Carrier Attack Darwin 1942: The Complete Guide to Australia's Own Pearl Harbor

When the Pacific war began it was a case of “when not if” Darwin would be attacked. But nobody could have predicted the extraordinary scale and ferocity of the 19 February 1942 raid. A massive strike force, blooded at Pearl Harbor just weeks before, hit Darwin in the biggest Japanese air attack ever in the South Pacific. Since then, generations of Australians have been drawn to the stories and folklore of the Darwin action. But facts have blurred and mythology has thrived.

What of the warning that never happened? What of the ghost ship actually sunk in the Atlantic a year earlier? Did a fighter pilot contrive a false combat record? Did the authorities cover up the raid? Why do Australians know so little about it? This is the book that tests these many Darwin myths and reveals new information: another ship sunk; the actual intent and nature of the attack; the precise extent of the Japanese losses.

The Darwin raid is usually portrayed as a wholesale disaster for the Allies, and a day full of military ineptitude. Carrier Attack shows the defenders were alert and fought with purpose. Arguably it was the Japanese that wasted much of their attacking strength, and in this way the Darwin defenders avoided a much larger catastrophe.

Carrier Attack provides a timely and fresh analysis of the raid. Most importantly, it draws on specially translated Japanese sources.

Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction
Explanatory Notes
Chapter 1. Overview
Chapter 2. The road to Pearl Harbor and the relevance of Darwin
Chapter 3. Carriers - Japan’s new strike weapon
Chapter 4. Race for an Island: Timor
Chapter 5. Bomber Attack
Chapter 6. Zero Attack
Chapter 7. Allied Aircraft Operations
Chapter 8: The Bathurst Island Warning
Chapter 9. The Darwin Airfields
Chapter 10. The Fight in the Harbour I
Stokes Hill Wharf: Neptuna & Barossa
Major RAN ships: Platypus, the sloops and corvettes
Chapter 11. The Fight in the Harbour II
United States Navy at Darwin: Peary & Preston
Chapter 12. The Fight in the Harbour III
Merchant Ships
Hospital Ship Manunda
Miscellaneous Smaller Vessels
Chapter 13. The Fight in the Harbour IV
Boom Defence Squadron
Flying Boat Camilla & Launches
Chapter 14. The Army’s AA Guns
Chapter 15. The Philippine Blockade Runners: Don Isidro & Florence D
Chapter 16. The Second Raid
Chapter 17. Conclusions
Appendix 1. Aircraft Profiles
Appendix 2. Ship Profiles
Appendix 3. Ships Present in Darwin Harbour 19 February 1942
Appendix 4. Allied Aircraft Losses Darwin 19 February 1942
Appendix 5. Constable Law’s Damage Report
Appendix 6. Pearl Harbor and Darwin – a comparison
Appendix 7. Trouble on the Darwin wharves
Appendix 8. Myth: The Gribble radio warning
Appendix 9. Myth: The Heroic Robert Oestreicher
Appendix 10. Myth: Death Toll Cover-up
Appendix 11. Myth: The Raid was Concealed
Appendix 12. Myth: A Prelude to Invasion
Appendix 13. Myth: the Japanese pilots insulted their victims
Appendix 14. Finding the Peary
Appendix 15. Darwin Tides
Appendix 16. Darwin Sites of Significance – What Remains Today?
References
Index