大象传媒

The thing that brought the War home to Australia was the Japanese raid on Darwin in 1942, in which about 300 people were killed and communications were therefore cut off. The subsequent raid on Broone in western Australia saw the flying boats out of the East Indies shot to ribbons. This attack was at the extreme end of the Japanese fighters range. There were many additional rades but none as davastrating as the first at Darwin, and I think it was in this rade that the first Japanese serviceman was captured on Australian soil. I mayself at the time was living in Monto. I was an aircrew trainee but not long after D-day aircrew training ceased. It was about 6 months before the war was over that training ceased for unqualified people so we didn't get a wing or half-wing. I never saw any action and very few people born after January 1926 would have seen any action in the air force, although some would have seen some action in the navy. They wouldn't let me transfer from the airfore to the navy at that time.

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