On 19 February 1942, the Battle of Darwin was fought in Northern Australia between the Japanese under Chuichi Nagumo and Mitsuo Fuchida and the Australians under David V.J. Blake during the Second World War.
Why did it happen?
At the start of 1942, the town of Darwin in Northern Australia was being used by the Allies as a supply base for their forces in the Dutch East Indies. Because of its distance from any Japanese-controlled territory, little thought was given by the Allies to defend it. On 9 February, to support their ongoing conquest of Southeast Asia, the Japanese High Command decided to send four aircraft carriers from the Caroline Islands to attack Darwin. Under the command of Chuchi Nagumo, these aircraft carriers were the same warships that led the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. On 19 February, the first wave of aircraft under Mitsuo Fuchida took off from their aircraft carriers positioned in the Banda Sea and headed south towards the port town of Darwin.
Who was involved?
The Japanese force at Darwin numbered 242 aircraft – 188 in the first wave and 54 in the second wave. Both forces consisted of torpedo aircraft, fighters, conventional bombers, and dive bombers. The Japanese plan was to neutralise Darwin’s airfield and warships so that they could not be used during Japan’s invasion of Java, Bali, and Timor. The Australian force at Darwin numbered 10,000 infantry, 45 warships, 10 aircraft and 18 AA guns. Despite receiving warnings from Bathurst Island of incoming aircraft at 9.15 am, the Royal Australian Air Force just assumed that they were the Allied aircraft in route to Timor. Just like the Americans at Pearl Harbor, the Australians were completely unprepared for an attack by the Japanese. As stated by Peter Grose, “Darwin may have been packed with ships, but its defenders had no battle plan, no prearranged strategy, no inkling of who should do what in the event of an attack” (Grose, 2017, p.104).
What happened?
At 9.58 am, the Japanese attack on Darwin began with the first wave of aircraft dividing into two groups to attack both the Darwin port and RAAF airfield. The first group of 27 aircraft bombed the port before flying towards the military barracks and civil hospital. At 10.03 am, the second group of 54 aircraft flew towards the RAAF base and airfield northeast of Darwin. Despite machine-gun fire from anti-aircraft guns, the Japanese bombers managed to destroy the base’s hangers and workshops while the fighters strafed the airfield itself. Meanwhile, the remaining 107 Japanese aircraft targeted the warships in Frances Bay at 10.10 am. They succeeded in destroying eight warships before returning to their aircraft carriers at 10.40 am. An hour and eighteen minutes later, the second wave of 54 Japanese bombers returned to Darwin to finish off the RAAF airfield. Arriving from the southwest and northeast, they dropped salvos of bombs on the airfield before returning to their aircraft carriers twenty minutes later. While the Australians lost 642 killed or wounded, 8 warships sunk and 9 aircraft lost, the Japanese casualties were negligible with just 3 aircraft lost.
What changed as a result?
The Battle of Darwin was a victory for the Japanese. After the raids ended, Darwin fell into anarchy with many of its civilians fleeing south to Alice Springs and Queensland while Darwin came under full control of the military. Despite fears of a Japanese invasion of Australia and a further 64 raids by Japanese bombers on Darwin over the next 21 months, a Japanese invasion was never a serious possibility as they viewed the raid on Darwin as not being worthy of their naval strike force. Instead, the ships and aircraft that had taken part in the raid would make attacks against Sri Lanka and the Dutch East Indies to support Japan’s expansionist policies. And although Japanese submarines would attack Sydney Harbour a month later, any Japanese threat to Australia was neutralised when Allied forces defeated the Japanese at the Coral Sea and Midway.
Bibliography
Alford, Bob. Darwin 1942: The Japanese attack on Australia. Oxford, Osprey Publishing, 2017.
Grant, R.G. 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History. London, Cassell Illustrated, 2011.
Grose, Peter. An Awkward Truth: The Bombing of Darwin, February 1942. Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2017.
Vector Historia. “WW2 in Australia | Bombing of Darwin (1942).” YouTube video, 33:40. September 12, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyvnnCTaYX8