An Awkward Truth: The Bombing of Darwin, February 1942

by Peter Grose

The compelling and very human story of the first foreign assault on Australian soil since settlement - the attack on Darwin by the Japanese in February, 1942.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Australia, War, Historical, World War II

281 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2009

About the author

Started work as a journalist on the Sydney Daily Mirror, then moved to London as correspondent for The Australian. Returned to Sydney to set up the Australian office of Curtis Brown, the literary agency, then moved back to London to work for Curtis Brown there. Switched to publishing, as publishing director for Martin Secker & Warburg in London. Worked briefly and none too successfully as an independent publisher, then joined Australian Consolidated Press (UK), selling the Australian Women's Weekly cookbook series. (Even wrote a book for the series ... hence the rather unlikely appearance of Caribbean Cooking in my list of books published.) After retiring from Australian Consolidated Press, started writing proper books.

Reviews

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't often read non fiction, but I decided to give this a go for several reasons. The main reason was that it was chosen this month in my real life book club. This month will be the 73rd anniversary of the bombing of Darwin. I'm currently living in Darwin and I have seen damage on a building in the RAAF base caused by machine guns during the second raid. I was never interested in learning about history at school, so I thought I should educate myself about some relevant Australian history.

This book was well researched and gave a non biased picture of what took place before, during and after the bombing of Darwin. There was explanation into the politics of the time and what led the Japanese to attack Australia, and prior to that Pearl Harbour. Detailed information about the weapons, aircraft and other military aspects. Personal accounts from military and civillian. Photographs and documents. The epilogue wrapped it up with a "where are they now" feel, telling what happened to various people who had been discussed throughout the book.

[Sandra Munro · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mother was 4 years old when Darwin was attacked by air - the first time any attack on mainland Australia had occurred. She remembers the wholesale destruction of public buildings and property.

Most people in Australia however - let alone the rest of the world, are not aware that on 19th February 1942, the Japanese struck this far-northern town using 'the same carrier-borne force that devastated Pearl Harbour only ten weeks earlier.' But with these differences: 'More bombs fell on Darwin, more civilians were killed, and more ships were sunk.' Japan had sent 183 planes to Pearl Harbour in its first wave of attack; it sent 188 planes in its first wave of attack to Darwin.

The speed of the Japanese advance as it headed south after the Pearl Harbour attack took even Japan by surprise. Pearl Harbour was attacked on 7th December, 1941. By 11th January 1942, the attack on the Dutch East Indies had begun, and Rabaul, on the northern tip of Papua New Guinea, (just above Australia), was attacked on 20th January.

The tiny and hopelessly inadequate Australian Air Force group that was stationed at the two airfields defending Rabaul was ordered to hold rather than to withdraw. Following receipt of this directive, RAAF Wing Commander J.M.Lerew replied with the Latin phrase: 'Nos morituri te salutamus.' It was the Roman gladiator's traditional nod to the emperor before entering mortal combat: 'We who are about to die salute you.' The leader of the Japanese attack on Rabaul, (and Pearl Harbour and Darwin), later wrote: 'If ever a sledgehammer had been used to crack an egg, this was the time.'

By the time Rabaul fell, the Allied forces were in despair and some disarray. Japan was undecided about where to go next. One argument was for the invasion of Australia. At the very least, the Allied sanctuary of Australia could not be ignored. The Darwin harbour was a logical land base from which the Allies could mount a counter-attack in the Pacific. Already the harbour was filled with Allied ships staging through to join the battle.

The attack on Pearl Harbour took the Allies by surprise. By contrast, the imminent attack on Darwin was widely anticipated. By the end of January 1942 the Japanese had redrawn the map of Asia and the Pacific, and Darwin was now on the front line. It was thought that 36 anti-aircraft guns and 250 fighter aircraft would have been needed to protect the town, its airfields and harbour. This was a pipe dream. There weren't 36 anti-aircraft guns to spare in the whole of Australia. The RAAF didn't have 250 fighters to its name. Most of what it did have was spread thinly in the more populated southern Australian cities; in Malay; Timor; and in the Western Desert, facing the Luftwaffe.

Four sections of heavy anti-aircraft guns stood at incomplete sites spread around the wider area of Darwin. All the training these gun crews had had was with dummy rounds against slow moving targets such as the Flying Doctor! There was no ammunition to waste in practice shoots. It also seems that only 14 Allied aircraft were around Darwin at the time of the first raid, with as many as 9 of these dispersed to an airfield 75 kilometres away to the south.

