The Largest Single Attack Ever Mounted on Australia
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- Опубліковано 5 гру 2021
- The Japanese Imperial Navy’s air attack on the city of Darwin was the greatest military disaster ever inflicted on Australia’s soil.
After the Pearl Harbor attack in December of 1941, Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto and Chûichi Nagumo acted quickly and approved a swift and violent strike against Australia's Northern territory.
Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, who had led the first wave that struck the Hawaiian port, assembled a task force of over 200 aircraft to destroy the city of Darwin and disrupt the Allied supply lines in the region.
The plan called for a masterful carrier attack that would disable the enemy defenses, and then twin-engine bombers from the 54th Army Air Force would make a second pass to ravage the enemy airstrips and the surviving aircraft or warships.
On February 19, 1942, the Australians were caught off guard by the Japanese pilots even though they had already declared war on Japan, but the less than 40 Allied aircraft in the area resisted heroically against the invaders.
It was Australia's very own Pearl Harbor.
My grandfather was a gunner in a battery at Darwin. He survived the war, returned home and had a third child, my father.
I'm grateful for his service and also that he was one of the lucky ones who returned home. Indeed, if he hadn't, I would not be here.
Lest we forget!
thanks to your grandfather !!
My Grandfather was also there as part of the Pioneer Battalion and part of the supply chain from Adelaide-Darwin. Before he passed he relayed a few memories, I was very young when I was told them but I remember him telling me how he and his best friend armed an anti aircraft gun, a bomb hit them and killed his best friend and landed my Grandfather in hospital. He told me a few stories of the harrowing trips and breakdowns trying to get their trucks through and supply the armed forces in Darwin and also told me he was there in a South Australian outback town and saw General Douglas Macarthur speak his famous 'I Shall Return' speech. I have my Grandfathers medals and have marched a few times in his honour on ANZAC Day. The main attack and subsequent raids/attacks on Darwin really should be more widely known among mainstream Australians.
@@S0L0D0G
We don't realise how tough life was then do we?
Unfortunately my grandfather passed away while my Dad was still a teen, so I never got to meet him.
Take care.
God bess the defenders of Australia i hope that the past is not prologue
@golden you do not tell me what i can say
My wife’s grandfather - lovely bloke was based in the airfield control tower tapping out the lat/longitude to allied aircraft homing into Darwin. He had to remain on the job while the bombing was going on. He suffered from PTSD as a result of that unfortunately. Fortunately the Japanese pilots were strictly ordered to not bomb the control tower as they also used the homing frequency to navigate to Darwin.
Yeah, my Grandfather was a chef in the army in Darwin at the time.
He told me many stories of it. Even seeing Japanese crew members waving at them from the aircraft. Taunting.
I had a family member who was stationed at Darwin during this time... wasn't until his final years that he started talking about it - we we're never taught about this at school for some reason... thanks for producing this little-known piece of war history
Full Creds to your relative
I suspect that they never
Taught us about this because they were too damned embarrased at the incpetence of having been told that they were coming and sitting on their hands
if you teach kids about this they might find out the reason why we're in such a bad way today. as we all say lest we forget ppl dnt really remember
The initial reason for the black out of information ℹ️ to the general population was operational security. You don’t advertise a dire situation. The Australian population had never been in the situation of invasion. They needed good news.
Also, Darwin, was to the southern people, an exotic destination. Miles from anywhere.
Contrary to some thought, the Japanese did have invasions plans for Australia.
They knew the logistics that would be needed but after, Coral Sea, Milne Bay, Kodack Track, they shelved all of those because they were on the defensive.
It was not until I saw this vid that I knew Japan had bombed Darwin this hard during WW2 despite the fact that I visited Darwin quite a long time ago to see anthill in the outback. I liked Darwin a lot. From Japan.
I am a Canadian who visited Darwin in 2014. They have a nice monument for the battle up on the bluff. I walked by there daily and often thought of this heroic battle.
Canadan?
What's that
A tribe down there😆😆✌🇨🇦
I was told the raids on Darwin were heavily censored at the time to prevent panic in Australia and so even in Australia the extent of the raids were little known.
It was yes, there is a black hole in my great grandfathers war diary covering the week around Darwin and no mention of it at all.
I remember my school history textbooks in the 80’s downplaying the attack - basically saying it was small with only a handful of casualties. It was a surprise to later find out how big it really was.
I heard recently that there were 92 or 93 distinct attacks on Darwin, not sixty something.
See above, censorship was accepted wartime practice. Today we call it social media
@@andrewstackpool4911 Its accepted practice at the moment.
THIS US Navy Veteran.....Thanks Australia!!! You have ALL been Tremendous Allies in EVERY War, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Even WW1!!
Work with you guys during RIMPACs during many years 84-05!
Saved my Butt when young PO in Japanese bars.....Thanks MATES!!!
❤
@@daviddou1408 late as it may been . There were particular battles in France where Australian and US infantry worked very well together.
Bealleau Woods or something. It was documented about there being many country bred US / Australians . Cowboys and jackaroo having quite an affinity . Equally resourcefull and being beef fed . Feared by the krouts.
@@daviddou1408 @David Dou late as it may been . There were particular battles in France where Australian and US infantry worked very well together.
Bealleau Woods or something. It was documented about there being many country bred US / Australians . Cowboys and jackaroo having quite an affinity . Equally resourcefull and being beef fed . Feared by the krouts.
In 2022 we have an election, there is a good chance a Chinese puppet government will be put in place. After that we wont be allies and I'm trying to do everything i can to stop it from happening.
@@daviddou1408 The US lost as many men in WW1 as we did in the short period they were engaged, shows how dedicated & brave they were, losses on all sides was an abomination.
I was unaware of this Darwin Attack and that these attacks continued. Anything that's new to me is of great interest ❣️
Same, I'd say there's plenty more we'll learn
There were many air attacks across the northern part of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland as well as the midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour.
