Art beat
THE PERSONAL TOUCH Amid the facts and figures of exactly what happened during the Bombing of Darwin lie individual tales of death, despair, hope and healing. An author who has written about that personal side will join others tomorrow for a public book ta
Aheartfelt account of the Bombing of Darwin through the eyes of a local has brought to life the first air raids on the city. Red Spots Over Darwin is the true account of Henry Scott, who was up a telegraph pole when the Japanese planes started to drop bombs.
He watched as explosives dropped on the Darwin post office — where three family members worked.
He was only 23-years-old when he was forced to bury his family.
Mr Scott’s granddaughter Simmone Croft has put his accounts into a book that gives a human side to Australia’s biggest single attack.
Ms Croft said it took years for her grandfather to talk about the events.
“It wasn’t until probably I think I was about 23 or 24 I started to hear him talk about the bombing,” she said.
“He struggled with his own thoughts and memories. It took him a long time to talk about it.”
Ms Croft said it took her more than a year to put the book together and fact check everything, but admits she had spent around 12 years researching her grandfather’s history and the Bombing of Darwin.
“You hear a lot about the facts and figures, but to bring a personal and emotional side to it puts you in that zone of looking at the history and feeling the impact of World War II,” she said.
“People enjoy that personal side.”
She said her grandfather’s accounts indicted that when he first saw the planes, he didn’t know what was happening.
“He thought they were dropping pamphlets,” she said.
“He said he didn’t hear the siren going off as the impact of the bombs was so great.”
Ms Croft said Mr Scott had to help the local police officer collect and bury the bodies after the raids with his truck, as it was the only one nearby.
“That day they had to bury them on Kalhin Beach,” she said.
Her research showed her grandfather had played a significant part in events after the Bombing of Darwin.
“The other significant part was that my grandfather was posted to work up here on the overland telegraph line. He was working for the Postmaster-General’s Department,” Ms Croft said.
They were due to do the first call on the telegraph line — which was being built to create better communication lines for the war — the day after the bombing.
It wasn’t until late February after the lines had been repaired that the first call was made.
“His voice was the very first voice down to Adelaide. It was two major events for him at the time,” Ms Croft said.
While the book covers the first raid and what Mr Scott went through, she said he continued on in Darwin for another two years before heading down south due to neurosis.
But eventually he returned to the Northern Territory and settled in Katherine for more than 40 years.
“I feel incredibly proud because he was so passionate about the history of the NT and Darwin, and World War II history, and particularly in Katherine he was a historian in his own right,” she said.
“He was very passionate about the Territory, the Territory was in his heart.”
Ms Croft also painted the image on the cover of the book depicting the post office and the planes coming in.
Tomorrow Ms Croft will take part in an author panel at The Bookshop Darwin, 1/30 Smith St Mall, to discuss Red Spots Over Darwin 75 years after the event.
She will be joined by Peter Grose, writer of the book and documentaty An Awkward Truth, Dr Tom Lewis, author of The Empire Strikes South and War at Home, Craig Bellamy, who wrote Radar Gunner and Norman Cramp, author of From Frontier to Frontline. The event will run from 10.30am to 1pm.
“He said he didn’t hear the siren going off as the impact of the bombs was so great”