The attack, when it came - almost without any warning other than the sound of the approaching aircraft, was sustained and ferocious. A seasoned deck officer who later also served in the Battle of the Atlantic, was on board a US ship in Darwin's harbour at the time of the raid and later recorded: 'No single incident in my life has affected me more than that raid, a disaster of a magnitude and ferocity that is hard to describe. When it was over, had anyone told me that the war was to last another three and a half years, I would never have expected to see it end.'

Following the first two attacks on 19th February, Darwin was attacked a further 64 times over the next 21 months. Northern Australia was attacked 97 times during that period.

Why are we generally so little-conversant with this part of our history? America had used the bombing of Pearl Harbour to galvanise its 'wary and isolationist' people into willing mobilisation. Australia's leaders chose instead to play down the bombing of Darwin, apparently for fear of its impact on national morale. I believe there may also possibly have been an element of the Australian tendency to downplay danger and tragedy. Not to be seen making a fuss.

What I didn't like about this book was the author's decision to present what happened in Darwin before, during, and after the raid, as something almost shameful. Certainly the lack of preparation for possible attack was terrible - but I think can hardly be seen as other than somewhat understandable in light of the limited available resources. What is beyond doubt however, is that the Territoral Administrator of the time provided shamefully abysmal to non-existent leadership.

It was an interesting read.

[Sage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very long but super interesting

[Jane Routley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guess where I went on holiday in June. And while I was driving around I noticed how omnipresent WW2 was up there. Air strips everywhere. After reading this Terrific book I now understand. I had no idea how serious the war was up here. The same force that attacked Pearl Harbor attacked Darwin only with more planes and bigger bombs. The casualty rate was only smaller because there were fewer ships and people to destroy. The book evokes the terror of the first bombing. I would have run for the hills too. And the fact that Darwin was bombed 96 times during the war! I had no idea! Typically for an Australian, I know more about the English Civil war and War of Independence than I do about my own country's history. Grose shows how the war in Darwin was downplayed because the place was so undermanned and poorly administered. (Administrator Abbott! What a piece of work!) Which is a pity because people were very brave in the battle. I read about the bombing with deep feelings of dread at how vulnerable Darwin was and how much worse it could have been had the Japanese decided to invade. Though perhaps the dead red center would have protected us even though we are only it's adopted children. Which leads to my only and probably unfair criticism of the book. Where were the indigenous and no-white populations in all this? But perhaps there weren't any records. A great read anyway!

[Justin Goldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm very pleased to have come across this work from Peter Grose and it was powerful to read it this week as the 81st anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin on that fateful day of February 19, 1942 came and went with admittedly very little attention. It is a case to consider on many levels as once again Australia takes stock of its position in the world and where it stands in a very dynamic Indo-Pacific region as the independent Defence Strategic Review was submitted to Government on 14 February 2023. The discussion of the Bombing of Darwin is an important reminder of how external threats to a country operate independent of the internal domestic politics of a country. It was useful to learn just how impactful the fall of Singapore just days before the bombing was on Australia as Sir Robert Gordon Menzies had resigned as Prime Minister in late August 1941 with an untested Prime Minister John Curtin forming a new government thereafter with his predecessor having authorized Australia's entry into WWII in September 1939. Reading this account is a reminder of how separate the Northern Territory can be seen from the rest of the country as a territory and not a state. It was also useful to learn of the contribution provided by Mr. Justice Lowe and the valuable service rendered by the Lowe Commission's two reports for the inquiry on the bombing of Darwin so rapidly after the tragic event. A great read.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I say straight up that war books and war history are not a genre that is normally high on my list of must reads, but, this was handed to me by a reader friend who is big on Australian history with the instructions to read it, just to understand the reality of what happened in Darwin.
Did I enjoy the subject - decidedly no, but I did struggle through with a timed read each day.
Did I learn a lot - absolutely yes. It tells a saga of a “wild west” frontier town that must have been amazingly chaotic to live in, rapidly and terrifyingly brought bang smack into the middle of a horrible war.
Incredibly well researched, fact filled but written well enough to read without my brain exploding.
Dot points from me:
* war sucks big time and never solves a thing
* politics and the people (primarily men) is a very strange system full of very strange people that we allow to run our lives to further their own particular advancement.
* in a crisis people, as human beings, pull together in astounding ways
* systems always try to cover up their stuff ups