@@sandybutt9898 I heard about the subs, going as far south as tasmania, from a mark Felton video, that was really cool and new to me, surprising they sent subs down there just to annoy the Aussies as it seemed they didn't really accomplish much, I think they also "visited" New Zealand...
@@steventhompson399 Major shipping route bass Strait and south of Tasmania. Between Africa and the America's via Perth Adelaide Melbourne Hobart Auckland , Wellington.
Subs down their is like cat amongst pidgeons
@@steventhompson399 Not just to "annoy". Brisbane was a drydock repair base for allied submarines. One of the drydocks still exists, it's the one at the Maritime Museum where the HMAS Diamantina resides. Sinking a vessel in the Brisbane river channel would have severely effected supply lines in the Western Pacific. The park known as J C Slaughter Falls was a major military ammo dump for the Pacific.
80 years ago today, Pearl Harbor, my dad was there, we as a family know how serious and bad things were at the time. Thank you for this, video that shows everyone, we were not alone in the struggle.
Unfortunately your own government lied to you and they new they were going to attack
@@jamesstorr390 thats not funny ok, also spell thus words correct
@@NobodyGoesREKT somone who has a face mask as there picure says it all really🤣🤣🤣and have you ever heard of the golf of tonkin incident that's just a small example
@@NobodyGoesREKT and the weapons of mass destruction that Iraq had 🙄🙄🙄 sorry but you can't teach spam
@@jamesstorr390 well how did you know they were lying???
The Japanese dropped 2.5 times more bombs on Darwin than they did on Pearl Harbour. It was kept very quiet in Australia, for years, because the government didn't want people to know the full extent of it, or they would be demanding the regular army be pulled out of Europe to defend their home country. Churchill actually stated once, that India was his main concern, and that if Australia fell, they would recapture later. Australian defences in WW2 were basically reservists (Known as Chocos, short for chocolate soldiers, because it was claimed that they would melt in the heat of battle. They didn't).
That’s insane. Is there more information written about this?
What I want to know is who was manning the communications centres at Darwin and why were they allowed to ignore TWO warnings about incoming Japanese attacks ? Who had the authority to dismiss these warnings ? I refuse to believe the radios weren't being manned at this time, after all there is a War going on.
@@jesmondsaunders7746 There is quite a bit of it discussed in the initial early war planning by the US. The US Navy was worried that they would not be able to preserve the shipping and communication lines to Australia following the ship losses at Pearl. They would have preferred drawing the defensive line further east and retaking Australia or the needed parts of it once they had built sufficient strength. It was widely thought Japan would be limited to a small section of Northern Australia regardless as waging a land campaign across australia is actually dumber than invading Russia in winter. Roosevelt veto'd any thought of that and said Australia must be defended and kept safe, even with the limited resources the US had in the Pacific in December '41. Coral Sea was a Hail Mary pass to protect Australia, and it cost the US dearly to pull it off. By any rational evaluation of forces they should not have tried it.
It helped a great bit that Admiral Kings legendary hatred of the British or at least the Royal Navy did not extend to the Aussies whom he viewed more as fellow put upon sufferers of the British and Royal Navy. Aussies, easy to get mad at, hard to hate!
@@jesmondsaunders7746 No, because it isn't true - I suspect these myths came from disinformation to protect the "Magic" (code breaking) secret and have snowballed over time.
The facts -
Australia, in 1942, was able to almost fully motorise 8 Divisions (and had 8 Divisions worth of troops in Australia at the time) and was also in a position to requisition vehicles as necessary from the large number of available civilian vehicles to make up any shortfalls.
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, but would likely be held back from the most demanding of tasks whilst that training was completed.
Australian produced small arms (Bren guns, Vickers HMG, Lee Enfield .303 rifles, Owen Guns) and ammunition were certainly a match for the best the Japanese forces had.
The only area of superiority the Japanese had was in mortars, particularly light mortars, which are a lot more useful in jungle than they are in open country, however Japanese medium mortars also outranged the 3 inch mortars produced in Australia- this advantage would of course be offset by the Australian divisional artillery advantage (an Aust Div had twice the throw weight and a longer range than Japanese Div Arty) and the fact that the Japanese would need to advance into Aust mortar range to attack.
By 26 June 1942 (mid 42 is the earliest 'credible' date for a Japanese invasion, factoring in troop transport, resupply, refitting etc) Australia had taken delivery of 103 Matilda tanks and by the end of April 1942, 54 x M3 Mediums (Lee/Grant) had arrived in country - by December 1942 a total of 757 x M3 Mediums were on hand, both of these tanks were virtually impervious to all Japanese AT guns available at the time and were armed with a gun that could penetrate the armour of any available Japanese tank at the time at virtually any range.
10 x M3 Light tanks (Stuart) had been delivered by the end of 1941. Deliveries increased during 1942 and by the middle of 1943, and the total number of Stuarts in Australia was around 370 tanks - the Stuarts gun was as effective as the 2 Pdr, but being a light tank, it was more vulnerable to Japanese tanks and AT guns than the Grant and the Matilda.
Australia also produced Bren gun carriers, including variants that mounted 2 Pdr AT guns and 3 inch Mortar variants.
Basically, Australia had better artillery, better AT guns, better tanks and had an ability to fully motorise the force available, meaning they could dictate the time and place of an attack and could break contact virtually at will. As well as having the huge advantage of much shorter supply lines.
Churchill had also promised that he would divert a British Armoured Division from the Middle East to Australia in the case of 'substantial invasion'.
A democratically elected government keeping secrets from the electorate because the citizens might choose a different course of action if privy to all of the relevant information... It's odd how normalized that b u l l s h i t has been.
2:55 "Japan was only interested in acquiring raw materials and economic resources for the war effort."
Man, imagine if they'd known how much iron ore was in the Pilbara.
They did as Lang Handcock discovered it in the early 30's.
