader at Pearl Harbor. As dawn broke on the quiet sea Nagumo launched his188-plane Darwin raiding force. Seventy-one Val dive bombers, 81 Kate level-bombers and 36 Zero fighters flew off the decks of the carriers. From recently captured land based airfields in the Timor Sea, another 54 medium twin-engined Betty bombers took off.
The first sighting of enemy aircraft was made by Father John J. Mc Grath at the Catholic Mission on the Bathurst Island settlement, 50 miles north of Darwin. Father McGrath only had time to tell the Darwin wireless operator of an unusual large air formation bearing down from the north-west before the channel was jammed and the priest was diving for cover as Japanese fighters made a low pass over the mission. A US Beechcraft parked at the edge of a makeshift runway burst into flames.
The Wireless station operator passed on McGrath's message to the RAAF operations officer at 09 51 hours. Just like the early sightings at Pearl Harbor, however, McGrath's message plus the report of the Melville Island coast-watcher John Gribble were discounted. RAAF operations had been told that 10 American P40s en route to Java had turned back and were expected in the area. The message was filed. No warning was given.
American Major Pell leading 10 P40 Kittyhawks, arrived over the city minutes ahead of nine Japanese fighters sent ahead of the main attack force. The Americans were only at Darwin because they had run into bad weather on their way to the Dutch East Indies and had turned back. They were the only aircraft in the area capable of defending Darwin from the Japanese. The meagre Allied air force at Darwin included 17 Hudson bombers (6 without crews), 14 Wirraway single-engine trainers that were being used for short-range reconnaissance, and 10 of Major Pell's USAAF Kittyhawk fighters. In the harbour there were 47 naval and merchant vessels including the old four stacker US destroyer Peary and the US seaplane tender William B. Preston, two sloops and five corvettes of the RAN, two Catalina flying-boats of the USN, and the Qantas Empire flying-boat, Camilla. It all made a tempting and important target for a Japanese strike.
Intensive air activity over Timor during the previous few days had caused several air raid alerts to be sounded in Darwin, and a raid was expected; although not quite so soon. The military warning to the city, which could have been sounded earlier, was delayed until the attack was underway. An officer looked out of his window and saw enemy planes making bombing runs. But even this personal sighting was not enough to convince everyone. A trooper of the 19th Machine Gun Regiment screamed at his sergeant: “The Japs are here”! The sergeant was sceptical. “They are probably our own. What makes you think they're Japs”? “They've got bloody great red spots on 'em”, the trooper replied.
The sergeant picked up the phone and called 23rd Brigade HQ, only to be asked how he knew the aircraft were hostile. In frustration, he repeated the trooper's blunt answer; “They've got bloody great red spots on 'em”! He barked into the telephone. Any further argument about the bombers became academic as bombs smashed into the unsuspecting city. This was the first time since European settlement that mainland Australia had been attacked by a foreign enemy and was the largest Japanese attack since Pearl Harbo r.
Major Pell had sent up a flight of five Kittyhawks to patrol over the harbour while his other aircraft refuelled. A few minutes later the patrolling Kittyhawks were attacked by Zeros. The Japanese gave no warning or quarter. They savaged the five Americans, shooting down four on the first pass. Flight leader Lieutenant Oestreic her only had time to blurt out Zeros!