Air raids fell far short of propaganda
THE headline simply “Slightly Overdrawn”.
The story appeared in the Townsville Daily Bulletin on August 24, 1942.
It quoted an article from an English newspaper, based on a Berlin Radio report that stated 200 Japanese bombers had attacked Port Moresby, Townsville, Darwin, Wyndham and Broome, causing severe damage.
Three months after the retreat of their fleet in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Japanese were perhaps trying to save face, making exaggerated reports to the Germans regarding air raids on Australia.
On August 3, 1942, the Bulletin had published this photograph of a coconut tree with its trunk severed by a bomb splinter – the main casualty of three Japanese raids on Townsville.
The city, therefore, had a scornful laugh at the far from accurate German claims.
More than 200 bombers might have attacked Darwin in February 1942, but only about eight appeared over Townsville on the nights of July 25, 26, 28 and 29, 1942.
The city remained intact, and the casualties were a few shrubs and perhaps a single wallaby in the bush near Many Peaks Range, and two fence posts and the palm tree at Oonoonba.
At that time, many residents had left the city, but those who remained were de- read: termined to resist Japanese invasion, digging slit trenches and creating shelters in back yards. They were already on high alert, aware they might be ordered to evacuate at any moment.
State schools had closed in February and students of boarding schools were evacuated to sites further inland.
Food, clothing and petrol were rationed, water restrictions prevailed, electricity was in short supply, and rubber tyres were almost unobtainable.
Many homes and businesses were taken over for military use. Military vehicles moved almost continually along roads, and landing strips for hundreds of aircraft encircled the city.
Australian and US troops crowded streets. Slit trenches and concrete air raid shelters occupied streets in the city, and the tower of the Post Office was removed. Townsville was indeed “a fortress city”.
When air raid sirens woke Townsvilleans on the night of July 25, the residents were prepared, calmly proceeding to trenches and shelters, expecting bombs to fall, which they did – but into the sea.
Two nights later, another attempt failed – bombs fell in scrub near Pallarenda. When sirens again sounded on the 29th, some people did not bother to take shelter, but sat in their back yards where they enjoyed the spectacle of search lights flooding the skies and illuminating the USAF aircraft chasing the Japanese invader.
It was the last enemy attack on Townsville, and the bombs again missed the city and military bases, falling on open ground, occupied only by coconut palms.
On July 31, another Japanese aircraft dropped bombs near a farmhouse outside Mossman, where a small child suffered shrapnel wounds. That was the last air raid on Queensland’s east coast.
The Japanese attacks had failed, but Townsville remained on high alert. The noise of hundreds of aircraft taking off for bombing raids to New Guinea often filled the air, a reminder of the grim battles taking place at Milne Bay and along the Kokoda Trail.
Nevertheless, the Battle of the Coral Sea and the failure of the July air attacks strengthened hopes for the defeat of the Japanese, though victory in the Pacific was not achieved until August 1945.