@@rodwilliams1207 I think you mean the 1950s and that wasn't properly exploited until the 1960s.
If anyone visits my home town of Darwin, take time to go to the old Qantas hangar just off Ross Smith avenue (which was the old airport runway, now a suburban street). It is now the workshop for classic car collectors in town, but there are still bullet holes visible in the hangar superstructure from Japanese strafing attacks during WWII. A visit to the war museum and the old gun turrets at East Point are also worth it for military buffs. In a poetic twist, the old turrets that used to house weapons of war are now used to host plays and musical events. The main gun from the USS Peary is mounted on our esplanade, and points to the final resting place of the ship in the harbour, which I believe was the largest single loss of US sailors during the initial attack.
You need to vote out Michael Gunner. Also everyone never visit northern territory unless you want to go to a covid death camp with $5000 fines.
I got my CD engineered right next to that building ;)
As an Australian I can confirm that 2 warnings of impending aerial attack are not enough to get me to end smoko
👍😂🥇Also Aussie here, confirmed.
Wtf is "smoko"?
@@branon6565 meal break
@@branon6565 smoke break.
morning or afternoon tea,
a short 15 odd minute paid break
@@branon6565 I might tell you when I've finished me Smoko.
The Japanese at Darwin corrected the mistakes they made at Pearl Harbor where they did not attack the logistics facilities like fuel storage which would have crippled US operations for months. ... It's interesting to note the number of times in the attack on Darwin Japanese pilots took the highly dishonorable tactic of shooting pilots who parachuted out of damaged planes. For a culture that is based on honor the extent to which it was sadly lacking in almost every Japanese campaign is galling.
They also believed anyone not Japanese was beneath them. Hence these types of “dishonorable” things happening
white races where classed as dishonourable by the Japanese ,
as was surrender
hence why pow's where treated so badly
Two bombs were not enough.
Yes and deliberately bombing the hospital.
" 2 bombs were not enough " .
Well there are still today , Japanese stating that they were " provoked " by the Chinese.
They are front line now . There may be vengeance yet .
I think it's actually consistent - a defeated Japanese warrior could well be considered to seek an honorable death by comitting suicide rather than living with the shame - hence by shooting the pilots they may have considered that they were saving them the shame. Certainly I remember hearing about a Liberator crewman over Burma who parachuted out, a Japanese aircraft came close to him, he was playing dead in the parachute, as it came close and he could see the pilot in the cockpit he shot at him with his pistol - the fighter went into a dive and crashed, after landing and capture he was the only one of his crew offered the oppourtunity to commit sepaku (ritual suicide) which he later thought was a recognition of his "honorable victory" over the pilot. Or alternatively from a purely libiterain point of view, once you've decided to attack logistics - pilots and trained wounded soldiers are a military resource (infact the original triage by napoleons army was done with the aim of returning wounded soliders to the front as soon as possible), so killing them makes logistical sense, and shooting at them before they bail out compared with a few seconds to a minute later is a small difference in reality. It may not seem honorable to our sense however - bear in mind how different Japanese views and culture at the time were - the Japanese government refused to believe any Japanese PoWs existed as they should all have commited suicide, similarly their families assumed and treated them as having died. It's even possible that Japan would have fought on after the nuclear bombs if they hadn't been attacked from the North by Russia (having focussed their defences in the South) and even then a group of officers atempted to prevent the surrender. Another captured Japanese officer in India refused to believe that your average british soldier could read and write, one of the reasons that Japanese civilians facing the allied advance was because of what they believed would happen to them. There are however records of a Japanese Submarine captain who gave food and water to the crew of a ship he had sunk (and then kept it secret because he was ashamed of what he had done), similarly US submarines machinegunned survivours in the water.
Why were the warning ignored? Was there an investigation?
I don't understand how the warning call from the crew of the Catalina could be ignored at all, but especially given that Pearl Harbor was attacked just two months prior....how the hell did that happen?!
Ikr. Not much of a “surprise” attack if you ignore two warnings that you’re about to be under attack
Here is something to consider. At the time people were expecting American aircraft reinforcements to arrive in Darwin. As were the military authorities. Feb 19th 1942. The day of the first raids. Was a bright sunny day. Very typical for Darwin. So the townspeople were naturally out and about. The first thing they noticed of the attack. Was sun twinkling off the wings of these high flying aircraft. There was no real alarm because they thought these were the expected American reinforcements!! It wasnt untill they saw bombs dropping and aircraft swooping in on straffing runs. - That they grasped what was happening!! So during the first wave of the attack! Many people were caught out in the open!! As were many on the ships in the harbour! One stick of bombs hit an ammunition ship at the wharf! Destroying it! The resulting explosion blew a locomotive and its freight wagons on the wharf alongside. Into the harbour!
My grandfather was on the Manunda, a hospital ship in the harbour that day. Spoke very little of it, but jeeze did he hold a grudge against the Japanese after that.
Getting bombed on a hospital ship would do that I guess.
My father was quite young when this all happened and he felt the same as your grandfather.
Many years after the war ended he had a nightmare about being chased be Japanese soldiers. He went to leap over a fence to get away, but just managed to fall out of bed. He reckons that it was the last casualty of the war.
My father was there too 🙄
People forget how ruthless the Japanese were and the amount of hate that went with that.
The fact that they still deny their war crimes is a bit unsettling.
@@donkeythong4081 So do the Turks. They still deny the genocide the Ottoman Empire inflicted against the Armenians, the Anatolian Greeks, and the Assyrians. The definition of "genocide" was written with what the Turks did in mind.
Yeah like the CENTAUR
As a Englishman I feel an attack on Australia as badly as if its an attack on England.
As a Canadian, I feel the same way. The bond between our Commonwealth Countries is like being in a "Family"! We`ve got each others backs!
Churchill didn't feel the same. He was furious when Australian PM, John Curtain pulled Australian troops out of North Africa to defend Australia.
