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Australia's Pearl Harbor.


Eldorado

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It's 70 years since Japanese bombers swooped on Darwin, in northern Australia, sinking Allied ships in the harbour and killing hundreds of people. For years the attack was rarely mentioned, but now the story is finally being told.

Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17073472

Lest We Forget.

Edited by Eldorado
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It's 70 years since Japanese bombers swooped on Darwin, in northern Australia, sinking Allied ships in the harbour and killing hundreds of people. For years the attack was rarely mentioned, but now the story is finally being told.

Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17073472

Lest We Forget.

I was unaware of this until I saw the movie AUSTRALIA. Very good movie BTW

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Members of my family were assigned to Darwin, only after the attack though.

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They also attacked Sydney harbour with miniature submarines, which probably not too many know about.

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Remember the Alamo, for it achieves the right mindset for a NEW war, somewhere, for some trivial reason. :devil:

We must justify the deaths of the past with many deaths in the future.

Edited by Babe Ruth
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Remember the Alamo, for it achieves the right mindset for a NEW war, somewhere, for some trivial reason. :devil:

We must justify the deaths of the past with many deaths in the future.

Kind of a stretch there Babe. Are you saying there is no other legitimate reason to study history? People do have a tendency to repeat mistakes they don't learn from. I can attest to that one personally :w00t:

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They also attacked Sydney harbour with miniature submarines, which probably not too many know about.

Indeed they did, 3 miniature submarines entered the harbour, 2 never left it, 1 remained a mystery until only about 6 years ago. A couple of recreational divers found the last sub, which never made it back to the mother sub.

LINK ABC CATALYST - MIDGET SUBS

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Kind of a stretch there Babe. Are you saying there is no other legitimate reason to study history? People do have a tendency to repeat mistakes they don't learn from. I can attest to that one personally :w00t:

No, I'm not saying that. Indeed, we SHOULD study history. If only our leaders would change their behavior based upon the lessons of history.

My point was that war and aggression are part of the human condition, and glorified in the media.

Is that a lesson we might learn from recent history?

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Remember the Alamo, for it achieves the right mindset for a NEW war, somewhere, for some trivial reason. :devil:

We must justify the deaths of the past with many deaths in the future.

Since when is remembering the past and honouring people who died protecting their family and friends a bad thing? :huh: Hell since when was the Alamo ever used to justify a modern war? Your comment has zero to do with the subject the thread is talking about.

On topic it's good that the attack is getting more attention. Given that Pearl Harbour was a major operation and had such far reaching consequences it tends to overshadow everything else that happened in that timeframe.

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There'd be a lot more Teppanyaki Restaurants around Sydney now if it wasn't for allied victories in the Battle of the Coral Sea and a few years later at Guadalcanal. Great tribute and honor to US and Aussie soldiers who sacrificed their young lives for a just cause against the oppressive and fanatical Govt of Japan at the time.

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It's 70 years since Japanese bombers swooped on Darwin, in northern Australia, sinking Allied ships in the harbour and killing hundreds of people. For years the attack was rarely mentioned, but now the story is finally being told.

Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17073472

Lest We Forget.

:tu:

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I always thought that one of General MacArthur's greatest flaws was his dismissive attitude toward the sacrifices of the Aussies...

I had heard about the attack on Darwin but had never heard about the Sydney attack....

Glad you posted this Eldorado...

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A good thing the Japanese never concentrated on destroying the oil storage facilities at Pearl, had they been destroyed Australia likely would have fallen, as the US Pacific Fleet would have been restricted in its operations. But the opposition would have been fierce to an invasion.

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A good thing the Japanese never concentrated on destroying the oil storage facilities at Pearl, had they been destroyed Australia likely would have fallen, as the US Pacific Fleet would have been restricted in its operations. But the opposition would have been fierce to an invasion.

I wouldn't envy anyone who tries to invade Austrailia...

if the Japanese had been in position to quickly follow-up the Pearl attacks with an Invasion, they might well have taken the islands (owing to the total confusion and damage done)... I still don't think they could have won the war in the end, but it would have been a lot longer and a lot costlier...

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A good thing the Japanese never concentrated on destroying the oil storage facilities at Pearl, had they been destroyed Australia likely would have fallen, as the US Pacific Fleet would have been restricted in its operations. But the opposition would have been fierce to an invasion.

It's my understanding that, at the time the war first broke out, Australia was earmarked for an all out land/sea/air invasion by Japan and the governments of Australia and the US knew it. Australia only had about 450,000 troops ready to defend the country and Japan saw Australia as an easy strategic target to overtake and use to protect the Asian oil fields. I'll have to agree though, they would have had a more difficult time at achieving that then they bargained for.

