Reaction To The Japanese 'Invasion' of Australia (WW2)
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- Опубліковано 15 тра 2024
- Reaction To The Japanese 'Invasion' of Australia (Australian Military History)
This is my reaction to The Japanese 'Invasion' of Australia.
In this video I react to Australian Military History by looking at an operation during WW2 where Japan attempted to invade Australia with not the greatest results.
Original Video - • The Japanese 'Invasion...
The Japanese bombed Darwin (252 killed), Broome (88 killed) and from Feb 42 to Nov 43 they bombed Port Hedland, Horn Island (the airport for Thursday Island), Mosman near Cairns, Townsville and many places in between, mainly airstrips and meat works in an effort to upset the food supply. Most of these were bombed several times, especially Darwin. Then there was the torpedoing of the Australian hospital ship Centaur just off Brisbane killing 268 of the 332 on board. Three Japanese mini submarines entered and raided Sydney Harbour in June 42 sinking HMAS Kuttabul killing 21 navy members. They also raided Newcastle harbour. There is evidence of Japanese troops coming ashore at several places across the top.
Technically, PNG was an Australian colony up until 1975 and it was definitely invaded by several battalions of Japanese infantry, squadrons of aircraft and fleets of warships.
Maybe not a full scale 'invasion' of mainland Australia, but certainly significant raids aimed at upsetting the psychology of the Australian public.
"Maybe not a full scale 'invasion' of mainland Australia" - since when are raids invasions? A raid is just that, hit and run. An invasion means landing troops with the intention of taking ground, and (kind of important) staying.
Australia invaded Turkey in WW1 just so the British could open a second front against Germany and we are told that story as some sort of legendary sacrifice for our freedom when it was a botched attempted invasion of another country and Australia declared war on Japan as soon as Britain did, and Britain declared war on Japan over the Japanese invasion of Singapore but what were the British doing in Singapore? Empires and Colonialism ok as long as it’s the chosen ones, and we are still not being taught that, and why was PNG an Australian Colony?
(Rhetorical question).
@@andrewstrongman305 I didn’t say it was which is why I put the word ‘invasion’ in single quotes to refer to the quote in the video. We all know the difference between invasion, raid, incursion etc.
Getting your knickers in a knot over semantics in a YT video is a bit extreme.
@@aural_supremacy And this gish-gallop bullshit is relevant because???
The Japanese were walking around Ramingining NT in WW2.
Pine Gap is listening right now.
I always envision "the Eye" on top his tower eva watching :P
They have a cloaking shield to hide it though
Yes we are
🤐🫥😶🌫️
They landed in the Kimberly...wildest part of Australia...yeah good luck with that 😂😂😂
Yep they got no hope
A large number of them were killed by saltwater crocodiles. It was the biggest number of kills by any wild animal at one time.
What? I’d like to see your sources on that. Never heard of the japs in the Kimberley. Fairly sure you’re mistaken
@@1legend517wrong country buddy your thinking of Papua New Guinea or south east asia.
@@resiefan3258 It appears you are right. I just rechecked that and it did indeed happen on Ramree Island off the coast of Burma (now Myanmar).
Battle of long tan Vietnam and Kokoda trail WWII are two great displays of Australian military excellence if you want to give them a look.
You could add the battle of Kapyong to that, have a read about that one, Korean war.
Japanese submarines got into Sydney Harbour.
At the time of WWII Papua New Guinea was part of Australia and governed by the Australian Parliament.
At the outbreak of WW1 it was a “Protectorate of Queensland”, however the Germans had a small colony there harvesting pineapples. They had locals inducted as police. Australian forces routed them and most were killed.
@@TheLeatheryman Papua, the southern half was a protectorate of Qld but the northern half, the German colony of New Guinea, was separate. One of the first acts of WW1 buy Aus was to take control of the German territory of NG.
After WW1, the League of Nations ask Aus to administer the combined Papua and New Guinea. PNG gained independence in 1975.
2000 US Marines rotate through an Australian Army base in the Northern Territory to this day. Also many US aircraft, including B52 Bombers use our airbases in the north as well as the US Navy!
Did anyone else hear the music and instantly know it was a Dr Mark Felton vid?
ua-cam.com/video/N-NeyL_O-fg/v-deo.html
Great video, and awesome comments section. i lived in broome for a while. the museum theres is great. on low tide you can walk out and see a plane wreck. crazy to believe what happened on our shores back then
Great video mate!
“The Japanese attack on Darwin on 19th February, 1942 was the first wartime assault on Australian soil. The Japanese struck with the same carrier-borne force that devastated Pearl Harbor only ten weeks earlier. The same pilot, Mitsuo Fuchida led both attacks flying the same aircraft carriers and supported by the same air crews. But there was a difference- more bombs fell on Darwin, more civilians were killed, and more ships were sunk. The raid led to the worst death toll from any event in Australia.” From an ‘An Awkward Truth’ by Peter Grose.