Though how Britain treated Australia at times is appalling, such as the nuclear bombs testing which Britain said they cleaned up but didn't.
@@seankelly7211 ❤
Greatly appreciated Steve.
My city of Newcastle was also attacked. A Japanese submarine surfaced offshore and attempted to shell the steel mills. Our coastal defence fort fired back. The only damage in that entire engagement was an empty house. Both sides went home for tea and crumpets.
Don't say that to the steel workers in Newcastle .
Crumpets,!
Ok maybe not t bones because of rations .
But Crumpets !
😆😄😁😅😆🤣🙂🦘🐨
@@lukeskywalker3329 Well, it was at around 2 in the morning, so I’d say the steelworkers would have been tucked up in bed at the time… or down the pub.
@@doubtingthomas6146 I wonder if pubs back then closed at 10pm .
Bit of regulation back then ?
Hardly a midget submarine. The shelling was by I-21 a B1 class sub of the IJN.
Mini subs did not carry cannon only full size subs did
You always do good work sir. Thank you.
I'm pretty knowledgeable of the US war time experience and knew of some of the Australian engagement with the Japanese but I didn't know about the Darwin attacks. Thank you, keep up the great videos
How in the Hell do you get two warnings, one from a military scout aircraft, about incoming hostiles and not send at least one person to check it out??
Because you weren't there. Sorry but I'm not keen on 21stC armchair generals. Sightings take time to investigate assuming assets are available/
Declarations of War are much more palatable after a large body count.
How else to convince a majority of Christians who are taught the Ten Commandments?
Thou shalt not Kill.
@@daviddou1408 ....Body counts get us into wars.
Is that not true?
Blood sells the "news"???
@@truthsRsung Actually the command in Hebrew is 'not murder'. There are grounds for killing sadly including warfare something all religions have done
@@andrewstackpool4911 ...Then you should sound sad about it.
Do what you can to discount the mentally ill reasons why children are sent to "resolve" the issues that the old folks create and stop watching warmongering propaganda.
Great video of an aspect of WWII in the pacific that is not taught in American schools. Thank you for honoring the sacrifices of these unsung defenders.
In many other locations throughout the war, the Aus. forces performed wonders. Here, you note that there were two warnings of the coming raid that were ignored. Who were the Aus. officers that ignored those warnings and what happened to them?
Ok I see you already asked what i just asked... WHO ignored these warnings and on what authority did they ignore them ? The commander should be court-martialed and sacked
Ultimately the American general Douglas Macarthur was in charge of Australia during the war, he was the Surpeme Allied Commander in the South Pacific and John Curtin more or less asked him to take the helm. Australias commander was Thomas Blamey but he was more or less subordinate to Macarthur.
The warning would not have helped much though would it? The result would have been the same, although a few more people would have had time to take cover.
@@pissiole5654 Yes, but the first Darwin raid was less than 3 months after Pearl Harbor, just before MacArthur arrived in Australia and took charge of joint forces.
The commanders had assumed that the reports of planes (the Zeros) were actually the returning P-40 RAAF planes.
Lack of recon planes, radar and other early warning, combined with the very poor AA defences was pretty unacceptable.
The Lowe Report was pretty scathing on the lack of preparedness.
Informative History lesson right there! Thanks for sharing
congrats on 100k subs
I have several Aussie friends here in the Philippines but this is the first I have heard of this. Thanks.
There was 60 other raids on Darwin too!
He said 250 ?
I'm from Darwin and its good to see someone talking about this
Thanks for this video. I as an Australian know very little about this attack. Much appreciated.
this shows the pompous attitude of the upper echelon in not listening to the troops on the ground . Hopefully a lesson was learnt and will not happen again ,, excellent doco .
fantastic!
cheers
Love the content on all the channels and I always watch them as soon as they are uploaded when I can. Have you considered a few episodes on The Falkland War of 1982? Plenty for Dark Seas as there was lots of naval action but plenty for the other channels too with British Intelligence buying Exorcet missiles from the French, the Royal Marines epic march across East Falkland after all but one chinook was destroyed in the transport ship, the Para's at Goose Green and the Ghurkas at Mount William and Tumbledown, the SAS assault on Pebble Island, SBS missions to stimy the Argentinians. SO much to cover, would be great to get a series on an era that isn't Vietnam or WW2
His/Their content are full of inaccuracies and errors.
There are other channels that have Falkland content .
One small point.
Remember the Argentinean jets were getting through to straf the ships . The Brits didn't have enough AA ordinance. So they brought out seamen and marines on deck with long and side arms shooting back at the jets . Ripped open a few jets that way .
Thank You!!! Please make more on Corsairs and P38 VS Zero Rabaul - TNX!
More ships were sunk in Darwin than were sunk in Pearl Harbor. Most Australians don't realize how badly Darwin was hit. If it wasn't for America, Australia was done for! Excellent video! Top Marks!
Thanks
My father told us all about Darwin, he was stationed on the outskirts, they were the first in for clean up & rescue. There definitely wasn’t any standto order given. The first they knew of it was bombs exploding. The place was a mess.
Thanks for posting.
Great vid as always and cheers for making it from Oz. I'd love to see a video about America's first offensive operation in a world war. Operation Hamel in WW1- in which Aussies and Americans fought together. It and the attack a few days later broke through the German line and went really well... even though General Pershing tried to ignore it!
For anyone visiting Darwin today there are many reminders of the bombing including a fantastic museum which details much of what happened. Should you also go Bathurst Island to the airstrip at Wurrumiyanga you can see the memorial marking the spot where the first Japanese pilot to be shot down was captured by the local Aboriginals.
Don't forget the underground fuel tanks in Darwin which still exist, some you can actually visit. Also the Air Museum containing the only B52 on display outside USA.
@@olsmokey Absolutely, in fact that air museum has a number of interesting items on display. I found the East Arm military museum fascinating.
