Broome’s One Day War; The Story of the Japanese Raid on Broome, 3rd March 1942

Updated and expanded edition of W.A.’s Pearl Harbour, published 1985. 45 p. : ill., 1 map, ports ; 22 cm. #0721 World War, 1939-1945 — Western Australia — Broome — Aerial operations, Japanese.  |  Japanese — Western Australia — Broome.  |  Broome (W.A.) — History — Bombardment, 1942.

The town of Broome, Western Australia, was attacked by Japanese fighter planes on 3 March 1942, during World War II. At least 88 civilians and Allied military personnel were killed.

Although Broome was a small pearling port at the time, it was also a refuelling point for aircraft, on the route between the Netherlands East Indies and major Australian cities. As a result, Broome was on a line of flight for Dutch and other refugees, following the Japanese invasion of Java, and had become a significant Allied military base. During a two-week period in February–March 1942, more than a thousand refugees from the Dutch East Indies—many of them in flying boats, which often served as airliners at the time—passed through Broome.^[1]