During the pomp and ceremony associated with the official opening of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly-part of the self government celebrations- the Governor–General, Sir Zelman Cowen, recalled how he had dived for cover during the fateful February 19, 1942 Japanese attack on Darwin. A junior naval officer, he had arrived in Darwin in late 1941 when the Naval Officer In Charge of the Northern Territory was Captain Ernest Penry Thomas.
Cowen had been on duty when a signal came through about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Captain Thomas was asleep at the time , so Cowen , “ fearful” of the officer, decided not to wake him and break the momentous news. Not long after , Cowen told the Assembly , he (Cowen) had to dive for cover in a gutter when the Japanese pounded the city and harbour.
Recently looking back on notes connected with Sir Zelman’s speech, I wondered just who was this Captain Thomas who scared the pants off his junior rating and could not be disturbed from his slumber to be informed about the day of infamy that caught the mighty American fleet off guard.
Captain Thomas had come to Australia from Britain as Commander ( second in charge )of HMAS Canberra and at the age of 52 was NOIC Brisbane . His reign as the Territory naval chief was from January 1,1940 to Feb 21 ,1942 . Googling revealed interesting additional information. It seems Captain Thomas may have been something of a stern old salt . The Journal of Australian Naval History Vol. 3, No. 1 contains details of how Lieutenant Syd Sharp was subjected to the eccentricities and attitudes of senior officers , one being Captain Thomas. Sharp received lessons under the tutelage of the”ancient” Lieutenant Commander Hoskings RN and the “affable “ ( and thirsty ) Lieutenant Commander Horace Thompson in l940.
Thompson instructed Sharp to sit down and drink scotch. Sharp, according to the Journal , also learnt an early lesson about the contagious effect of thwarted ambition as he witnessed Thompson’s hostility over the promotion of Farncomb and Collins( after whom our subs are named ) even though he ( Thompson ) passed out ahead of them at RAN College.Thompson resigned in 1943 “ a bitterly disappointed man”.
Lieutenant Sharp ,who had undergone antisubmarine officer training , was sent to HMAS Melville, Darwin, as a watch keeper in January 1941. Captain Thomas, however, had different plans , and sent him out for several months of mine sweeping experience. Back watch keeping at East Point the day of the attack , Sharp had just finished breakfast, heard planes and expressed relief that it was “the Yanks” coming to help us. The navy man said after the attack, in which he lost some friends, they had been left to scrounge for food and had to trap wild geese and catch fish with traps made from “purloined “ wire netting.
The Journal continues: Captain Thomas was transferred to Brisbane days after the first bombing. He was told of the Japanese air armada spotted over Bathurst Island beforehand and was apparently convinced that Darwin was about to have “visitors”, but neglected to disperse the fleet lying at anchor or de-congest the bottleneck at the wharf . His indecision was noted at the subsequent Royal Commission but Thomas’ s two year posting to Darwin had come to an end anyway.
