The Murdoch owned Townsville Bulletin , in a military garrison city in North Queensland , recently shot itself in the foot by running a photo said to show a downed Japanese plane guarded in Townsville during WWll . In fact it was not Japanese and in the Middle East. This clanger resulted in the paper receiving another broadside from the low flying Townsville Magpie, a devilish, dashing bird , a mix of Biggles and the Red Baron, who strafes city mugwumps online .
During the war Tokyo Rose , thought to have been as many as 12 English speaking women , taunted troops in the Pacific with Japanese propaganda radio reports, often exaggerated .
For example , in dealing with the small number of attacks on Townsville , the official RAAF LOG , published for the RAAF by the Australian War Memorial , Canberra, in 1943 , said the Townsville mainland base had received three raids, the first on July 25, by three four-engine Kawanisi flying boats. All their bombs fell harmlessly into the sea.
Two more equally ineffective raids followed within a week, and some days later an announcer on shortwave in Tokyo, with a flair for fiction that provided amusement for the supposed victims broadcast this "news":
" On July 25-26 a large formation of Japanese bombers raided the port of Townsville on the north-east coast of Queensland. Bombs were dropped on the docks , airfields and oil dumps . On July 28 and 29 Townsville was again raided and bombs were dropped on military objectives and the city . When large fires were witnessed the raiders returned to their base. These are the largest Japanese raids since the fall of Singapore."