Since the party of people discussed in the video, attempted their mission in January of 1942, I’m thinking perhaps they were a reconnaissance group prior to that bombing on 19th February in the same year.
My Grandfather was operating a Anti Aircraft Gun in Darwin when the Japanese attacked. He was a good man who did not like violence but would never take a backward step for anyone. He was a Middle Weight fighter for Army and at the age of 65 built a 2 storey home after retirement. I never heard him swear or ever saw him drunk, I do know that till the day he died he did not like Japan, or QLD Football. He was NSW True Blue and Gold EEL from 1947.
That's awesome, your grandpa sounds like a tip top mother fucker !!!
An uncle of mine was a builder from Sydney, he was in Darwin at the time, he was the captain of a surf club in the days when they had a sweep in the surf boats, so he was pretty hard and good at swimming. He saw the Japs bomb and set the seas on fire with the oil that was burning on top, he jumped into the burning water and saved many sailors, local papers called him a hero.
My father was also a gunner up there during the bombing. He contracted TB and died in 1954 aged 32
@@galadriel481 My father was a Sargent (think I spelt that wrong) in the Airforce in Darwin, he to got TB, transferred to Melbourne hospital, where he met my mother, she was a nurse.
Towns and settlements from south of Broome in the West, all the way around the top down to Sydney in the East were strafed and bombed, or hit by submarine launched torpedo attacks. Scared the crap out many folks. PNG was then an Australian territory and things got seriously bad for a time. 10,000+ casualties across both sides.
Boy boy an Australian UA-camr went to pine gap and filmed it great video along with I did a thing and friendly jordies two other Aussie UA-camrs
There was a PM who said he was going to shut down Pine Gap. He was fired, by the Americans.
The Territory of Papua at the time of WW2 was an external territory of Australia and the indigenous people were citizens. So the Japanese did attack and invade Australia.
The Papuans lost their Australian citizenship when Papua New Guinea become an independent nation.
A Good point.
Also recommend looking at Z Special Unit (Australian Commandos) operations in WW2, some amazing successes and some failures.
Know about it my great grandad was killed supporting an American base on east coast of PNG
The Japanese played an especially nasty game in WW2, on a smaller scale than the Nazis but no less malevolent. I did my nursing training at a repatriation hospital in Sydney in the 1980s and heard first hand from the Diggers what had been done to them.
Hi from Sydney Australia. My mother and Grandparents lived in Sydney at the time of the war. And because of the stationing of Warships and other stuff at Sydney Harbour the decision was made to have her boarded at St Joseph’s Perthville which is located near Bathurst NSW. Which back then was a considerable distance away from Sydney. My Maternal Grandparents made the right decision. Because the Japanese did make their way into Sydney Harbour and Newcastle. And there was a series of attacks starting on the night of 31 May. ( One of my Aunts was a Nun who taught and worked at that boarding school at the time. ) … It’s kinda odd to think about seeing as Japan is set to officially join AUKUS as an ally these days. But time has a way of working things out…… ⚛️☮️🌏
The Japanese also landed here on the far south coast of New South Wales to collect water and they even stole a cow from a local farm. Just Off Tathra they torpedo and sink an American ship named the William Dawe. These operations were kept very secret from the Australian people until recently. Lot of Australians don't even know about the Japanese attacks on Sydney Harbour. ☕️😎🦘
lol are not top secret just no reported on very much.. every Aussie know of Sydney Harbour attacks especially if born before 1990's.. i learned it in school, now they don't teach our children our wars as too far gone left. are many stories of raiding parties landing on Australia.
Not true sorry. The cow story was supposedly a story from NZ. The only Japanese to land in Australia was in Northern Territory. He was found dead and is buried in the Cowra War Cemetery.
@@grahamy3400 Not true. The cow story I mentioned is from a farm a few miles north of here. Japanese landed at a few places here to take on water (eg: a japanese shoe is on display at a local museum along with a few other artidacts. As part of a Mitxhel library history project I recorded locals, including Stafford and Pearce, telling about their witnessing the sinking of the William Dawe a few miles south (recently recognised by the Australian and US governments and declared a war grave. ).
Not surprised as you can't successfully disarm 90% of any population without alot of lies, secrets and fallshoods along the way just saying......i feel sad for Australia if they are invaded or if the government tries anymore tyranny like covid 19 camps and restrictions.
people born in the 90s onwards don't know of the japanese attacks on Australia, as it's past history. This century is more important now.