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fascinating and detailed look at the bombing of Darwin. There are very few resources on this event so it was really great

[Anne Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having recently been to Darwin and seen the displays at the military museum and done a tour explaining more details of the bombing of Darwin, it was interesting to go back to the actual history and explore just what happened and why, and more to the point, why it was so covered up at the time and later and why the unexpurgated account is still, apparently, not included in school syllabuses. The first and only invasion by a foreign power on Australian soil, an invasion that was in fact more calamitous than Pearl Harbour and far from being covered up by the US govt, acted to bring that country into the war.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read

Not enough Australians understand or appreciate the complexities of Darwin’s existence. This book is extremely well written and teases apart a complex event with clarity and empathy. An outstanding read.

[Claire Baxter · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. Interesting, fairly short overview, and as the author points out, an event I didn't know a huge amount about. A little dry in some sections. Would have loved more first-hand accounts and anecdotes to give more of a sense of what it really felt like to be there that day.

[Michael Heath-Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good, readable book on the first bombing of Darwin and how un-prepared they were for it. Also, explaining the shambolic aftermath of people fleeing southward in bit of a rush, due to conflicting instructions coming from the military.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, had no idea of the extent of the raid compared to Pearl Harbour.
Also about the militancy of the dock workers, or inadequacies of administrator Abbot

[Marie Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has important facts that every Australian ought to know!
The insights to that day, the lead up and the days after were very insightful.
I highly recommend this!!!

[Chris Klitzing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book mainly because it set the record straight and called the bombing of Darwin for what it was, a calamitous disaster.
Great book well worth reading
😊😊

[Jye Douthat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well researched piece of work. If you like historically accurate recounts of military conflicts, you will enjoy this book.

[Barry Faucett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for every Australian. With shocking similarities to ‘1984’ you will find it hard to trust the political propaganda upon completion!! This is the text my tour guide of Darwin quoted from!

[Arabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this for my extended essay and honestly it was quite jarring to learn what actually occurred in Darwin during WW2

[Tamsin Ramone · Rating 5 out of 5]

So interesting!! How did I not know all of this? I’m an Australian who lived in Darwin! The history of our country needs to be properly taught in schools.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m so mad. I spent an hour writing this review and the app crashed so it deleted 😩

time to write it again..

alright I’ve come back to this two months later, this is going to be short, because I cannot remember what I wanted to say 😭

I really enjoyed this read, I’ll be honest I was so ignorant to Darwin’s history and involvement in WW2 (which the education system in Australia is to blame…). This read was super fascinating and eye opening, and i cannot believe that darwin was bombed more times than pearl harbour (like it doesn’t surprise me that america always makes it about them), but this is really a hush hush party of WW2 history.

Here are some things i tabbed in the book during my read:

“…white settlers had enraged Nungalinya, the Dreamtime ancestor responsible for earthquakes, storms and cyclones, and Nungalinya was taking his revenge. (Nungalinya can be seen to this day in the form of Old Man Rock, off Darwin’s Casuarina Beach.)” p. 10

“In Darwin today there is a small but touching monument in the smart Smith Street shopping mall celebrating the link between Darwin and the Greek island of Kalymnos. More people from Kalymnos live in Darwin than anywhere else except Kalymnos.” p. 13 that is so interesting (Darwin has quite a large Greek population considering the cities actual population)

“The only way bull freight could reliably move into our out of Darwin all year round was by sea. So the harbour in Darwin was more than just a convenience: it was Darwin’s only full-time lifeline to the outside world.” p. 23

“Lieutenant Max Wiecks had his plane badly shot up, and parachuted to safety. He landed in the harbour, was swept out to sea by the huge Darwin tide, and did not reach land until after dark - a feat in itself.” p. 89 (this is insane that he survived

“Pell was first to take off. At about 80 feet above the runway, he was attacked by three Zeroes who instantly crippled his plane. He bailed out and miraculously survived the parachute descent. A Zero casually machine - gunned and killed him on the ground as he crawled to safety.” p. 91 (this is so sad, but also morbidly funny haha)

“The first blast mingled with the opening wail of the first air - raid siren, sited on a water tower in the town. The big occassion turned out to be more than the siren could handle. It wheezed and died before it could complete its two - minute warning.” p. 97 lol

