Australia Under Attack The Bombing of Darwin 1942

2022 marks 80 years since Australia faced an unprecedented foreign attack on home soil. Author Douglas Lockwood was an Australian newspaperman and author. Born in Natimuk, 25 kilometres west of Horsham in Victoria’ s Wimmera district, Lockwood left school at 12 to help run his father’ s newspaper, the weekly West Wimmera Mail, at the height of the Great Depression. With his father’ s blessing he left home at 16 and worked as a reporter on rural Victorian papers in Camperdown, Tatura and Mildura before being hired by Sir Keith Murdoch in 1941 as a journalist on The Herald in Melbourne. He stayed with The Herald’ s parent company, the Herald and Weekly Times (HWT), for the rest of his life. At the end of 1941, during World War II, he was sent to Darwin with his new wife, Ruth , and was there for the first Japanese attack on Australia on 19 February 1942. While Douglas was there and was able to share his personal story he also Interviewed American’ s Japanese and other nations who took part. He was able to meet & interview former airmen who had flown against the Japanese that day and been shot down. He tells the story of the Bombing of Darwin.

Douglas Wright Lockwood (9 July 1918 – 21 December 1980) was an Australian newspaperman and author. Born in Natimuk, 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of Horsham in Victoria's Wimmera district, Lockwood left school at 12 to help run his father's newspaper, the weekly West Wimmera Mail, at the height of the Great Depression. With his father's blessing he left home at 16 and worked as a reporter on rural Victorian papers in Camperdown, Tatura and Mildura before being hired by Sir Keith Murdoch in 1941 as a journalist on The Herald in Melbourne.

Author’ s Note vii Introduction ix Chapter 1. The Japanese Task Force 1 2. The Irresolute Evacuation 10 3. The Warnings Ignored 18 4. The Aerodromes: Raid 1 24 5. Pearl Harbor Parallel 34 6. The Much Maligned Wharfies 52 7. The Militia Tested 68 8. The Silent Lines 76 9. Death and Escape at Government House 86 10. “ All Patients Under Beds!” 100 11. R.A.A.F. – Second Raid 110 12. “ Kill Twenty Japs Each!” 117 13. The Adelaide River Stakes 123 14. The Forsaken Aborigines 140 15. Aftermath 151 1. The Military Inquest 151 2. The Civil Inquest 158 3. Reckoning for the Japanese 161 Bibliography 168 Appendixes I Civilian Evacuation Order 169 II Fate of the Reverend Leonard Kentish 171 III Attack on Florence D and Catalina 173 IV Japanese Aircraft Used and Lost 175 V Japanese Activity near Darwin before February 19, 1942 177 VI Japanese Air-raids on Darwin after February 19, 1942 178 Index 179