Bombs away

For military history tragics like me, Darwin is spectacularly interesting in that it is the only Australian city to have been bombed by a hostile force. In February 1942, the Japanese attacked Darwin with Zero fighters from the same fleet that attacked Pearl Harbour. Darwin was bombed more than 70 times in air raids; hundreds of people were killed, many buildings were blown up or burned out, and quite a few ships were sunk in the harbour. More bombs were dropped in Darwin than in Pearl Habour.

Darwin commemorates the bombing with memorials dotted about the city. Here are a few photos of the memorial on the Esplanade and one of the plaques at the entrance to the Civic Centre.

One local, Matthias Ulunguru, earned fame when he captured a downed Japanese pilot on Melville Island north of Darwin. He was the first person to take a prisoner of war on Australian soil. Afterwards he reported (I love the sang-froid of the man):

I walked after him and grabbed his wrist near gun. He got proper big fright. I take revolver from his right side near his knee. Then I walk backwards pointing gun, I say "Stick 'em up, two hands, no more holding hands on head."

I reckon anyone would have got a proper big fright, landing up in the reptile-infested Tiwis.

We spent one morning at the Military History Museum in East Point, nestled amongst lush vegetation and dotted with gun batteries and rusting machinery. We've been to Pearl Harbour in Hawaii – while the Darwin memorials are on a much smaller scale, the local experiences are commemorated in quite personal ways with a focus on individual stories.

Darwin is still a strategic military base in the Pacific. The US military has an ongoing presence in Darwin, with a few thousand US Marine Corps here on rotation. It's a bit contentious geopolitically.