There was a bombing of Darwin in 1942 killing 235 and wounding around 400. There's bound to be info that describes it. There were also submarines in Sydney Harbour. My mother's family home backed onto the beach in Fremantle Western Australia, so way south of Darwin. There was an elderly Japanese Fruit seller who drove his truck around selling his wares and often gave the children apples. My Mum said he was very happy and always kind and was well liked. There was fear about the war and the Japanese and there were many Americans based in Australia. My Mother and her sisters were all blonde and blue eyed and my grandmother told them if the Japanese invaded she'd cut their throats, pretty scary to hear I'll bet. The Japanese gardner was discovered with communication equipment sending messages to the Japanese from the sand dunes. He was arrested and confined.
PS: I forgot to say that the Japanese gardener always told the children that when the Japanese came he would make sure they were kept safe. Cold comfort but Mum said all the kids believed him.
A Jap Sub even shelled Newcastle once
Hi, MSTV.
As I understand it, those Japanese were NOT an 'invasion' force but instead were looking for an airfield that their 'intelligence' people had told them was somewhere in that general area. Their problem was that they were looking about 150 kilometres too far South and a couple of months too early.
The airfield that they were looking for - which hadn't been established yet - was Truscott Air Base, named after 'Bluey' Truscott, an Australian air ace who had been killed in a training accident some months before. This base was eventually built some 35 kilometres North West of Kalumburu Mission, just inland from the coast of Vansittart Bay.
The base was apparently abandoned after WW2 and was handed back to the West Australian state government in 1959.
It was subsequently re-established in about 1994 to service offshore oil rigs and is now also used by Coastwatch, coastal surveillance,
Just my 0.02 - with info borrowed from other people's 0.02.
You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.
Their invasion was based on the fact that they could travel from lake to lake and replenish their water supply. The main issue is that theyre only lakes a few weeks a year
My family lived in Darwin in the early 1960's. The fence around the primary school I went to (in the Darwin CBD) had some shrapnel damage remaining from the Japanese air attacks.
We had subs from Japan in bass straight to👍so hard to find info but the did.
Hi mate there's a movie called THE HIGHEST HONOUR it's about this boat we renamed the krait.. it's in the Australian war memorial love your channel 🇭🇲🙂
This was an expeditionary force for reconasense as opposed to an invasion.
There was other Japanese reconnaissance patrols.
A Japanese radio was found in Queensland
Yes mate the yanks do have a northern base which they recently sent more troops to
WW1 the charge of the light horse on bershiber.
WW2 the Kokoda track.
Errrr….ok.
Something I didn’t know until I visited the NT two years ago, was that Katherine had been bombed too.
The defence of Port Moresby’s by RAAF’s 75 squadron was pivotal to the Battle of of the Coral Sea. Stopping the Japanese in New Guinea, supporting the struggle of the Kokoda Track.
My Dads ship, the Zealandia was the last to be sunk in Darwin Harbour, he never spoke about it
theres 3 currently i know of and more to be built and some upgraded. pine gap isnt really a military base its part of a nasa operation that gives them contact from the southern hemisphere
Check out the kokoda track in WW2
Japanese mini-subs caught and sunk in Sydney Harbour. Also, some from the era said Japanese naval also made it to Melbourne but not on land but that is contested history.
Tomorrow when the war began is actually based on stuff that happened. So I'm sure if you dig around in the historical records, you'll find that there were several small towns along the coastal areas and a few other places where there was some Japanese that did actually invade Australia. They didn't stay there for long either being driven out by the military or by the citizens themselves
My 93 year old grandma still loathes the Japanese. Her father was murdered as a Japanese prisoner of war, one of the 22,000 Australian ANZAC's to be captured, and one of the 8000 killed. His body was never recovered.
Though the war is over, you can't convince her of that.
Can't imagine was it was like to grow up through all that.
Feel for her.
My grandfather (Tobruk and then PNG)
Never really said a bad word about them. In fact if he caught us using derogatory terms etc about any of the axis forces he'd give us a big reminder in what 'Lest we forget' meant.
' remember, it's those in power whom brainwashed those who fought, Lest we forget '
His sister is 97 this year, her husband was in the Australian Navy and one of the first into Hiroshima after they surrendered. ( still got photos of him in Hiroshima). Aunty Dot (pops sis) was the same, as was her husband uncle George. Wouldn't speak ill of those who served, just those in power.
We all handle things differently.
I miss my grandfather.
During WW2 there was a POW camp just outside Cowra N.S.W. there was a mass break out of Japanese prisoners they all ran north & after crossing a river or 2 & the ones that had a little English asked the farmers what country is this, & the farmer would pull a shotgun out of his truck & tractor and say "this is Australia mate," they had no idea how big Australia is or that they were thousands of miles from the northern coast
8 June 1942 shells were fired at Newcastle NSW (north of Sydney), only 1 exploded causing damage to a house on Parnell Place.
