The bombing of Darwin and subsequent war years are covered in depth in the latest edition of Progenitor, journal of the Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory . It makes use of documents from the wide ranging collection of public servant and researcher, the late Vern O'Brien .
Of particular note is the account written in 1980 of the "Darwin Blitz" of February 1942 by Lieutenant Commander T.F. Roberts , captain of HMAS Vigilant at the time of the Japanese attack . His version started off by listing books on the subject . Only one of these , Darwin 1942, published in l980, had access to official reports of the attack . The inference seems to be that the part played by his vessel on that terrible day did not receive a mention . His account was not meant as a critique of the earlier books , but were his recollections at age 70 . It is slightly abridged, paraphrased .
Vigilant, under his command, was based at Darwin in May 1941. carrying out survey and patrol duties . The NT Administrator Charles Lydiard Aubrey Abbott had come aboard when the Vigilant went to the aid of Karu, a government vessel , when it became stranded north of Bathurst Island and had to be towed back to Darwin .
In January l942 , the ship had carried depth charges to HMAS Deloraine after it sunk a Japanese submarine , mines laid by the submarine washed up at Gunn Point , one of which had been made safe and flown to Flinders Naval Depot in Victoria for examination by experts.
Soon after , at night , Captain Roberts had piloted into port the 12,000 ton passenger liner SS President Grant, fleeing from Manila , the skipper having no charts for Australian waters . Author Douglas Lockwood , in Australia's Pearl Harbour, wrote that a map from a National Geographic Magazine had assisted the vessel make Darwin . The vessel then evacuated women and children to Brisbane .
A few nights before the first raid on Darwin , the Vigilant had taken up a position to assist a returning convoy led by USS Houston . When the Japanese attacked on February 19, Captain Roberts was aboard HMAS Platypus and quickly returned to his ship to find it ready for action and ordered it to move from the mooring buoy.
At full speed , it headed for open water, as bombs exploded "everywhere". He shouted down the voice pipe for the wireless telegraphist in the wheelhouse to enter everything he said in the ship's log book.
Where possible , this included compass bearings on ships burning and sinking. This record, he wrote, was probably the most comprehensive account of what happened in the harbour . At the time of recalling the raid , he thought the ship's log book had subsequently been used at a Navy inquiry , if not at the Royal Commission conducted by Judge Lowe. The log book "cannot now be found in the Naval Archives ."
At full speed , it headed for open water, as bombs exploded "everywhere". He shouted down the voice pipe for the wireless telegraphist in the wheelhouse to enter everything he said in the ship's log book.
Where possible , this included compass bearings on ships burning and sinking. This record, he wrote, was probably the most comprehensive account of what happened in the harbour . At the time of recalling the raid , he thought the ship's log book had subsequently been used at a Navy inquiry , if not at the Royal Commission conducted by Judge Lowe. The log book "cannot now be found in the Naval Archives ."
The Progenitor article includes details of the Vigilant going to the aid of the badly damaged and shot up US transport Port Mar . Captain Roberts suggested the stricken vessel beach on the leper island . With the assistance of HMAS Deloraine , all hands , including dead and wounded were removed. Stretcher cases had been transferred to the hospital ship HMAS Manunda and walking wounded and corpses landed at the boom jetty .
By 10pm, Captain Roberts was totally exhausted after 12 hours on the bridge . The next morning he was directed to fix the positions of wrecked ships - British Motorist, Meigs, Mauna Loa , Zealandia and others : "I could not locate the USS Peary , which had been literally murdered by the dive bombers and sank stern first in a lake of burning oil , the gunners on the foredeck going down fighting in the tradition of Sir Richard Grenville in the Revenge ."
Captain Roberts was then directed to the US freighter Admiral Halstead which lay at anchor loaded with 14,000 drums of high octane fuel which had been deserted by most hands except for the master and mate . Steam was raised , and Captain Roberts piloted the vessel to the boom jetty where the cargo was discharged and American trucks took it away .
Commenting on the fact that Darwin had not reacted to a warning message from the Bathurst Island Mission that a large flight of planes was heading towards Darwin , he said had the alert been given ships in the harbour could have raised steam , gun crews made ready . Instead , Darwin had been caught pants down, as at Pearl Harbour . He was critical that the hospital ship Manunda had been placed in the middle of the warships anchorage , because of this blunder it had sustained considerable damage and casualties .
Again from the Vern O'Brien papers is the substantial diary kept by the Mayor of Darwin ,J. B. Burton , from the first raid on February 19,l942 through to the last one on November 12, l943.
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Japanese salvage operations in Darwin .
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