There are also many airstrips in the bush all around NT. Truscott base is still used to helo crews to oil rigs
@@chrishewitt1165 I used to fly up there and it is quite amazing to see just how many of the old airstrips can be seen around Darwin and especially around Bachelor to the south.
Thank you.
RAAF. Royal Australian Air Force. Not RAF.
What in the world did the pictures do to support the commentary?
Your channels are awesome
Thank you for this episode. It is a very little known event across the world as wartime secrecy disallowed common knowledge of the tragedy of Darwin even in my own country of Australia.
Great video of a forgotten battle. The Japanese would have continued these type of raids, But the engagements at Coral Sea and Midway really hindered them. The Japanese were too thinly stretched to continue with any sort of pressure on Darwin or Australia in general.
Note . It was documented that there were over 250 further raids on Darwin before the allies were able to adequately reinforce Darwin.
Can I ask what makes you call it forgotten? It is very much in the mind of most Australians.
Again, if you have no film material on this subject, Please don't use completely wrong one. Luftwaffe's planes flew far from Darwin area. Maybe paintings and drawings.
Darwin only had 6,000 people then. It was more of a fishing village than a ‘city’.
The reinforced brigade (7,500) that made up the garrison far outnumbered the inhabitants.
actually very little commercial fishing was done out of Darwin, it was a cattle terminal. live beasts went out and supplies for the Graziers & Missions came in.
@@glenmcinnes4824 - I wouldn't argue. Although there was pearling and trepang. My point was Darwin was only small.
Yes, this it's rather telling that this was the largest "logistics hub" left for the allies at the time.
@@tomriley5790 - I guess it was like Rabaul or Scapa Flow, less the infrastructure than the large protected anchorage.
Similarly Port Stephens and Twofold Bay in NSW were fortified despite having few inhabitants, for fear of the IJN parking there.
At 10:01When they say that 9 vessels were sunk the video is of a aircraft carrier. There was no aircraft carrier sunk at Darwin. It is so bad that on his "Dark video's" ,I do not watch the I only listen to the audio. Get a new video editor, PLEASE.
How many times have we seen the sinking of HMS Barham from the Mediterranean or the USS Lexington from the Coral Sea. Illustrative footage used because of the lack of footage of the real event.
They had no regard for anyone, according to a survivor from the Arizona, Japanese planes strafffed sailors in the water and also the ones who managed to swim to Ford island where machine gunned aswell, they where ruthless to say the least
The Japanese have historically always been very dishonorable in warfare. Strafing pilots while parachuting and shortly after making land after parachuting.
Or targeting hospital ships & Darwin hospital, raping & butchering the nuns at the missions on PNG etc etc
@sick2biscuit I suspect more so for 2 reasons. 1. They were occupied by the US after WWII and had their culture significantly altered
2. Convenience, due to post WWII legalities and inability to rearm, they were militarily weakened and are incapable of properly defending themselves from any serious threat *cough* China *cough*
Video often has nothing to do with events being spoken of. US aircraft shown when narrator speaks of Japanese; carrier shown under attack when this did not happen, etc. Looks more like video footage randomly thrown together.
There wouldn't have been much footage of the actual raid, especially when you consider it was a surprise attack in 1942 and in a very remote area.
@@sandybutt9898 There is a lot of WW2 footage that would have fit better instead of showing the wrong (at times, even American!) planes, wrong ships, etc. There have been documentaries (some lengthy) done on this subject that showed a lot of authentic film footage.
Yes . There were definitely no aircraft carriers in Port. The few US aircraft carriers were busy enough and stretched in their miraculous operations.
In the clips there was also shots of bombers over lush farmland .
Too dry up around Darwin for the quilt pattern type farms.
Still a well narrated doco.
Every year, On the 19th of February at 9:58am, they sound the air raid warning siren down at the wharf in Darwin which can be heard through the city. Very haunting.
Most of the footage has nothing to do with Darwin, especially the B17 formations and the burning carrier sinking. I’m also intrigued by the RAF, not RAAF, base.
Dark Seas, look at the IJN submarine campaigns against Australia and New Zealand, particularly the Attack on Sydney Harbour and shelling of Newcastle.
I had NO idea of this event!!! LOVE ur channel and loved all the comments!! If this were a big blockbuster movie I would love to see it!! And dark seas guy would have to narrate it for sure love his voice!!
Unfortunately, most of this ally film footage is inaccurate.
Can you really call it a surprise attack if TWO groups of people warned them that it was coming?
It's good to hear about countrys other than my USA that was heavily involved in WWII. After all it was a world war. Every country on earth was affected by it in some way or another. This history lesson may and may not be accurate but at least it recognizes the involvement of other countrys. And as someone else said here, watch out for the Chinese. Their actions are similar and maybe more aggressive than the Japanese of 1940.
Aggressive?
You fail to realize who started all this.
Annapolis' Naval Academy and a former Marine can help you with these two videos.
ua-cam.com/video/Lg-nUy2DalM/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/xbrnMfHzBro/v-deo.html
Wait, what?
There is much to unpack here. First, get rid of your US-Centric viewpoint. While some centrism is fair, too much only demonstrates ignorance. The US involvement in WWII was "moderate" compared to many other countries, such as the UK, France, the USSR, the Netherlands, China, and basically all the Axis countries (even before they were invaded themselves). Even Canada and Australia gave more, as a ratio of their population and economy. The US involvement was massive in equipment and supplies, but that's because it had the population size (in 1940, it was twice the combined population of the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), natural resources and industry to do so. In terms of troop numbers and human losses per capita, or even per military personnel numbers, it lags far behind many countries, including Australia.
Second, China right now is nowhere near what Japan was doing in the 1930s. Imperial Japan was occupying Korea, Manchuria and was occupying many important Chinese cities, especially on the coast. It was already a full-scale invasion of Japan. The reason they went to war with the US was oil. Japan had little natural resources to provide for its war effort, and the US/UK embargo (as protest against the war in China) was hurting badly. Japan went to war to break the embargo and grab the oil fields of the Dutch East Indies (current Indonesia) for themselves.
