The Japanese Imperial Navy’s air attack on the city of Darwin
was the greatest military disaster ever inflicted on Australia’s soil.
After the Pearl Harbor attack in December of 1941, Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto and Chûichi Nagumo
acted quickly and approved a swift and violent strike against Australia's Northern territory.
Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, who had led the first wave that struck the Hawaiian port,
assembled a task force of over 200 aircraft to destroy the city of Darwin
and disrupt the Allied supply lines in the region. The plan called for a masterful carrier attack
that would disable the enemy defenses, and then twin-engine bombers from the 54th Army Air Force
would make a second pass to ravage the enemy airstrips and the surviving aircraft or warships.
On February 19, 1942, the Australians were caught off guard by the Japanese pilots
even though they had already declared war on Japan, but the less than 40 Allied aircraft in
the area resisted heroically against the invaders. It was Australia's very own Pearl Harbor.
Taking over the Pacific
During the first decades of the early 20th century, the Empire of Japan seized
several territories in mainland Asia and the Pacific as part of its expansionist policies.
After fighting the Russians for the control of North-Eastern Asia, the Japanese took control
of the Korean peninsula, Port Arthur, and other disputed zones of influence.
In the aftermath of World War 1, Japan occupied the islands that once belonged to the Germans.
Then, a decade later, the Empire reclaimed Manchuria,
and by early 1932, it began to conquer several Chinese regions.
As another global conflict approached, the Japanese Intelligence initiated contact
with guerrillas, warlords, and freedom fighters from British, Dutch, French,
and American colonies to summon foreign volunteers in support of the upcoming Japanese occupation.
When the war finally broke out in 1941 and the Wehrmacht marched undefeated across Europe,
the Imperial Army of Japan did the same in Asia and the Pacific.
With most of Asia about to collapse under the alleged pan-Asian Empire of Japan,
the time came to strike at the heart of the American military and occupy the Philippines.
The target was Pearl Harbor, and it took the United States totally by surprise.
39-year-old veteran aviator and horizontal bombing expert Commander Mitsuo Fuchida
led the assault against the US naval bastion with tremendous success.
Almost immediately after the attack, Commander Fuchida began coordinating another heavy blow that
would cripple the Allied presence in the Pacific. The target was the city of Darwin in Australia.
Preparing for the Raid In the buildup to the attack, the Australians were
already afraid of a potential Japanese invasion. However, the Empire had no such intention.
Japan was only interested in acquiring raw materials and economic resources for the war
effort. More importantly, the Empire of the Rising Sun sought to secure a defensive perimeter around
the region for possible counter-attacks. By January of 1942,
Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, had become a significant Allied base.
It was a small town located in a strategic position where the Royal Australian Navy and
Air Force relocated assets for an enemy attack. Darwin also became the central operations hub
for supplying friendly forces stationed in the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies.
In early February, several officers of the Imperial Japanese Navy put pressure on Admiral
Isokoru Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, to attack Darwin.
Commander Minoru Genda, one of the naval officers behind the attack on Pearl Harbor,
advised the Admiral: (QUOTE) "Darwin poses a threat to current and planned operations in
the Netherlands East Indies and recommend it should be the first target. There had
been a substantial buildup of the enemy army and air forces in the area and do not want
it to be used as an offensive base against us." The Western governments had indeed formed a joint
military command known as ABDA, which stood for American, British, Dutch, and Australian forces.
If Japan wanted to conquer Java, Timor, Bali, Singapore, and the rest of the Dutch
East Indies, it had to permanently damage the supply lines that allowed tons of vital
military resources to reach these countries. And the only way was by neutralizing Darwin.
The Operation is Launched
On February 9, 1942, Admiral Yamamoto followed Commander Genda's advice
and approved a carrier strike on Darwin.
Genda was then tasked with crafting the operation, which he divided into two.
A powerful carrier attack would first disable the enemy defenses.
Then, late in the day, the 54th Army Air Force would send twin-engine bombers
to ravage the enemy airstrips and the surviving aircraft or warships.
After Japanese Intelligence gathered information about Darwin's defenses,
Commander Genda felt confident that his forces would not meet serious opposition.
On February 15, the same naval task force that launched Pearl
Harbor's attack set sail for Darwin. Vice-Admiral Nagumo Chuichi's force
consisted of the 1st Carrier Air Fleet, which comprised the carriers Kaga, Soryu,
Akagi, and Hiryu, as well as an escort to protect them at sea.