I guess you mean 1942, these were the same submarines that had released their mini subs which attacked ships in Sydney Harbour, when the mini subs failed to return to their mother subs, the mother subs lobed a few shells into Sydney and Newcastle.
@@russellmoore1533 oops yes 1942
This is a very one sided and incorrect report on the Japanese attacks on Australia during WWII They also bombed Darwin and many lives were lost and buildings destroyed. We did have an American presence there and luckily they were Air Force and quickly took to the skys and helped fight them off. The Japanese also snuck into Sydney Harbour in a mini sub...and managed to destroy an American Naval ship and also one torpedo was fired onto land and hit a house near the shore. Please check out the videos etc you can find online. I do love your interest in Australia my friend. This is one of many stories out there ua-cam.com/video/9vAT1JduSGw/v-deo.html
The ship that was damaged in the midget sub (Ko-hyoteki-class midget submarines, M-14, M-21 and M-24) attack on Sydney Harbour was the converted Sydney "K" class ferry HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 sailors. It was being used for accommodation. The torpedo that ran aground on Garden Island didn't explode. The targets of the 3 subs were warships, including the heavy cruiser USS Chicago. The other 2 midget subs were detected before they could attack, and were sunk/scuttled. The five Japanese submarines (three B-1 Scout submarines and two C-1 Attack submarines) that carried the midget submarines then carried out a campaign along the NSW coast, sinking 3 ships, damaging a few more, and shelling Sydney and Newcastle. The damage to the house was caused by the shelling of the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.
@@daveg2104 Thanks so much for this info. Much appreciated
I guess we are supposed to ignore the Japanese troops invading the Australian territory of New Guinea and the small band of militia sent to stop them.
350,000 Japanese from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945 is certainly something I would call an invasion force.
Review the movie "Kokoda" also called "Kokoda: 39th Battalion"
in febuary 1942 the japanese bombed darwin around 1700 people died
That's a little high. According to the National Archives;
"The two raids killed 235 people with a further 300 to 400 wounded. Thirty aircraft were destroyed, including nine out of the ten flying in defence, nine ships in the harbour and two outside were sunk, and some of the civil and military facilities in Darwin were destroyed."
They Bombed from Exmouth Western Australia to Darwin. They had training camps set up my mum's dad told her as he was a Gunner on the Catalina Black Cat's.
Technically speaking, there was another presence after a breakout at a POW camp at Cowra in NSW. It was the largest of WW2 and the bloodiest. Four Australian soldiers were killed and over 200 Japanese were either killed or committed suicide.
Norforce, the Australian Army special unit that was eventually tasked with patrolling northern Australia, did find abandoned encampments with remnants of Japanese supplies on a few occasions. However, given the isolation, the extremely hostile local conditions, and the complete lack of actual encounters, it was believed that any Japanese troops there had either withdrawn completely or been "swallowed up".
Australia saw a fair bit of action close to its shores. Just a fortnight before Pearl Harbor, light cruiser HMAS Sydney sank, and was sunk by, the German commerce raider 'Kormoran' just off the WA coast. Japanese aircraft bombed Darwin, causing heavy loss of life, and raids continued for a time across Australia's north. Japanese subs sank a number of ships off the coast, including hospital ship HMAS Centaur.
In one memorable case, Japanese subs launched three two-man minisubs that entered Sydney Harbor. One of the "mother submarines" later fired several shells into Sydney's eastern suburbs, and a recon aircraft from them overflew Sydney. The minisubs themselves sank HMAS Kuttabul, a ferry being used for accomodation, with heavy loss of life, but did little other actual damage, and none of them returned.
The wreckage of two minisubs was soon recovered, and assembled into a single sub for examination - that sub is now on display in Canberra. The deceased crewmembers were given funerals with full military honors, and their remains returned to Japan via a neutral party. It was hoped at the time that the Japanese might reciprocate via better treatment of Allied POWs. Uh, huh. The location of the third minisub was a mystery for many years, and its wreckage was located fairly recently - that is now a war grave site.
My father was stationed in Darwin.❤
Pine gap isn't American, it's an Australian base joint operated by America. Same as one shared naval Communication base in Exmouth Western Australia.
Pine gap is australian base in name only its a totaly american show not operated by Australian military in anyway
@@robertfoster7807 it is shared operation
@@solreaver83 there are parts of pine gap were only americans can go australians there to do the menia
@@solreaver83 parts of pine gap have american only areas Australians there to do the menial jobs.Was gough whitlam not going to renew the lease on pine gap in december of 1975 whitlam got sacked in 11 th of november of 1975Asio had forces in chille in 1973 helping the cia overthrow the demorcratical elected chillian government allende.Gouth whitlam found out and told asio leader to remove asio members from chille.The asio leader said he did but he did not remove asio from chille. whitlam found out and sacked the asio chief
@@robertfoster7807 that's fine, that doesn't change anything. It's still joint operation and Australian owned.