Chinese actions are more clever than the Japanese of 1940.
They obtained the 99-year Darwin Port lease without a shot being fired.
People are more interested in the Japanese attack 80 years ago than in the current Chinese actions.
Great content as usual. Please , what is the name of the music in background ? Very stirring piece . Many thanks .
Please provide a link for reporting corrections.
I'll admit my total ignorance to this part of WW2, Thank You for the education/knowledge Subscribed now
There were Japanese attacks on Darwin (over 60) Horn Island - the airport next to Thursday Island (7 bombing raids), Broome (a lot of Dutch civilians fleeing from Java were killed in the first raid), Townsville (3 raids by long range flying boats), Wyndham, and even a Mossman cane farm copped a single bomb which wounded a baby. Sydney of course was raided by mini subs and the northern suburbs were shelled by the departing submarine that brought the mini-subs near to the harbour entrance.
All of it was covered up at the time as best it could be to stop panic, but many people are surprised by how many attacks occurred.
And a plane launched from a Japanese submarine attempted to bomb, or conducted a recce on the Dunlop tyre factory in Melbourne.
The sinking of the hospital ship Centaur off Moreton Island near Brisbane - fully lit up as per Geneva Convention - was probably the most notorious incident. The captain of the sub was placed on a list of war criminals to be charged and would have certainly been hanged after the war had he not already been killed in action.
Eastern suburbs actually
If the landings in Milne Bay had of been successful aswell as Guadalcanal, they would have been able to maneuver there forces better, and we Australians would of been cut off and vulnerable to invasion! And the hate between the forces in the pacific was as brutal or worse then the eastern front of Russia, machine gunning pilots in there chutes!
IF japan had invaded Port Morsby by the sea and taken PNG, they could have used it as a defense buffer. I doubt the allies could have done anything to counter that ?
@@RemusKingOfRome it definitely would of made it harder to re supply allied forces and keep the pacific war on a 2 prong front
Japan never had the logistics to invade Australia, nor did they have the troops or equipment, fuel was also a major issue.
They also lacked any intention to do so -
29 Jan 42 Yamamto was only prepared to commit to invasions of Lae, Salamoa, Tulagi and Port Moresby. He was not interested in an invasion of Australia, that was a waste of manpower and too roundabout a way to end the war speedily.
(BBS, Daihon’ei kaigunbu, rengokaitai, Vol 2, p.309; and Nanto homen kaigun sakusen, Vol 1 p.355).
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’.
From that conference emerged the ‘Fundamental Outline of Recommendations for Future War Leadership’ paper, signed by the Combined IJN and IJA HQs at the liaison conference and presented by Tojo, Sugiyama and Nagano to the emperor on 13 Mar 42 states in Paragraph 3, as a “future option to demonstrate positive warfare” that ‘a temporary invasion of port Darwin , if and when the situation allowed; that is, if Chaing Kai Shek could be brought down and the Soviet threat removed’
(BBS, Daihon’ei kaigunbu, rengokantai, Vol 2, pp 337-8).
The Allies knew the Japs 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.
So, to invade Australia, Japan felt it only had to defeat China and the USSR first.
@@RemusKingOfRome It would have had no impact on the USN Submarine force that was gutting Japans merchant fleet and no impact on US production, plenty of comparisons exist between US and Japanese available warships and a/c by date, they are worth looking up.
@@politenessman3901 if that was the case they prolly should of helped Germany out by invading Russia 2 fronts would of crippled Russia that would of left alot of forces from both sides free to fight the western allies!
I can't believe it's the first time I've ever heard of this attack.
Thankyou, as an Australian I of course know about the Darwin Raid, but it was far worse than I imagined. Is this footage from the actual Darwin attack? I would be interested in doing some google maps of the same places now..
Thankyou, and People SUBSCRIBE get him is PLAY BUTTON...
I'm not sure about all of it, but at least some of the footage is from other battles. At 10:03 there's a burning aircraft carrier when there were no allied carriers at Darwin and no attacks against the Japanese carriers. The next bit of footage shows what appears to be either HMS Nelson or Rodney, at a time when both were in the European theatre.
When you think about it though, there probably isn't very much footage of the original attack. Video footage wasn't common in 1942, especially when you consider that it was a surprise attack in, what was at the time, a very remote place.
Darryl about Google Maps mate, If you are looking for visual signs of the air raid its worth remembering Cyclone Tracy around Christmas 1974 which effectively levelled Darwin and changed its building landscape completely.
The rebuilding effort too changed the landscape of Darwin and even the Port and the following decades also altered the terrain for ever as it expanded and grew.
I spent a few days wandering around Darwin 20 ish years ago and even memorial plaques were far and few between.
I think that Sydney probably has a few more reminders regarding the Japanese mini Submarines that snuck into the harbour sadly.
They shouldnt hav attackd Australia...there are only kangaroos and abos... in Australia
@@batman-cw2hd NOT cool !!
NO. Most is not of Darwin
i recently watched the film australia, a film about the lost generation, and the attack on darwin. i assume this is the same battle that they lightly touched on in the film, is it not??
either way though, if you havent seen the film, titles "Australia", go watch it!! i didnt think i would sit through the whole thing, as it starts out kind of slow, but boy does it not take you through the whole gambit of emotions!! one of the best films that ive seen in a long time.
It is a garbage film that has no relationship to reality. BTW, there have been more inquiries into the "lost/stolen generation" now than there have been actual members of that situation identified (IIRC 3 people so far, and in each case it was an individual exceeding legal authority that caused it rather than Govt policy).
Hope you washed your brain after watching that drek.
I had an uncle from each side of my family that served in Darwin during the bombing both survived but never talked about it.
