Air raids on Australia from 1942 to 1943

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Fighter Guide Map No. 1B, Darwin Area from March 1944, which was created for military use by the Royal Australian Air Force . The map shows many of the airports that have been attacked by the Japanese Air Force
Japanese offensives 1941–1942

Between February 1942 and November 1943 there were 97 air raids on Australia by Imperial Japanese Navy Air Forces during the Pacific War in World War II .

The attacks were carried out with different tactics. There were air strikes by bombers and fighter planes , by torpedo planes on ships, or attacks only with the on-board weapons of fighter planes.

The military personnel of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Australian Army , Royal Australian Navy , United States Army Air Forces , United States Navy , British Royal Air Force and Dutch Air Force Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger participated in the defense .

Japanese aircraft also attacked civilian infrastructure targets such as docks, civil airfields, railways and fuel tanks, including civilians.

First Japanese air raids

The Japanese air forces attacked Australia with a series of attacks during February and March 1942. The purpose of these attacks was to weaken the Allies and prevent them from engaging in a military conflict over the Dutch East Indies .

Air raid on Darwin

The picture shows the explosion of a fuel tank and the black smoke comes from a burning oil tank during the first wave of the Japanese attack on Darwin. The damaged HMAS Deloraine can be seen in the foreground .

The first air raid on Darwin by 242 Japanese fighter planes and bombers took place on the morning of February 19, 1942. The Japanese forces had departed four days before the bombing of Palau with four aircraft carriers, two battleships, three cruisers and nine destroyers and started their attack from the Banda lake . In the second wave of attacks, Japanese bombers launched from a land base attacked Darwin Airport . In the course of this attack on Darwin , around 250 to 300 people were killed and hundreds of people left homeless. It caused bomb damage in the city and on ships in the harbor and led to the sinking of eight ships. At the time, no fighter planes were stationed on the attacked Darwin military airfield.

This attack had psychological repercussions on the Australian population, described as the Darwin panic , and resulted in Darwin being abandoned as a naval port and the warships being stationed elsewhere.

Air raid on Broome

→ Main article: Air raid on Broome

A burning USAAF B-24 "Liberator" at Broome Airport after the attack on March 3, 1942 by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force .

On March 3, 1942, nine Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter jets and a reconnaissance aircraft attacked Broome Airport and flying boats in northern Western Australia . In Broome , refugees were that Java had left after the Allied Forces, the Battle of the Java Sea had lost. The Japanese planes destroyed 22 planes, mostly watering planes, in which refugees waited on the coast for the onward flight and killed 88 people. The Japanese lost two planes and a pilot.

Attacks on Queensland

Japanese seaplanes carried out a total of four minor air raids in northern Queensland on the cities of Townsville and Mossman in late July 1942 . Townsville was a major military base that was attacked with Kawanishi H6K Mavis launched from Rabaul in late July 1942.

On the night of July 25th to July 26th, 1942, the city was attacked by three seaplanes with six bombs, which caused no destruction because they fell into the sea.

By the end of July 1942, there were three more attacks by Japanese seaplanes, which caused little damage. In the first attack, an agricultural research center near Oonooba, a suburb of Townsville, was negligibly damaged, in the second attack a child near Mossman was injured, and in the third attack the attacking seaplane was damaged in defensive battles by Allied P-39 Airacobra aircraft.

List of air strikes

1942

February

19: (10:00) Darwin, Northern Territory (NT)
19: (11:55)
19: Bathurst Island , NT
20: 11:30 Cape Londonderry , (WA). MV Koolama damaged by a Kawanishi H6K seaplane . Attacked again at 1.30 p.m. and badly damaged, 3 passengers were injured.
21 .: Rulhieres Bay , WA (later renamed Koolama Bay) Koolama was attacked again, no damage or injuries.

March

3rd: (9:20 am) Broome , WA. A low-flying attack by nine '' Mitsubishi A6M '' with 88 people killed and 24 Allied aircraft destroyed.
3rd: (~ 10:30) Carnot Bay , WA. A PK-AFV ( Pelikaan ), a Douglas DC-3 of KLM were shot down by the returning Japanese squadron.
3rd: Wyndham , WA. Low-flying attack. No losses. The Koolama that sank in the harbor was the result of an earlier air raid.
3rd: Wyndham Airport, WA
4th: Wreckage and passengers of the PK-AFV were attacked again by a Kawanishi H6K , no damage or loss.
4th: (14:00) Darwin RAAF Airport , NT
14 .: Horn Island , Queensland (Qld)
16th: (13:30) Darwin RAAF Airport and Bagot, NT
17 .: Darwin, NT
18. : Horn Island, Qld
19: (11:40) Darwin (Myilly Point and Larrakeyah), NT
20: Broome Airport, WA. Attack by Mitsubishi G4M 2 "Betty" (Medium Bomber). One civilian was killed and minor damage to the runway occurred.
20th: Derby , WA
22nd: (00:51) Darwin, NT
22nd: Katherine , NT (First air raid in interior Australia, about 200 km from the coast).
23: Darwin, NT
23: Wyndham, WA (two attacks)
28: (12:30) Darwin RAAF airport, NT
30: (05:40?) Darwin RAAF airport, NT
30: Darwin RAAF Airport, NT
31: (13:20) Darwin RAAF Airport, NT
31: (22:19) Darwin RAAF Airport, NT