After making its way through the Banda Sea, the Japanese task force crossed the Timor Sea,
and on the morning of February 19, over 200 aircraft took off on their way to Darwin.
According to obtained information, the city port was poorly defended,
with merely a dozen 3.7-inch anti-aircraft guns and a few 3-inch ones.
In addition, there were less than 40 aircraft defending the base,
and they consisted of dated aircraft like Lockheed Hudsons and some additional P40
Warhawks from the United States Army Air Forces. At 9:30am, a US Navy PBY Catalina from Patrol
Wing 22 was shot down by the Zeros spearheading the assault.
The injured American crew then alerted the Naval Communications Center of the upcoming attack.
However, they were ignored. Minutes later, Catholic Missionary
Father John McGrath, located in Bathurst Island, alerted Darwin of an extensive
Japanese air formation, but he was also ignored. Lacking a radar, the port officers did not realize
that Fuchida had crossed the east coast, turned northwest, and was heading straight for Darwin.
Then, at 9:55am, the attack force sighted Darwin, and the attack began.
Surprise Attack on Darwin
Petty Officer Yoshikazu Nagahama was the first pilot that went into combat.
He arrived at the port earlier than expected and engaged the enemy by himself,
single-handedly shooting down four P40 Warhawks. While this happened, 10 Curtiss P-40B Tomahawks
from Major Floyd Pell's 33rd Pursuit Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force
were returning to base from a mission in Java. Major Pell split his squadron into two units to
defend Darwin from the upcoming attack. The B Flight unit was commanded by Lieutenant
Robert Oestreicher and received orders to stay in the air to engage the Japanese.
Meanwhile, Pell and the rest of A Flight landed at the Royal Air Force base for refueling.
As B Flight gained altitude to face the upcoming wave of enemy fighters,
the P40s broke formation when they were attacked by dozens of Zeros.
An aircraft piloted by Lieutenants Jack R. Peres and Elton S. Perry
was the first to go down when it was torn to pieces by the relentless Zeros.
Meanwhile, the 81 Nakajima B5N light bombers and Aichi D3A dive bombers began to drop their
bomb loads on top of the main port facilities and the more than 65 vessels in the harbor.
Commander Fuchida then led the Zeros directly against the Australian anti-aircraft guns
and the main airstrips where the Royal Air Force pilots attempted to take off.
Fuchida would later comment about these actions: (QUOTE) "There were 20-odd planes
of various types on the airfields. Several U.S. P-40s attempted to take off as we came over
but were quickly shot down, and the rest were destroyed where they stood."
Major Pell was one of the unlucky ones. After refueling,
he and his men attempted to take off but were shot down by Japanese Zeros. Pell was able to parachute
from his burning aircraft, but he was caught by machine-gun fire as he tried to crawl for cover.
The A-Flight’s second in command, Lieutenant Charles Hughes, was strafed as his P40
gathered speed. His aircraft crashed, and Hughes did not make it out of his cockpit.
At the same time, Commander Fuchida's aircraft kept strafing the airstrips along with his men
until every Australian aircraft burned.
Lieutenant Robert F. McMahon, one of Pell's men, was one of the few men who could take off. After
heroically engaging multiple Zeros at once, his P40 was caught by machine-gun fire which forced
him to parachute. Then, as he was approaching the ground, he was hit by a Zero's machine-gun burst.
Nearby, Lieutenants Burt Rice and John Glover were also shot down after attempting to
confront the relentless Zeros. Rice was able to parachute while Glover tried to protect him from
the Japanese fighters, but he too was shot down. After scoring a hit on a Zero, Glover crashed into
the army airfield and survived the Zeros’ strafing run after quickly running away from the wreckage.
All the remaining airstrips and supply depots were bombed and strafed
once Australian resistance was neutralized. Darwin was wiped out in less than 30 minutes.
Aftermath Fuchida's
men began to pick off ships at leisure before making their way to the town. Targets such as
the Administrative district, hospital, post office, and police barracks were decimated.
Then, at 11:00am, the aircraft made it back to the carriers.
54 Mitsubishi bombers still came back to bomb the remaining structures at noon,
marking the end of a successful operation for the Japanese forces.
Ultimately, nine vessels were sunk, and more than 25 were heavily damaged by machine-gun
fire. More than 200 military and civilian personnel lost their lives, and 400 were wounded.
Shortly after the raid, Timor and Java were captured, and the Allies’ supply
lines were significantly damaged. The base would be attacked 62 more
times until November of 1943 when the Allies revamped their defenses for good.
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