“There was a recurring theme in the speeches. The rest of australia is still ignorant about what happened in Darwin, not just in the first two raids but in the 62 that followed. The government decision to conceal the full horror of the raids reverberates to this day. I can only agree with the speakers. While researching this book, I was astonished by how little Australians know of the succession of goodly battles fought under their skies.” p.208 (the speakers in question was at an anniversary memorial for the bombing)

“Robert Oestreicher, the American Kittyhawk pilot who shot down two Val dive - bombers during the first raid, survived the war. He was still in the Northern Territory with the 49th Fighter Group when the war ended in 1945. In the absence of much challenge from the Japanese, the group became enthusiastic hunters of buffalo, initially dispensing with the more traditional rifle and attacking their targets by machine - gun from a Kittyhawk. The Australian government called a half to this entertainment, and the 49th switched to crocodiles, kangaroos and wallabies, this time from the unusual hunting platform of an old Tiger Moth biplane. While the pilot flew low and slow, a rear gunner armed with a Garand rifle set to work, doing little damage to the wildlife but occasionally nicking a rifle bullet through the wings of the Tiger Moth.” p. 213. this is such a random thing to do, like ????

Anyways, I enjoyed this book greatly and recommend to anyone interested in Australia’s involvement on home turf in WW2.

:)

[John Sheahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

(A longer discussion is posted on my website jjsheahan.com)

Peter Grose had previously written about the effect of the midget submarine attack on Sydney in May 1942 in A Very Rude Awakening (2007), so he is developing a bit of a theme with this one in looking behind the official story of our military history. I haven’t read the earlier book yet, but based on this one, I will seek it out.

In his preface to this book, Grose challenges the idea that the bombing of Darwin was a ‘national shame’ by ennumerating the steady and heroic actions performed by many in response to the onslaught. I tend to agree with another reviewer that Grose does not carry this notion through the book with conviction.

Grose recreates the events of the first raids from primary sources, memoirs, personal observations, and the independent report commissioned by Curtin’s government to. The sequence is easy to follow; I have to withhold judgement as to the accuracy of his pictorial because I know so little, but his approach seems solid without being overly objective.

Until I read this book, I thought the bombing of Darwin was synonymous with ‘official cover-up’. I was interested to find out more about what actually did happen up there in 1942 and what the extent of the cover-up was. What I found was that the initial raids were massive with a death toll of over 300, that the raids went on until November 1943, that there was a mass exodus from the city after the first raid, and that the diminution of the facts was a complex process.

In Grose’s account, the flight of Darwin’s citizenry to Adelaide River (known colloquially as the Adelaide River Stakes) and the extent of the looting in their absence stemmed mainly from the lack of leadership following the attack and the lack of preparedness in the face of the certainty of an attack, both systemic failures. The title might refer to the possible incompetence of the higher echelons in the Armed Forces. It might also refer to the myopic, national fixation on our membership in the British Empire until the time Menzies was relieved of government and replaced with Labor’s Curtin administration.

The title may also refer to the reasoning put forward by the military to Curtin that the extent of the disaster at Darwin be concealed: that it would damage morale with unknown but unpalatable implications for the war effort.

Patriotism would have us believe that we are special, different to them. Better. Curtin wanted to make the facts known, once he knew them, but was convinced by other voices that the risk was too great, that the public could not be trusted to handle the news of such a disaster in a mature manner. It had been a bad week: Singapore fell on 15th February, Curtin exhausted himself battling to bring Aussie divisions home and ended up in hospital on 17th, then the first bombing on the 19th. With the Pacific War in its infancy and going so badly for us, the government of the day must have been scrambling to use anything it could to shore up national resolve … and bury anything that would undermine it.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not the kind of book I would normally read because I am just not very interested in books about war, but I’ve always been rather intrigued by the snide comments I’ve heard about the debacle in Darwin. The author Peter Grose quotes one of these in his introduction to An Awkward Truth, The Bombing of Darwin February 1942 published by Allen and Unwin. The quotation doesn’t seem like the kind of comment that ought to be made at a commemorative ceremony, and it fits ill with the Anzac tradition, not to mention the stirring scenes we saw in Baz Luhrmann’s Australia. Yet this is what Paul Hasluck, Australian Minister for Territories said in 1955, and this scornful epithet to a tragic day is what most people believe about it:

“Speaking to the Northern Territory Legislative Council while unveiling a plaque commemorating the civilians killed by bombs in the Darwin Post Office. Hasluck described 19 February as ‘not an anniversary of national glory but one of national shame. Australians ran away because they did not know what else to do.’ “ (pxi)