Yes
AFAIK northern Australian cities were bombed over 300 times by the Japanese. Most people know about Darwin being bombed, but other small cities like Katherine were bombed too.
This was a recognises mission to see if they could invade Australia but they couldn't find any food although there was bush tucker but fortunately the Japanese didn't know about bush tucker there was a program on TV on a show called The Bush Tucker Man presented by Les Hiddens he was a retired army officer who during his time in the Army he was sent into the Australian bush and find out from the Aboriginals to find out about bush tucker (food) incised the Australian Army if there was an invasion of Australia that the Army would have the skills and knowledge of how to survive and thrive in the Australian bush and after Les Hiddens retired from the Army he did a television show about bush tucker that was 25 years ago
They landed in a remote area and found nothing. There were no populated regions nearby. However, a military friend of mine told me that they discovered several experimental crops. They theorized that these crops were planted by the Japanese to assess whether a land-based invasion was sustainable without a solid supply chain.
Yes there are American Bases here in Australia.
Three that I know of. There is a signals-intelligence facility at Pine Gap, a naval communications facility at North West Cape, and a US Marines "Rotational Force" about three battalions in strength at Robertson Barracks and RAAF Base Darwin, near Darwin.
The Yanks have a battalion I think, on rotation in Darwin, plus a regular detachment of a B52 working out of RAAF Dawin. I think Pine Gap is still active - although you don't hear anything about it.....
German U Boats operated off the Australian southern coast laying mines and in Bass Strait.
Dutch submarine squadron was based near Fremantle WA.
Dutch squadron of Bristol Beauforts was incorporated into the RAAF and conducted anti submarine duties off the east coast.
Look up Operation Jaywick, a captured Japanese fishing boat, the Krait, sailed into Singapore waters and unloaded men of Z Special Unit,who, paddling canoes, blew up Japanese shipping in the harbour. They all returned safely to Australia.
2 hrs .Wouldnt have even got off the beach.
Japanese swords were found on Rita Island out from Ayr Queensland, south of Townsville.
Japanese soldiers were also at the Atherton Tablelands, west of Cairns Queensland.
A Japanese 🇯🇵 Memorial is located in Ayr Queensland.
Of course we all know about the Japanese Mini Submarines in Sydney Harbour.
True..Also 2 Japanese troops made it to shore near Giru but they were spotted by locals..one was caught quickly the other was caught a few weeks later trying to steal food.
Yes the do, they have joint bases in Australia and there is about 10000 US Marines rotate through Australia every year!
Marines are based in Darwin.
When it comes to australian military history there are just too many insane stories that come from this little country lol. we have quite a few bases from quite alot of countries here and we train the special forces of a few countries here.
There are at least 4 US bases in Australia and they also have access to ADF bases. Tensions with China have prompted greater co-operation and training operations between the US & Australia.
Shame Nz is chinas bitch they would probably welcome chinas army with open arms seeing as they rely on trading with china to much and are a security risk to austraila
In 1942 three Japanese midget subs sailed into Sydney harbour fired torpedoes at a US war ship and missed but they hit the old Sydney ferry which was used as base accommodation, which blew up and killed 21 sailors!
Papua New Guinea was an Australian territory during that time period. The Japanese very much invaded PNG, ergo Japan did invade Australia and many Australian soldiers died in PNG.
Two Japanese mini submarines entered Sydney Harbour and torpedoed a few ships
My great uncle from Tasmania volunteered to join the airforce to protect Australians and our borders! He successfully prevented entry and losses in Sydney Harbour and Coffs Harbour, and flew out on regular bombing missions from Townsville and Darwin! He lost his life and borrowed plane on his way with some US VIPs to the Islands, it was never found! 😪
My grandfather worked for the railway in South Australia during WWll. One day he was out doing maintenance checks in not exactly sure where but i presume on the line to Broken Hill as they lived in a little town on that line a few hundred kilometres from Adelaide. He opened the door to a single box to find a Japanese soldier hidding inside! He just slammed the door and took off. How a Japanese soldier found himself in such a remote place on the far side of the country is a complete mystery but there were obviously many more exploratory missions into Australia that Japan has never divulged
Check Sparrow Force 2/40 West Timor Bayonet Charge UsuaRidge .
I'm an Aussie and I have never heard this story. I know about the bombing of Darwin and a Japanese midget submarine secretly entering Sydney Harbour, but nothing more than that. I doubt that even my military-obsessed husband has even heard this story. Where did you find it?