William Hartley - Luftwaffe pilots shot up parachuting RAF pilots on several occasions and there was a demand that "something should be done". However the Air Ministry ruled that since a British pilot who had successfully parachuted over Britain could be back in battle later that day, the Germans were within their rights to shoot them. The Germans protested the RAF practice of shooting down Luftwaffe Air-Sea Rescue floatplanes but the response from the British was that they were using the same unforgiving logic.
How dare you claim that all humans are flawed in the same ways!
😘
Common theme: enemy aircraft spotted, reported and then the report is ignored. Pearl Harbour/Darwin and ......
UFO's over Los Angeles ......... shred the skies with shrapnel, that'll teach them. That's a funny story in a way.
After getting the big picture of the Civil War I'm looking at WW2. This theater has here to for beyond my view. Thank you.
It's easy to see how the Japanese would get bogged down if they had initiated a land invasion of Australia. The Australians could have traded space for as did the Russians in WW2
Look up The Brisbane Line. We were prepared to simply abandon most of the continent if the Japanese had made a landing in force.
We would have drawn them in to the desert where their supply lines would have been overextended and harassed by guerrillas then they would have faced the AIF in its element.
It would have been a slaughter
Wouldn't go into the interior, stay on the coast
@@Trucksofwar Exactly.
@@TheOneWhoMightBe The Brisbane line was a myth.
I'd suggest that it was disinformation to protect the fact that we were reading Japanese codes and knew (from having read their the ‘Fundamental Outline of Recommendations for Future War Leadership’ paper, signed by the Combined IJN and IJA HQs and presented to the emperor on 13 Mar 42) via Magic decrypts - Aust still had to look like it was concerned about invasion, so the myth was born.
Anzac forces don't get a ton of headlines but they are just as badass as any competent 1st world military man can be.
FDR knew about Pearl Harbor before it happened. Churchill cheered when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor
There is no proof (as far as I’m aware that FDR knew about the Pearl Harbour attack before it happened.
And IF Churchill “cheered” when he heard about the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbour, he was looking at it from a British point of view, that the USA would now, definitely, enter the war on the British side, and with all that manufacturing power, out of range of enemy aircraft, things could only get better!
@@donyoung1384 None the less Churchill cheered dead Americans. FDR had to have the USA at war because his “new deal” was failing. WWII is what brought the USA out of the Depression. I know what my Grandfather told me about FDR. FDR loved Stalin, and Eleanor was even worse.
@@williamallencrowder361 don’t be silly! Winston Churchill was a fighter, an ex soldier and a long-time politician. He had been a reporter covering several wars and had fought in the trenches during The Great War. He knew what slaughter looked like! He wasn’t cheering dead Americans, he was cheering the British, who would stay alive because America had finally come down off their neutral money making fence. He was not responsible for Japan attacking Pearl Harbour, because of the American embargo on scrap metal. He cheered because he could finally see a positive end to a bloody war.
Finally, Churchill liked and admired Americans, his Mother was an American.
@@donyoung1384 He may have claimed to love the YSA, but his generals and admirals hated the USA. Starting with bernard A BRIDGE TOO FAR montgomery As well the Brit’s refused to share intelligence with the Americans
@@williamallencrowder361 It is a well known fact that Patton and Montgomery hated one another, but what that has to do with your assertion that Churchill hated his mother’s country of origin is beyond me, because, I am unable to make a logical link. Incidentally, I’m pretty sure Churchill and many British officers disliked Montgomery too! He wasn’t a particularly likeable man. But neither was Patton! That never made either of them bad generals!
As regards “Operation Market Garden,” The original concept was Montgomery’s idea, but many other senior officers, of both British and American forces, added their little tweaks. Which in the end made it a total mess. Again, Eisenhower was Supreme Commander and he had the power to intervene, but he chose not to do so! This is hardly Churchill’s fault, but you won’t accept this, because it is becoming quite obvious that you don’t like us (The British). Whether this dislike is rational, or not, only you can say.
why was the early warnings ignored?
Who were those who disregarded the warnings and what happened to them? They should have been held to account.
The film Australia portrays the attack on Darwin. If anyone wanted to check it out. Its a long film just fastforward to the end.
A relevant follow up video would be one on the Japanese mini sub attacks around Australia including within Sydney Harbour
I'm glad you didn't mention the Brisbane Line.
“When the war finally broke out in 1941?????” Oh brother!!
Film does not show true conditions, needs to be date synchronized. Some aircraft were shown that were not available at this date. I believe little film is available for first raids, film that was shown represented later time.
Can you do one on special Z force and the attack on Singapore?
You asked at the end what I think...
I think that they were very smart tactically, but just no regard for life at all. Not to mention their own suicide bombers but to shoot down pilots and then strafe them while they're parachuting... That's savage.
The Japanese were often characterized by behavior which would be considered appalling by other militaries. In Europe the Germans were "really bad" on a large scale mostly in the east less so elsewhere but the Japanese were "really bad" just about everywhere they went it seems... naturally Aussies and Americans finding their men tortured mutilated etc did not always leave them in a good mood to play nice in return... in China they were both brutal to each other going back to the beginning in Shanghai with headless bodies floating in the water and heads displayed on poles etc, the Chinese were being invaded and could be "really bad" when they got their hands on Japanese soldiers.
I saw some video about a us pilot who decided to spare a Japanese pilot who had parachuted, and it wasn't always 100% brutality, but overall no shortage of mutual hatred
For a people who considered themselves honorable, they were anything but. The way they conducted themselves was disgraceful.
"decimated" is a weird way to say "destroyed" or "massacred". The Latin meaning is "to punish by executing every tenth soldier in a legion that broke and ran"(the root "dec" = ten, as in the word "decimal") Surely a military history channel would understand this?
You would think so.
Disagree. Darwin wasn't a big town at the time and the Japanese probably only destroyed about 1 in 10 buildings in Darwin, which fits the criteria of 'decimated'.
