Recently Well-Being Australia chairman Mark Tronson and his wife Delma visited the north Queensland community of Bowen where they were shown where many of the 1942 Darwin bombing scenes were shown in the film 'Australia'.
The film 'Australia' was set in the Northern Territory from the late 1930's and through to the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942. This was a Baz Luhrmann film centering on a number of issues, including that of the discrimination against both the Aboriginal community and those of half cast birth. (www.australiamovie.net)
The presentation in the film 'Australia' was indeed graphic with the capture of the panic and it demonstrated the fog of war. In this second article on the 1942 Bombing of Darwin Mark Tronson is looking at what took place as 'security' was given as the reason why the Australian Government played down the numbers actually lost in these raids, as well as the extent of the raids themselves.
However, the truth about the casualties is now known, and the information is disseminated in the official 1991 film documentary that is replayed every day at the East Point Military Museum, and on various information websites put out by the Government, such as (www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/ )
Officially it is now estimated that approximately 250 civilians were killed on the first day, and 278 military personnel were still missing three days later. Over the entire raid, there were approximately 1,000 casualties. Unofficially and supported by local historians there were well over a 1,000 people died or were injured.
Although attack by air, and certainly the severity of the raids over Northern Australia, were not anticipated, an attack on Darwin was certainly known as a possibility. The Government had therefore already evacuated approximately 1000 women and children, and was planning to get them all out. One ship of such refugees had left the harbour only hours before the bombing.
The 188 Japanese aircraft came to Darwin from the south, having done a wide circle over Arnhem Land so as to surprise the defenders. A warning message from the mission on Bathurst Island was somehow not passed on. The US Destroyer Peary was hit and later sunk (President Obama mentioned this loss). The ship Neptuna was at the wharf loaded with ammunition blew up and at the historic Burnett House bullet holes from the 'Zero' planes are still visible in the fence.
It is not generally known that there were more bombs in numbers and tonnage dropped on Darwin, than that the same Japanese air fleet dropped on Pearl Harbour only 10 weeks previously. One of the difficulties in attacking northern Australia by air (or by any other means, for that matter) was its vastness, and of attacking Darwin in particular, its sparseness - with significantly large distances between buildings.
Australia was no Asia where living quarters are packed together. One bomb might kill hundreds in any Asian city, whereas unless a bomb was right on target in Darwin, it would only hit bare earth. This can be seen in the newsreel footage of the bombing of Darwin.
The 188 Japanese war planes consisted of high flying bombers, dive bombers and straffing fighters. Although the film 'Australia' showed the high flying bombers, the concentration of the Darwin bombing scene from the film were the low flying attack single engine war planes that dropped single bombs and straffed anything and everything.
The film 'Australia' certainly picked up on the panic of both the military and the civilian population, although most civilians had already been evacuated as the Government was aware that was had become inevitable.
This was no more clearly seen that in the television drama documentary 'Curtin' where then Prime Minister John Curtain is shown, when speaking to his friend the Japanese ambassador, to be at a loss as to what he could offer the Japanese in exchange for not going to war. (shop.abc.net.au)
In the third article on this subject (next week), Mark Tronson will look at the strategic situation both nations' militarises faced and adds, that he recounts the book: 'From Pearl Harbour to Pulpit' by Mitsuo Fuchida who led both the Pearl Harbour and Darwin raids, and who after the war became a Christian and a preacher and travelled the US extensively on speaking tours.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html