Red Sun on the Kangaroo Paw : Japanese air raids and attacks on Western Australia during World War II

AUSTRALIAN MILITARY West Australian World War II

Everyone knows that Darwin suffered Japanese air raids during world War II. Few are aware that Western Australia experienced raids on many more towns. The most devastating World War II attack in WA was at Roebuck Bay, near Broome, on March 3, 1942 with reports of 120 people dead. Other attacks were at Wyndham, Kalumburu, Derby, Onslow, Exmouth, Port Gregory and Port Hedland.

This missing piece of history is now told for the first time in this definitive account of those raids, conveying the fears of the time that Western Australia was under threat of a Japanese invasion. The World War II period in Western Australia especially from early 1942 until 1944 is still a relatively little known chapter of Australia’s history that has never been extensively explored. For most part the study of the extensive campaigns involving aerial raids on towns and centres in the North West that were conducted by the Japanese has never been fully exposed or examined. Basically so many people today just do not know. In the 21st century most of these locations are now more familiar as popular holiday or favourite fishing destinations. Very few are aware that at one time they were at the forefront of direct attack by aircraft from the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army Air Force. It is not fully known nor ever likely to be as to how many incursions, particularly aerial reconnaissance took place in the total vicinity of Western Australian skies and waters by the Japanese. whilst certain events are more well confirmed than others, reports however such as submarines recharging the batteries at night at Two Peoples Bay near Albany and Jurien Bay are not. The final death toll after the first air raid on Broome to this day is still unknown and probably will remain so. Whilst focus can be placed on more well-known intrigues elsewhere and overseas, so too does Western Australia possess some of its own wartime mysteries. Again Broome provides several examples of the most captivating. For example does a fortune in diamonds still life somewhere on the beach at Carnot Bay and if not, what happened to the rest of them!

Wyndham — Broome — Derby — Port Hedland — Onslow — Exmouth Gulf — Kalumburu — Port Gregory — Naval operations — Corunna Downs — Local defences — Other raids on Australia.

305 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.), ports., facsims. ; 29 cm. 3rd Edition #250324

• At the head of the title: “70th anniversary 1942-2012 & 1943-2013 commemorative edition”.
• Previously published: 2010.
• Includes bibliographical references.