The Bombing of Darwin

The Bombing of Darwin, on 19 February 1942 was both the first and the biggest single attack mounted by a foreign power on Australia. 242 Japanese aircraft attacked ships in Darwin's harbour and the town's two airfields in an attempt to prevent the Allies from using them as bases to fight the invasions of Timor and Java. Darwin was only lightly defended and the Japanese inflicted heavy losses upon the Allied forces at little cost to themselves. The more urban areas of Darwin also suffered some damage from the raids and there were a number of civilian casualties.

In 1942, Darwin was a small town of 5,800 with limited civil and military infrastructure. Because its strategic position in northern Australia, the R.A.N and R.A.A.F had constructed bases near the town in the 1930s and the early years of World War II.
As early as August 1941 Darwin had been a key in the South Pacific air ferry route designed to avoid routes through the Japanese mandate in the central Pacific for bomber reinforcement of the Philippines. The first flight that used the route occurred when nine B-17D bombers of the 14th Bombardment Squadron left Hawaii on 5 September and passed through Darwin 10–12 September. By October 1941 plans were being hatched to position fuel and supplies with two ships, including, being chartered and actively engaged in that purpose when war came. By the time November 1941 came Australia had agreed to allow the establishment of training bases, communications maintenance facilities, , and improvement of airfields, including at Darwin, to tend to the needs of the B-17 bombers in Australia.
Following the outbreak of the Pacific War in early December 1941, Darwin's defences were reinforced . In line with plans developed before the war, s...

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... Harbour on 19 February: in total, 45 Allied warships and merchant vessels were in the harbour at the time of the raids. The warships included the United States Navy destroyer and seaplane tender . The RAN ships in port were the sloops and, corvettes and, auxiliary minesweepers and, patrol boat Coongoola, depot ship, examination vessel, lugger, and four boom-net ships. Several USN and Australian troop ships were in the harbour along with a number of merchant vessels of varying sizes. Most of the ships in the harbour were anchored near each other, making them an easy target for air attack. In addition to the vessels in port, the American Army supply ships Don Isidro and, Philippine vessels acquired as part of the South West Pacific Area command's permanent Army fleet earlier in February, were near Bathurst Island bound for the Philippines on the morning of the raid.