There are several facilities like pine gap spread although out central auz most in NT some in SA. Defence intelligence facilities is what there are and yeah they are all still functional. I know one thing, the Americans sure love placing concrete. There are many more auz military and navy bases all over Australia, from top to bottom and east to west. Australia is big, government corporations took advantage of that quick smart. I'm more central based in the town of Alice springs and know that there are a few conspiracies about pine gap. 😅
Darwin was bombed, mini sub was found in Sydney harbour. My dad spoke of a lone soldier on the queensland coast, near Mackay burying his empty food cans, and trying to escape notice, yeah right, as if the locals wouldn't spot him as diferent.
Yeah…with those mini subs the Japanese launched two reconnaissance aircraft from their mother submarines prior to the attack. As the Japanese planes were flying over Sydney no one bothered to do anything about them as they just assumed the Japanese didn’t have the capability of doing that.🤣
In 1942 several Japanese mini submarines made it into Sydney harbour and blew up a ship that was berthed there.
I heard that this lot be came Croc Sushi!
'The Japanese never intended to invade Australia'.
There was a debate between two Japanese military factions, the IJN and the Army the pro and cons, tye navy was for an attempted invasion, while the army did not.
I did read an article from 1997 from New Zealand via the NT News that had tge Japanese mange to bring the US to a ceasefire and had isolated Australia and New Zealand, that Japan wouod try and settle two million Japanese peasents in Australia and NZ.
British New Guinea became the Territory of Papua, and formal Australian administration began in 1906, although Papua remained under their control as a British possession until the independence of Papua New Guinea in 1975, so yeah they did invade Australian Territory
You might find of interest the story of the Krait. A sabotage operation conducted by the Australian Z force at the beginning of WW2. These soldiers were the forerunners of the SAS.
Loads of people have been finding nothing there since the Dutch sailors in the 1600's
Americans in Darwin mate, military bases staffed by United States and mainly marines in Northern Territory of Australia
Wasn't much of a invasion very little got to Australian shores hence the battle of Kokoda most Japanese only got to Papua New Guinea
I have heard that there was a plan to give up the "top half" of Australia if the Japanese had a successful invasion.... there was no way to completely defend the whole country in those days.... I wonder if this is true??
I guess they wanted to conquer Australia, but after 2 hours couldn't find anyone to conquer, so they went home
The Japanese thought they were going to be successful and printed money to spend here. My grandfather was a banker and he always gave us money to collect and he gave me some of those notes.
I have some Japanese military currency in pesos . They were thinking big?
What about minisubmarines in Sydney harbour.
Or the infrared beam protecting Melbourne Harbour since WWI to deter a sneak ship invasion into the harbour
Why was Canberra placed in the middle of a good sheep Station? 🐑. I understand it was chosen because the range of naval artillery at time could not reach it. A factoid.
And don't forget the "Brisbane Line".
Australia would be the first country to have a nuclear weapon on their head as there is two early warning american bases in central Australia. There is also an american bomber base in northern australia, an american naval base at exmouth. And there is a base of 2000 american marines at darwin which rotate so they can ge trained by australians in jungle warfare. There were plenty of japanese attacks on Australia, on newcastle, cebtral coast, a couple on sydney and darwin and as far south as moruya on the south east coast
Japan had no intention of invading Australia (China was their war goal), the pacific was a diversion forced on them by allied oil embargoes.
Japan also had no logistics to spare for such an operation (particularly shipping) as well as not having the troops or the fuel for such an operation.
Australia, by mid 1942 had 8 Divisions worth of troops in Australia (not organised into divisions, but that is easily rectified).
The Australian army status report (AA MP729, series 6, file 42/401/142) stated that 22.5% of all major units were ready for mobile offensive ops at Bde or higher level; 48% were ready for static or semi static ops at Bde or higher level; 81% of all major units were ready for static or mobile ops at Bn level. 19% had not completed Bn level training.
So the majority of the force available (81%) was trained to a usable standard, the rest - like many military forces in history, would need to learn on the job.
Churchill had committed an Armoured Div from the middle east to be sent to Aust in case of major invasion.
The Allies knew the Japanese were not coming as of mid April 1942 as noted in the Allied Combined Operations Intelligence Centre minute, 11 Apr 1942, [NAA] MP1587;218s SRs 575 ‘Magic summary’, 18 April 1942, RG257, US National Archives and Records Administration.
This is one of the enduring myths that the Japanese were headed for Australia.
The Australian public were fed this scare campaign during WW2, probably as a spur towards the war effort.