Grose’s book goes some way towards redressing this cursory impression of a disastrous day in Australia’s military history. (The seven volume Official History of the Australian Army in WW2 offers only two pages of thousands about the attack on Darwin, presumably out of embarrassment.) Grose admits there was ‘panic, incompetence, looting and desertion’ but there was also a ‘disciplined and dogged counter-attack from the Australian anti-aircraft gunners, and an exemplary display of heroism by a tiny handful of US Army Air Corps fighter pilots’ as well as heroism from the Australian rescuers who ‘braved burning oil, strafing aircraft and huge explosions from ships in Darwin harbour to pull their comrades to safety.’ (pxii)

How did this come about? Well, partly because Darwin was a frontier town, with hopeless administration and far from adequate defences. When it copped the full brunt of a surprise Japanese airforce attack to rival Pearl Harbour there was no hope of any plausible defence. It was common sense to get out of their way – and yet some did not. The courage of those people should not be overlooked because others did not share it.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2009/03/22/a...

BTW I listened to most of this as an audiobook, but I also borrowed the print copy so that I could quote from it.

[Geoff Wooldridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Grose has done a very good job in researching and bringing together, in a coherent and entertaining way, various accounts, many unreliable and self-serving of the bombing of Darwin by a large Japanese air armada on 19 February 1942.

It is a sad tale, not only of destruction and considerable loss of life, but also of unpreparedness, incompetence and a stunning lack of leadership at many levels. However, there are certainly stories of individual heroism and determination, especially by the anti-aircraft gunnery crews.

It remains a national shame that this event, and the subsequent62 Japanese air attacks on Darwin, and a total of 97 raids across northern Australia, is not better known by Australians. It was, in many respects, a bigger event than Pearl Harbor. It really should be given more prominence in the school history curriculum.

However, for me it was also a personal family story. Among the civilians killed in the initial raid were the Post Master, his wife and 21 year old daughter. They were my father's uncle, aunt (mother's sister) and cousin. They were obliterated when the Post Office and the slit trench in which they were taking refuge took a direct hit from a 250 kilogram bomb.

[Alyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly engaging recount of the events in Darwin during February, 1942. Grose favours a highly accessible style of writing that provides the necessary information without resorting to dryness. The result is an informative and respectful account of events that are largely forgotton or ignored by the world to this day.

There are no evil personalities in the course of these events and Grose presents a balanced view of the utterly human nature of the leaders, military ranks and civilians during this period. I came away remembering the heroics and the cowardice equally. It was, and remains, impossible to vilify people for their actions when the overwhelming nature of events is presents to obviously.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

To read my full review click here
No Spoilers
Despite the fact that this is a non-fiction, historical documentary style book, Peter Grose does a steraling job of keeping it interesting and avoids the usual dryness one gets in these books. It is written in such a way that the reader feels compelled to keep turning the pages and before no time will find themselves at the end and far richer for it.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good account of a sadly rather neglected part of Australian history. The author does a good job in dispelling some of the myths associated witht the first two raid. There are some errors, whilst they don't detract from the over all work, are enough to be slightly annoying for the avid military history buff. For example Hong Kong fell on Christmas day 1941, not 18 Dec. Kittyhawks were armed with .50 cal MGs, not 50mm and General George C Marshall was not head of the USAAF.

[Mark Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting read. Being in Darwin on the 70th anniversary of the bombings, I thought I would immerse myself in the history of one of the most significant events of the city. I was amazed at how little I actually knew about the bombing of Darwin. Grose has researched his book well and I would recommend this to anybody who has an interest in WWII history.

[Cai · Rating 4 out of 5]

At some points, I found the book a little hard to read but that may be due to the fact that I don't often read the military history books. It was very informative and as I am living in Darwin it was great to know the places they are talking about.

*I selected this for a Reading Challenge as a book that takes place in my hometown*

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew only a little of what happened when Darwin was bombed in WWII. Very interesting read with lots of personal details. The problem with leadership or lack of came across loud and clear.

[Peter Metcalfe]

A telling expose of the truth about the bombing of Darwin in WW2 and Australia's lack of preparedness for the event and a lesson for the whole of Australia especially the politicians.

[Claire Holman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. It was amazing to learn the facts behind the Darwin bombing story.
A pity we did not learn this through history lessons at school.
Well researched, and very readable.