Bombing of Darwin was Australia’s Pearl Harbor

Every Dec. 7, we reflect on the deaths of 2,403 Americans killed during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 by the Japanese, a date that President Franklin Roosevelt said “will live in infamy.” However, most Americans are unaware that 230 people, including 112 Americans, died 10 weeks later during the bombing of Darwin, Australia, when elements of the same Japanese force under the command of Admiral Chuicho Naguma, attacked from four of the same aircraft carriers used at Pearl Harbor: Akagi, Soryu, Kaga and Hiryu.

I’ve always been interested in the history of World War II in the Pacific because my father was a Marine in the invasion of Okinawa, and this led me to read widely on the subject. I’ve made a career out of studying weird Australian fishes and have lived in many parts of Australia for about 12 of the past 47 years. I was aware that the city of Darwin was bombed during WWII, but I didn’t fully appreciate the impact of this event on the collective psyche of Australia until I had a chance to live there.

In March 2002, I visited the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. This exceptional display of the history of WWII had no mention of the 1942 bombing of Darwin. In February 2013, I attended a lecture by a history professor about the events that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. He made no reference to the bombing of Darwin, and I asked him why. He said he was unaware of the event.

The bombing of Darwin was not the first blow inflicted by the Japanese on Australians. Four days before the bombing, the British bastion of Singapore fell on Feb. 15, 1942, as the Japanese moved to capture the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) for the oil and rubber supplies needed to fuel their war efforts. Australian losses defending Singapore were staggering with 1,789 killed, 1,306 wounded and 15,395 captured! This was one of the worst military disasters in Australian history.

At 9:58 a.m. on Feb. 19, 1942, 188 bombers led by the same commander who attacked Hawaii, Mitsuo Fuchida, dropped more, but less massive, bombs on Darwin than they did on Pearl Harbor. Japanese torpedoes, so effective at Pearl Harbor, were not used at Darwin. The rational for the bombing was to protect the Japanese invasion of Timor, planned for the next day, from a Darwin-based counter-attack. Eleven ships were sunk and others were damaged. In less than one hour, at least 230 people were killed and more than 300 were wounded.

At 11:58 a.m. a second wave of 54 land-based heavy bombers from Ambon island obliterated the Darwin RAAF airfield in 20 minutes. The bombing of Darwin is the worst disaster on Australian soil in the nation’s history. Much of Darwin was destroyed, and the city and nearby defense areas would absorb 62 more attacks until Nov. 12, 1943.

Nearly half of the dead, 112, were Americans. The latest research indicated that 88 U.S. sailors perished when the destroyer USS Peary was dived-bombed and sunk in Darwin Harbor. Eyewitnesses said the Peary’s forward machine guns continued to fire as the ship slipped below the oily, flaming waters and the burning ship’s magazine exploded. Fourteen sailors on the seaplane tender USS William B. Preston, one from a Catalina PBY flying boat, and four American soldiers from the 148th US Field Artillery also perished in the bombing. Four U.S. Army Air Corp P-40 Kittyhawk fighter pilots died when they were blown out of the sky as the 33rd Pursuit Squadron rose to meet the vastly superior Japanese force. The U.S. Merchant Service suffered one American and 15 Filipino deaths spread over three ships.

I continued my research visits to Darwin in 2003, ’04, ’05 and ’09. I was in Darwin again on Nov. 17, 2011, when President Barack Obama visited with then Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to announce the U.S.’ new Asia/Pacific policy that would require the prepositioning of relief supplies and, eventually, 2,500 U.S. Marines, at an Australian base outside of Darwin.

The president met with a relative of a USS Peary crewmember and laid a wreath at the Peary War Memorial on the Esplanade in Darwin. This was the first visit of an American president to Darwin, and many of the 100,000 residents of this beautiful tropical city lined the parade route to welcome him. Obama acknowledged the heroic efforts of the Australian anti-aircraft gunners and rescuers and the American servicemen on that fateful day, Feb. 19, 1942, 75 years ago.

The Bombing of Darwin Day is a national day of observance throughout Australia, “lest we forget”.