WOW! Bombing of Darwin...

Yes today marks the 71st anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin...Its the FIRST year it will be nationally observed. Working in town and just a couple of hundred feet from the cenotaph, i went down to see the comemoration...WELL! I walk down there and i hear a scary sound...the sound of a radial engine, farting its way overhead, i look up and there, no more than 80 feet above me is a Wirraway, its folded wheels looking down at me...an outline very similar to a Japanese Zero...And chasing hard behind it was a cute little Tiger... : )
WW2 jazz music was being pumped out by the army band, and the sweat began to run down my face...at 9:58 exactly an air-raid siren groaned into life, splitting the silence down at the esplanade...three 105 Howitzers opened up, booming their resistance across the harbour...simultaneously four F/18s in super tight formation roared no more than 500 feet above...still the siren screamed, still the guns fired...and a single F/18 dove on our position, reaching 500 feet, the aircraft pulled up hard and rockected straight upward like a spurned rocket, turning turning turning as it gained altitude. - Im excited! : )

 

Still housebound, Rog?

 

I was there in Darwin 20 years ago to this day. Some considerable time after a Cyclone.
I could have sworn not a stone was moved (since WW2.)

 

Inside yes...outside is just a broad smile...The forces did Darwin and their fallen members proud. The US was well represented as usual, as far as im concerned its partly their day also...

 

Somebody has found a new source of Smiley's.

 

The whole attack told in smilie language...


:aa_japan: :FUallplz:anic::smg: :aa_japan:

Good to see this event has now become a national commemoration

 

This Sunday the 19th of February marks the 75th anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin...just as we find a Japanese fuel tank, sits under a zero, in Darwin this week too...a reminder that its still with us. 75 years since Darwin lost some of its innocence - and gave birth to thousands of stories and personalities.

 

I imagine that the temperature is much higher than that, 70-80 F is winter weather and it is summer time.

Fred I was there in the aftermath of cyclone Tracy and worked on some of the re-building. Acres and acres of only the framing to the first floor and the rest gone. BIG WIND.

KTK

 

Yep...just the floor and a toilet survived from our house. 200mph plus winds...The cyclone headed for Darwin and then veered off...so everyone drew a sigh of relief...then late at night on Christmas eve as everyone slept...she veered back again and wiped us out.

Darwin has an average yearly temp of 32C don't know what that is in F...but its the 90% humidity that kills you...don't know humidity? Go sit in a sauna for 20 minutes...

 

It is the 19th again...marking the 76th anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin...a nice story in todays paper.

Veterans look back on Bombing of Darwin in sadness and in pride

and

Solemn crowds remember Bombing of Darwin

 

77th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin today...eventually 64 attacks, same group that bombed Pearl Harbour...dropped more bombs on Darwin than Pearl.


Gun brought up from the USS Peary which still lies in Darwin Harbour...this gun is her monument.

Why doesn't more of Australia know about the bombing of Darwin?

A scene form the movie Australia - Bombing of Darwin...I like the Larrakeya elder standing watching the carnage...

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Say again? over...

Is bombed American for pissed?

 

That's not a scene from Australia...It's a bad hatchet job of several scenes from "Tora Tora Tora"

 

Bombed = Drunk

 

Well you got the bad hatchet job right...Australia was an aweful movie.

Pissed = Drunk

 

I forget, where were the American battleships in Darwin Harbor during the raid?