Indeed they did, 3 miniature submarines entered the harbour, 2 never left it, 1 remained a mystery until only about 6 years ago. A couple of recreational divers found the last sub, which never made it back to the mother sub.

LINK ABC CATALYST - MIDGET SUBS

Hey psyche, good to see you my friend! Great link, I wasn't aware Japan used the mini-sub to attack Australia. Thanks! 5 mini-sub were deployed at Pearl Harbor also.

Japan"s WWII mini sub.

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This is interesting to learn. I've been reading James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific (on which the musical South Pacific is based) and never really realised how close all those islands are to Australia. I've gotten fed up of most of the WWII stuff out there - like on television and such - because it focuses so much on what I know, it's like beating a dead horse. I like learning about the not-so-well-known stuff like this.

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They also attacked Sydney harbour with miniature submarines, which probably not too many know about.

not to forget that one of them "got" harold holt :rolleyes:

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The Japanese attack on Darwin happened 10 weeks after Pearl Harbor. The planes came from the same aircraft carriers that attacked Pearl and were flown by the same crews.

The Darwin attack was not an attempt to invade Australia. The Japanese were heading down towards Papua New Guinea and they wanted to take out any Australian air bases that could have caused them a problem.

More ships were sunk in Darwin harbor than at Pearl but far more lives were lost at Pearl.

When you think about it, the Japanese really were planning their moves carefully.

Midget subs were sent to other ports besides Sydney - Singapore for example.

The Japanese couldn't sustain their advance because they just didn't have the raw materials

to create new planes, new ships.

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The Japanese attack on Darwin happened 10 weeks after Pearl Harbor. The planes came from the same aircraft carriers that attacked Pearl and were flown by the same crews.

The Darwin attack was not an attempt to invade Australia. The Japanese were heading down towards Papua New Guinea and they wanted to take out any Australian air bases that could have caused them a problem.

More ships were sunk in Darwin harbor than at Pearl but far more lives were lost at Pearl.

When you think about it, the Japanese really were planning their moves carefully.

Midget subs were sent to other ports besides Sydney - Singapore for example.

The Japanese couldn't sustain their advance because they just didn't have the raw materials

to create new planes, new ships.

It was kind of like a vicious circle; one of the main reasons for wanting to take over most of south-east Asia was to secure supplies of raw materials (particuarly oil), but once they'd done that, the supply lines were very vulnerable (to submarines in particular), and so it was the shortage of raw materials that meant that production couldn't keep up, and eventually the air force was more or less grounded because there was no fuel.

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It was kind of like a vicious circle; one of the main reasons for wanting to take over most of south-east Asia was to secure supplies of raw materials (particuarly oil), but once they'd done that, the supply lines were very vulnerable (to submarines in particular), and so it was the shortage of raw materials that meant that production couldn't keep up, and eventually the air force was more or less grounded because there was no fuel.

You're absolutely right. In the end, all they had left were the God awful kamikaze planes. Midway wiped out most of their carrier fleet and that was what the Japanese relied on the most. Destroy the carriers and you destroy their attack capability. I do believe that if the Japanese had got a foothold on the Australian continent, MacArthur was prepared to pull out all troops and leave the top 3rd of the country undefended. He would then launch a major counterattack. But I seriously doubt that any Japanese troops circa 41/42 would have lasted long in remote northern Australia.

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There was certainly great apprehension in the north of Australia in early 1942 about the likelihood of invasion, houses could be bought for as little as 50 pounds in Townsville, I heard. :blink:

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The documentary 'The Bombing of Darwin: An Awkward Truth that was screened on History Channel, 19th Feb, says it as it really was. The lack of info in the history books over the Bombing of Darwin was because a lot of what happened that day was deliberatley covered up. It had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor over shadowing Darwin's bombing. A few butts were on the line so the powers to be were going to make sure they covered them, and for a very long time. Like 70 years. A couple important things were not mentioned in the article. Civilians in Darwin were silenced, their letters censored. Soldiors warned not to speak of what happened; medals given in the 90's. The only reason it is spoken of now is most who witnessed it are dead or people just don't care it happened so long ago.

Most of the troops had never fired an anti aircraft gun before. Alot of the weapons and guns were locked away. So many had no guns or ammo on hand when the planes arrived. One of the soldiers said sarcastically that he had no ammo for his gun and perhaps saying 'bang' would do. They did not do military exercises in preparation for any attacks as there were fears of upsetting the general public of Darwin with all the noise.