I know! It’s an incredibly ridiculous suggestion… heard it for years and years!🤣
@@user-ul9dv2iv9s This is opinion on my part, but IMO the scare campaign was based on 2 factors, 1,. as you note, to drive the war effort, but the 2nd and probably far more important reason is that they couldn't risk the Japanese realising that we were reading their high level codes in near real time - on 7 Mar 42 at the Combined IJA and IJN HQ liaison conference mid level naval officers put forward a plan to invade Australia, it was ridiculed by the IJA leadership as ‘gibberish’ and it was noted that troops were not available and logistic problems were quoted.
The IJN leadership (the direct superiors of the officers proposing the invasion) left it at ‘shipping is not available’.
In mid Apr 42 the results of this conference were encoded and transmitted to outlying Japanese commands, we decrypted them.
If we had just stopped all preparations for a possible Japanese invasion, they might have asked why and put together the facts and changed their codes, making the war a lot harder for the allies.
IMO the "Brisbane Line" myth was part of this deception, it is amazing how many people believe it still.
That's extremely polite of you and accepted as such.
I grew up with the myth as did many others.
The myth continues.
Held tight, held long, held now, held well past its use by date.
The fact remains there is no longer any reason to hide from the Japanese the fact that their security was once upon a time, breached.
Consequently there is no longer any reason to continue with the belief that the Japanese were about to invade us.
That the Americans had saved us.
That we must be eternally, fawningly grateful.
@@politenessman3901 I grew up with the myth as did many others.
The myth continues.
Held tight, held long, held now, held well past its use by date.
The fact remains there is no longer any reason to hide from the Japanese the fact that their security was once upon a time, breached.
Consequently there is no longer any reason to continue with the belief that the Japanese were about to invade us.
That the Americans had saved us.
That we must be eternally, fawningly grateful.
The would have wanted to know if there was an airbase under construction, as that would have meant that there could be bombing of Indonesia. I don’t know if we attempted to remove the Japanese from Indonesia. Once the Americans had the Philippines and controlled the sea, it may not have been that important. Maybe I should study the history of World War 2 in the pacific.
Battle of long tan
Battle of Beersheba
I recommend Iwo Jima Animated - Part 1, D-DAY and The Battle of the Coral Sea 1942: The First Aircraft Carrier Battle in History or The US Navy’s Worst Defeat, The Battle of Savo Island 1942 - Animated . I think you don’t know about all these battle Because they don’t want you to know And the last one Have you know that in Singapore A British of 85,000 army And another Australian and Indian and British all Together 130,000 soldiers surrendered to 35,000 Japanese soldiers. So I recommend 2 video . Why This Was Britain's Worst Military Disaster Ever | INTEL , The largest surrender in British history | Singapore, 1942 🙂
My grandfather was sent to Darwin to fight the Japanese and he would shave half a coconut and write my mother's address (in Parramatta) on it before mailing it to Sydney with a postage stamp on it - because those living further south in Sydney had no access to "exotic fruits". The family loved these gifts. The German civilians in Australia were put into a internment camps and my mother's family would write to them and send them basic goods. Their letters are in the possession of the War Museum today. But the Japanese forces captured my Uncle Jackie amongst other Australian soldiers in the Singapore region and they tortured him endlessly. He was forced to build the Great Burma Railroad and was lucky to survive the war. 106,000 people died building that railroad. 2,800 of them were Australian soldiers.
In 1942, three Japanese 'midget' submarines (M-14, M-24 and M-21), launched from a larger nearby fleet of five mother-subs, surfaced in Sydney harbor to fire torpedoes at Allied warships anchored there, without success. One mini-sub was sunk and another caught in a net after hitting a pile-light pole. Depth charges failed to detonate, as the water was apparently too shallow for the hydrostatic fuse setting. M-14 detonated a scuttling charge which killed the crew and destroying the forward section. Sub M-24 followed a ferry into the harbor. USS Chicago fired shells at the sub but couldn't lower the guns enough at close range, causing the shells to skip over the water and strike buildings in Mossman and Cremorne. The bizarre events that ensued resulted in one Midget Sub torpedoing the Kuttabul, killing 19 Roayals Australian and two Royal Navy sailors. About a week later, larger Submarines I-24 and I-21 attacked Sydney and Newcastle. I-24 fired 10 shells after targeting the Sydney Harbor Bridge... All missed and only one shell detonated. I-21 attacked Newcastle and fired 34 shells. Again, only one detonated. Decades later, the two remaining mostly-intact halves of the smaller midget submarines M-12 and M-21 were reassembled into a complete sub - which is now on display at the Canberra War Museum. M-24 was only recently discovered in 2006 on the seafloor.
My father was a very young boy when the Japanese subs attacked Sydney and I believe he was near one of the buildings that was shelled....and so he was put on a train by himself at the age of just 3yo (!) and sent 380 kilometers inland to a distant country town - where his parents thought he would be safer. This all took place after a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft flew in circles over Sydney harbor in daylight to photograph potential targets. The fleet of 5 submarines (that launched the Midget Subs) later commenced operations against Allied shipping.
