Japanese Attacks

In December 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour sinking four US battleships and damaging 13 others, at the same time destroying or immobilising over 350 aircraft.  Later that month they sank both the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse off Malaya; removing naval opposition to their thrust south and exposing Australia to attack.

The first raid on Darwin was a few weeks later on the morning of 19 February 1942.  It was equally large, and unexpected, with 188 Japanese warplanes arriving in two waves.  The first two raids targeted the port infrastructure and 45 ships in the or near the harbour.  The Japanese dropped more bombs on Darwin than they did on Pearl Harbour.   23 aircraft were destroyed including a squadron of American planes that attempted to engage the Japanese; 10 ships were sunk and 25 damaged.  Some 300 were killed and more were wounded.  The town itself was heavily damaged and civilians had to be evacuated.  The Japanese lost just 7 aircraft.

Darwin Harbour was protected by a series of large gun emplacements that effectively denied enemy ships approaching or entering the very large harbour and theoretically protected allied shipping in the Harbour.  Troops were stationed against a possible landing of a small force up the coast that might take the guns from behind. 

Gun placement around Darwin Harbour

This was nice state-of-the-art protection appropriate to the 1920's but the Japanese had since become expert in carrier based air warfare.  So the big guns became white elephants; consuming most defence resources; but useless.  This remains an object lesson to military strategists.  Thus large guns around Australia have mostly been sent off to scrap.

9.2in Gun Emplacement Military Museum Darwin
(good for engaging battleships - useless against aircraft; or an invasion down the coast)

In my article on Malta I remarked that when it is probable that an enemy will be nuclear armed, a fortified Naval Base like Malta is a strategic liability; and has thus been abandoned by the British Navy. 

By the end of the war there were some thirty ships sunk in Darwin's harbour.  These needed to be removed to allow the harbour to develop.  By a twist of fate a Japanese salvage firm won the tender. 

The Military Museum has an experience theatre where visitors can relive the first raid.  The Museum also attempts to show a Japanese perspective and the factors that led to war; both in a spirit of reconciliation and because many people in Darwin are of Japanese heritage.

Thousands of miles of uninhabited coastline can't be defended by fixed guns