It has been so covered up that you'd not know that Darwin was bombed because we are as vulnerable today as we were in the forties. We have the old broken cement gun holders on the coast line as a tourist attraction. There is only one road out of Darwin for a population of 80,000+. The air port is really small. Another big blasted joke. We have a military base, like in the 40's. This place is a death trap. I live outside of Darwin for good reasons. The place is run by incompetant robot government workers who are mostly cowards. I can just see them in a situation of being attacked. Most have a total inability to think for themselves in order to help others.

We have one delivery train that comes and goes called the Ghan.

The hospital is another major joke. Poorly run and headed by a bunch of deimy god head doctors with the majority holding little respect for the nursing staff who are the real ones that keep the hospital running. The Private hospital is not much better.

Our power facility is old and about to collapse.

We have the highest rate of alcoholism, domestic violence, illiteracy, drug addiction, suicide, murder, mental illness and homelessness per capita.

USA sending 2500 troops here over a period of 5 years is another great joke. Above the Northern Territory we have 280,000 Indonesian troops and do not be fooled, they do not like the West and they want the off shore gas like eveyone else. The USA only sending troops because of the gas actually. But when crunch comes to crunch American will not waste its troops on Australia. USA uses Australia for the sole purpose of being able to station troops in the Asian Pacific region with Australia's blessing.

Australia only has about 30 million population. Its people are expendible. Only a few of us have guns and most don't know how to fire one. And most don't know the basics for survival.

We've only 81,000 troops for the whole of Australia.

Like they say. War's first casualty is truth. It always has been and always will be.

So wish you all could have seen the documentary on the 19th.

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There was certainly great apprehension in the north of Australia in early 1942 about the likelihood of invasion, houses could be bought for as little as 50 pounds in Townsville, I heard. :blink:

Lol. NO the land and houses here were cheap because no one wanted to live here. Townsville loooooooooooooong way from Darwin. Darwin was and still is considered a back water. At the time of the bombing most did not believe the NT would be bombed. And even if it were they did not want to leave. It is true that the populace favorite past time was drinking and still is...along with fishing. Many came to Darwin to escape the law and get drunk. And full of government workers and still is.

Army personal hate being sent up here. It is hot, humid, expensive and mostly boring for the average person. It is still a town, IMO and in the opinion of others, but some still insist calling Darwin a city. Hey, they call the younger Palmerson jsut outside of Darwin a city also, it doesnt' even have its own hospital and I hvae to travel to Darwin tomorrow because I can not even buy a mobile phone charger that one of my darling dogs chewed up this evening, lol. And we have a 'city' yet to be build near Palmerston and it is already being called a city. Now it is really expensive to live here not because it is a great place to live but the real estate agents and landlords bleed the general public for every cent they can get out of us as they have no competition and we've no where else to go.

Most of those I know have to hold down two jobs just to survive. This is not a tropical paradise. The Local Government lie to people to entice them here with job offers and contracts that they can not break once here. The amount of people I've met who said once their contracts run out they are catching the first plane out.

I long for the good old days of 1974 before cyclone Tracy raised the place :cry: .

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Lol. NO the land and houses here were cheap because no one wanted to live here. Townsville loooooooooooooong way from Darwin. Darwin was and still is considered a back water. At the time of the bombing most did not believe the NT would be bombed. And even if it were they did not want to leave. It is true that the populace favorite past time was drinking and still is...along with fishing. Many came to Darwin to escape the law and get drunk. And full of government workers and still is.

Army personal hate being sent up here. It is hot, humid, expensive and mostly boring for the average person. It is still a town, IMO and in the opinion of others, but some still insist calling Darwin a city. Hey, they call the younger Palmerson jsut outside of Darwin a city also, it doesnt' even have its own hospital and I hvae to travel to Darwin tomorrow because I can not even buy a mobile phone charger that one of my darling dogs chewed up this evening, lol. And we have a 'city' yet to be build near Palmerston and it is already being called a city. Now it is really expensive to live here not because it is a great place to live but the real estate agents and landlords bleed the general public for every cent they can get out of us as they have no competition and we've no where else to go.

Most of those I know have to hold down two jobs just to survive. This is not a tropical paradise. The Local Government lie to people to entice them here with job offers and contracts that they can not break once here. The amount of people I've met who said once their contracts run out they are catching the first plane out.

I long for the good old days of 1974 before cyclone Tracy raised the place :cry: .

Are you glad you got all that off your chest? lol :)

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