April

2 .: (3:30 pm) Darwin (Harvey St, McMinn St) tanks of the Royal Dutch Shell , NT
2 .: Sattler Airfield, NT
4 .: (13:48) Darwin Civil Airfield and Parap Hotel, NT
5 .: ( 12:29) Darwin RAAF Airport, NT
25 .: (14:00) Darwin RAAF Airport, NT
27 .: (12:07) Darwin RAAF Airport, NT
30 .: Horn Island, QLD

June

13: (11:52) Darwin RAAF Airport, NT
14: (13:14) Darwin (city area), NT
15: (12:20) Darwin (Larrakeyah to Stokes Hill), NT
16: ( 12:01) Darwin (urban area), NT
26 .: (20:50) Darwin, NT

July

7 .: Horn Island, Qld
25 .: (20:50) Darwin (urban area), NT
26 .: Townsville, Qld
26 .: (21: 39–22: 54) Darwin ( Vesteys ), NT
27 .: (22 : 27) Knuckey's Lagoon, Darwin RAAF Airport, NT
28 .: (00:45) Darwin RAAF Airport, NT
28 .: Townsville, Qld
29 .: (00:59) Darwin (urban area) and Knuckey's Lagoon, NT.
29 .: Townsville, Qld
30 .: (3:58) Darwin (urban area) and Darwin RAAF Airport, NT
30 .: Horn Island, Qld
30 .: Port Hedland , WA.
31: Mossman , Qld
31: (13:33) Darwin RAAF Airport, NT

August

1 .: Horn Island, Qld
21 .: Wyndham, WA
23 .: (12:12) Hughes Airport, NT
24: (21:24) Darwin RAAF Airport, NT
24: (22:14) Noonamah , NT
25 .: (00:05) Darwin and Parap, NT
27 .: (03: 45–05: 37) Darwin (Botanical Garden) and Cox Peninsula, NT
28 .: (03:35) Darwin (train station and Port Patterson ), NT
30 .: (02:39) Darwin (urban area), NT
31 .: (05:14) Darwin (urban area) and Cox Peninsula, NT

September

25: (03:41) Darwin (city area) and Knuckey's Lagoon, NT
25: (05:48) Darwin (city area and Daly Street Bridge), NT
26: (05:22) Livingstone Airport, NT
27. : (04:56) Bynoe Harbor, NT
27 .: (05:44) Darwin (city area) (Frances Bay)

October

10th: Horn Island, Qld
24th: (04:42) Batchelor Airport
24th: (04:52) Pell Airport
24th: (04:57) Cox Peninsula
24th: (05:12) Darwin-RAAF -Airport, NT
25 .: (05:30) Darwin (urban area) and Darwin RAAF airport, NT
26 .: (04:54) Darwin (urban area) and Darwin RAAF airport, NT
27 .: (02: 20) Darwin (metropolitan area) and Darwin RAAF Airport, NT

November

23: (03: 00-04: 39) Darwin (urban area) and Darwin RAAF Airport, NT
23 .: Coomalie Creek Airfield , NT
26: (03:20) Darwin (urban area), Strauss Airport and Hughes -Airport, NT
27: (03: 56-04: 46) Coomalie Creek Airport, Hughes Airport, and Strauss Airport, NT

1943

January

20: (22: 44–00: 15) Searchlight Station, AWC Camp, Ironstone, NT
21: (21:54) Darwin (Frances Bay), NT
22: (13:30) Attack on the HMAS Patricia Cam that sank at Wessel Islands, NT.

March

2nd: (14:34) Coomalie Creek Airport, NT
15th: (11:20) Darwin (oil tanks), NT

May

2 .: (10:15) Darwin RAAF airport and Darwin dry dock, NT
9 .: Milingimbi, NT
10 .: Milingimbi, NT. The HMAS Maroubra was sunk.
20: Exmouth Gulf , WA
21: Exmouth Gulf, WA
28: Milingimbi, NT

June

18: Horn Island, Qld
20: (10:43) Winnellie and Darwin RAAF Airport, NT
28: (11:07) Vesteys, NT
30: (12:30) Fenton Airfield , NT

July

6: (12:02) Fenton Airport, NT

August

13: (21:45) Fenton Airport, NT
13: (23:12) Fenton Airport and Coomalie Creek Airport, NT
13: (23:42) Coomalie Creek Airport, NT
14 .: Long Airport, NT
17: Port Hedland, WA
21: (00:37) Fenton Airport and Coomalie Creek Airport, NT
21: (3:30) Pell Airport, NT

September

15th: (00:25) Fenton Airport and Long Airport, NT
15th: Onslow , WA. (The southernmost target of Australia)
16th: Exmouth Gulf, WA
18th: (3:50) Fenton Airport and Long Airport, NT
27: Drysdale River Mission (Kalumburu Airport), WA. One death, Father Thomas Gil, the head of the mission.

November

10th: Coomalie.Creek Airport, NT
12th: (3: 53-05: 30) Parap, Adelaide River and Batchelor Airport, NT

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gillison (1962): History of Australia in the War of 1939-1945. see literature. Pp. 562-563.
  2. ^ A b Coulthard-Clark (2001): The Encyclopedia of Australia's Battles , see literature. P. 212.
  3. ↑ Vanessa Crowdey: The day the bombs fell . (PDF) In: Wartime . No. 8, 1999, pp. 46-49. Retrieved January 9, 2008.
  4. ^ Coulthard-Clark (2001): The Encyclopedia of Australia's Battles , see literature. P. 214.
  5. ^ Coulthard-Clark (2001): The Encyclopedia of Australia's Battles , see literature. P. 215.
  6. ^ A b c Coulthard-Clark (2001): The Encyclopedia of Australia's Battles , see literature. P. 224.