@@SnoopReddogg I understand the building statistics. I was talking of the air forces' statistics. They were hit 'way harder than 1 in 10, no?
@@deepgardening That is an etymological fallacy: making a claim that the present meaning of a word should be based exclusively on that word's etymology. It's a genetic fallacy as it holds that a word's historical meaning is its only valid meaning and that its present-day meaning is invalid.
Never been there but I love Australia. Good, tough people there.
If you look under the Officers' Mess at the RAAF Base Darwin you can still see bullet holes in the wooden foundations.
Pearl Harbor/Honolulu still have a large collection of bullet hits scattered around the area. I've seen a few myself.
Little Known Fact: The mission planners from the Japanese force that attacked Darwin were the first and only military personnel of any nation to intentionally choose to visit Darwin.
I lost a relative in the Bombings of Darwin John Cubillo was on the wharf when it was hit, his body was never found, it was thought that he was blown off into the harbor and his remains were eaten or he was right next to where a bomb he hit and was obliterated!
1910: The pacific region is at the mercy of the relentless Japanese military.
2021: The pacific region is at the mercy of the relentless Chinese military. Anybody see any similarities?
Don't forget the first Sino Japanese war 1894-1895 and the Russo Japanese war 1904-1905 both of which Japan won. Other similarities include
1936 Berlin Olympic games, 2022 Beijing winter Olympics
1918 Spanish flu, 2019 Corona virus
Jews, Uyghurs
History repeats itself
The Chinese are buying including the government
I’m going to say sadly most people seem to have not recognise the similarities of many things that happened in the decade or two before WWII
The funny part is that China is duplicating Japans mistakes, just on a smaller scale - Japan wanted to hold and fortify from the Malay peninsular, through Indonesia, PNG, Solomons, Tarawa, Wake, Midway to protect the homeland and the resources it needed.
China has built a string of islands and fortified them to seize the Sth China Sea and the resources it holds.
Not a great idea picking a losing strategy and then doing it on a limited basis IMO.
I was told by a AA gunner that they ran out of ammunition half way through the first raid and the Japaneses where using bombs called daisy cutters ( they explode about head height ) .
Did you have any pics in this vid of Darwin being bombed? These pics were everywhere but Darwin.
Interesting point. The postman in Darwin was Japanese and he went everywhere. He wasn't seen again after the first raid. Dad and many others always thought that was odd.
2 things...1)he was a spy 2) he was murdered
Do you have verification for this story? The largest single loss of civilian life during the first raid was when a Japanese bomb scored a direct hit on the Darwin post office, killing the postmaster general and all his staff who were sheltering within the building. Our parliament house is built on the same spot, and there is a plaque on the floor on the exact spot the bomb hit commemorating their sacrifice. They are all buried near the Adelaide River war cemetery.
@@DevanSabaratnam Geez I wouldn't know mate. I just spoke to the people who were there and pulled the bodies from the rubble. According to them he wasn't among them, sorry if that upsets you.
@@JohnJ469 Not upset at all! :) It is just that the loss of civilian life during the raid is probably more remembered and documented in this town, as they were locals, whereas most of the military personnel we just temporarily deployed here. It is just that I had never heard of a Japanese postman in town during WWII, and the fact that the postal service suffered the biggest single loss that day makes it even more strange that no one seems to know the story here that I have spoken to.
@@DevanSabaratnam There's not many of the witnesses left. And some of them by the time they were interviewed were either telling a yarn or didn't remember things properly at all. There was a show about the raids some years ago where the witness said he could "hear the click" as the bombs were dropped. Good trick if it was true. Dad was in Darwin at the time and he and my uncles were up in the islands with one finishing up in Changi.
You heard interesting things when they talked about what went on. A thing to remember is that AFAIK there are virtually zero records of the IJN doing recon flights over Darwin. The town expanded, no recon flights and yet they had very exact target maps. The sort of information you can only really get from someone who could go anywhere without raising suspicion. Where would they get that?
Had no idea it was on that scale
The Australian military, with the exception of a few courageous Pilots, bolted from Darwin in a shameful rush south. It was later believed that a defensive line established from Brisbane was considered. My father was on his way to New Guinea to help with its defence and the Australian high command was in total disorder with fear of a Japanese invasion. The intervention of the US was crucial to our defence, like it or not. Australia was totally unprepared for war, with its armed forces being badly neglected after WWI and largely committed to fighting for the British in North Africa. British bungling and inept leadership from both Australian and British commanders, saw huge losses for Australia in the Crete and Singapore campaigns when going to the aid of the British Government. As a consequence, our most experienced and tested troops were overseas when Australia faced the threat from Japan.
Australian troops when the given the opportunity to fight properly showed themselves to be the equal of any in the world. However you are correct, our boys were badly let down by our leaders and were mainly used by the British to help them fight their battles. Had the U.S not come to Australia aid in the pacific the mainland would have been wide open to a Japanese invasion, even if such an invasion was unlikely.
@@braxxian No denying the ability of Aussie troops when well led, and in many cases, proved themselves the best assault troops in the world. The first to halt the Japanese, and confound the efforts of Rommel.
I didn't know this eather
Thank s dark😆🇨🇦✌
I knew about Darwin being bombed but didn't know they were caught so flat footed. Reminds me of how US forces in the Philippines were caught with their pants down despite hours of notice that Pearl Harbor had been attacked and that they would almost certainly be next.
6:53 Curtiss P 408 Tomahawk. I never heard of that.
"Surprise attack" except the were warned twice ahead of time. That wasn't a surprise attack, that was incompetence.
Great episode! The Allies were lucky that Japan had such limited resources.
Love Australian history 🦘❤️
Sydney was also attacked. Midget submarines penetrated the harbour and sank one vessel and the mother sub shelled the city.
All AA guns at darwin were under trained fuses set on the wrong timing ending up landing back in the docks hitting ships