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Fifty four Axis surface raiders and submarines (both German and Japanese) carried out these attacks, sinking 53 merchant ships and three warships within the Australia Station, resulting in the deaths of over 1,751 Allied military personnel, sailors and civilians. A further 88 civilians were killed in air raids.
List of conflicts in Australia is a timeline of events that includes wars, battles, rebellions, skirmishes, massacres, riots, and other related events that have occurred in the country of Australia's current geographical area, both before and after federation.
The explosion of the MV Neptuna, hit during the first Japanese air raid on Darwin.In the foreground is HMAS Deloraine, which escaped damage.. The bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942 was both the first and the largest attack mounted by Japan against mainland Australia, when four Japanese aircraft carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū and Sōryū) launched a total of 188 aircraft from a position in ...
Australia entered World War II on 3 September 1939, following the government's acceptance of the United Kingdom's declaration of war on Nazi Germany. Australia later entered into a state of war with other members of the Axis powers, including the Kingdom of Italy on 11 June 1940, [1] and the Empire of Japan on 9 December 1941. [2]
The Bombing of Darwin, also known as the Battle of Darwin, [4] on 19 February 1942 was the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia. [5] On that day, 242 Japanese aircraft, in two separate raids, attacked the town, ships in Darwin Harbour and the town's two airfields in an attempt to prevent the Allies from using them as bases to contest the invasion of Timor and Java ...
In February 1944, the Combined Fleet, the Imperial Japanese Navy's main striking force, withdrew from its base at Truk in the Central Pacific to Palau and Singapore. The appearance of a powerful naval force at Singapore alarmed the Allies, as it was feared that these ships would conduct raids into the Indian Ocean and against Western Australia. [9]
Komet re-entered the Australia Station in April en route to New Zealand, and Atlantis sailed east through the southern extreme of the Australia Station in August. [29] Until November, the only casualties from Axis ships on the Australia Station in 1941 were caused by mines laid by Pinguin in 1940.
Japanese propaganda was produced at the time to spread the idea of invasion or bombing of southern Australian cities. [12] Authorities were attempting to allay fears a month before the Darwin bombings. [13] The events surrounding the bombings and response by authorities in northern Australia were referred to as "Japanese Scare" tactics. [14] [15]