Darwin, raid on

Darwin, raid on. Before landing on the Netherlands East Indies island of Java, on 1 March 1942, the Japanese disrupted the Allied Command's communications and supply route with Australia by raiding this northern Australian port. The strike force—four fleet carriers and an escort force which included two battleships—was under Vice-Admiral Nagumo, the same officer who had struck at Pearl Harbor. After arriving in the southern part of the Timor Sea at dawn on 19 February 1942, he launched 71 dive-bombers, 81 torpedo bombers, and 36 fighters against Darwin. These, co-ordinating with 54 bombers based on Japanese occupied territory in the Netherlands East Indies, achieved complete surprise and blew up an Australian troopship and a freighter discharging ammunition. The airport was then destroyed and the town was bombed and machine-gunned, starting several fires, before the raiders concentrated again on the shipping. One US destroyer was sunk and another damaged. Eight other ships were also sunk, many valuable stores and more than 200 lives were lost, and 18 aircraft were destroyed. The raid led to a panic flight of military personnel and civilians into the interior.

Nagumo lost only one aircraft and the Japanese subsequently thought they had used, in the words of Nagumo's biographer, Captain Matsushima Keizō, a sledgehammer to break an egg. Darwin was also subsequently raided on many occasions, but never with such devastating effect.