The "Brisbane Line" was a fallback line designed to totally abandon the north half of Australia in the event that the Japanese invaded. An alternate currency was also devised. On one particular occasion, my Grandfather was on one of the trains filled with fellow soldiers, headed North (to Darwin) when another train filled with American soldiers stopped beside theirs. The Americans were headed South (towards Sydney). The Americans taunted the Australians through the windows, telling them they had brought chocolates and silk stockings with them to woo the wives and girlfriends of the Australian soldiers whilst the Aussie Diggers were preoccupied with the Japanese invasion. "Don't you worry, we'll take care of your ladies" they jeered. The Australian soldiers took immense offense to this slight - and both parties leaped out of their prospecting train carriages and a mighty fist-fight occurred. I believe the Americans were given a swift lesson on manners and everyone on both trains arrived at their destinations with black eyes and torn shirts.
The Japanese saw Australia as an attractive resource supply, especially with iron and tin being in such short supply in Japan at the time. Many websites today claim that Japan had no desire to invade Australia and had no plans in place to do so. However, Japan most certainly considered a full scale invasion but changed their minds when they realized Australia would resist and that it would take a million tons of supplies (which Japan could not afford). The geography alone eventually made an invasion nearly impossible. So it was later decided to simply seal off Australia from the American allies and contain them.
My grandad was Sargent Major of the gunners that protected us when they bombed darwin
the day after my grandad and his crew pick up way more than 280 bodies just off the beach most were USA troops
my grandad lived till 74 only because the bomb that landed near him and his men did not go Off!!!
RIP to all and thank you to our military and the US too theres only so much Sushi one can eat ✌️🍻
@MSTV here is 'Winnie the War Winner' ua-cam.com/video/VLuXEVZ2aKo/v-deo.html 2/2 Independent Company. The Double Reds
Australia made 2 attacks on Singapore in WW2. 1 was a great success, and the other a disaster with most of the force decapitated for heroics. The fish boat was the Krait.
Yes pine gap still exists and is currently being expanded and new uses added. We also have a US military base in the NT which is also undergoing expansion at the moment to defend against the new but almost identical threat all over again right now.
Something they didn’t mention was that Japan was expansionist, they were claiming our waters, territories and neighbours, they were a direct threat to our sovereignty, we weren’t involved just because of America, we were actively involved for our own survival. Just like this new conflict with their now highly hostile expansionist neighbours. It’s actually like history repeating itself, only a different nation as the aggressor.
My grandfather was among the men who scouted the coast line to decide where to drop the big boys.
Many men I knew growing up bore the horrific scars of T from the Japanese camps. They did very bad things to our people.
The British empire was weakening, US didn’t yet have things under control, so authoritarian governments all over the globe tried to push outward and take control of their neighbours. Although we defended British and French interests, Germany wasn’t the aggressors towards us, Japan were.
Thank goodness we are friends now and they changed their ways. And now we work together against this new threat.
"Invasion"??? In what universe does 10 soldiers constitute an invasion?
Probably on the same strange planet where 4 soldiers constitutes an 'Emu War'.
The same universe as when a person kicks your door in and enters your house , armed with a gun , baseball bat or knife . It’s called a home INVASION . You need a dictionary more than you need history lessons . Please don’t answer because you would be INVADING my privacy .
Japanese Midget Submarines were captured in Sydney Harbour. 🇦🇺
My Grandfather was in Darwin when it was bombed by the Japanese . He was a cook in the army .
Active bases and military are here - Pine Gap, Harold Holt and Darwin - that we know of. Our government is not transparent or prone to disclosure.
A close run thing.
Thank god for the ‘Choco’s’, who, under-prepared, poorly experienced and ill-equiped did an amazing job holding them on the Kokoda.
Lest we forget.
Japanese bombed Darwin in WW2. Darwin is very isolated in the north. Australia population were not told about it for many years. It was considered to let the population know at the time of the event would cause panic. It was kept secret and denied for many years.
Pine gap is the most secretive
they got close
Currently there are NO US bases in Australia and Australia wont allow them, Pine Gap has been controlled by Australians for some time now, however it is shared with the US under the 5 eyes and now the Aukus agreement.
Pine Gap is a joint base, its official name is “Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap”. There is also Naval Communications Station Harold E. Holt though it is fully operated by the Australian Department of Defence they do so on behalf of both Australia and the US.
@@waza987 Almost correct, except you will find it is run by the Australian Signals Direcotarate and there are a few more secret oranisations embedded too, Control was taken out of U S hand and they dont have majority say, however they do anyway..but it is NOT a US base.