Douglas Lockwood

Cassell Australia, 1966 - Darwin (N.T.) - 232 pages

"The first ever attack on Australia by a foreign power occurred at Darwin on February 19, 1942. The town was attacked in broad daylight by 188 bombers, dive bombers and fighters from the same Japanese Carrier Task Force that, two months earlier, had brought the United States into the war at Pearl Harbour. As at Pearl Harbour, early warnings were ignored or misinterpreted. Eight ships were sunk, 243 people were killed and between 300 and 400 wounded in the air raids. Although Singapore had already fallen and Java was about to be invaded, the R.A.A.F. did not have a single operational fighter aircraft in the area to meet an attack that was imminent and inevitable. Ten American P.40 (Kittyhawk) fighters were there. All were destroyed whilst attempting an impossible defence. The civil and military panic that followed has been described as shameful. A few hours after the raid the R.A.A.F. base was almost deserted. Servicemen and civilians fled the Darwin area on foot, on bicycles, and in a variety of vehicles which included a road grader and a sanitary cart. The circumstances of the bombing and what ensued were such that the Federal Government ordered an immediate investigation by a Royal Commission."