An Awkward Truth: The bombing of Darwin, February 1942Allen & Unwin, 1. 2. 2009 - Počet stran: 272 Darwin was a battle Australia would rather forget. Yet the Japanese attack on 19 February 1942 was the first wartime assault on Australian soil. The Japanese struck with the same carrier-borne force that devastated Pearl Harbor only ten weeks earlier. There was a difference. More bombs fell on Darwin, more civilians were killed, and more ships were sunk. The raid led to the worst death toll from any event in Australia. The attackers bombed and strafed three hospitals, flattened shops, offices and the police barracks, shattered the Post Office and communications centre, wrecked Government House, and left the harbour and airfields burning and ruined. The people of Darwin abandoned their town, leaving it to looters, a few anti-aircraft batteries and a handful of dogged defenders with single-shot .303 rifles. Yet the story has remained in the shadows. Drawing on long-hidden documents and first-person accounts, Peter Grose tells what really happened and takes us into the lives of the people who were there. There was much to be proud of in Darwin that day: courage, mateship, determination and improvisation. But the dark side of the story involves looting, desertion and a calamitous failure of leadership. Australians ran away because they did not know what else to do. Absorbing, spirited and fast-paced, An Awkward Truth is a compelling and revealing story of the day war really came to Australia, and the motley bunch of soldiers and civilians who were left to defend the nation. |
Obsah
1 | |
10 | |
Horribly strained relations | 27 |
One suitcase one small calico bag | 41 |
No place and no time for argument | 52 |
The judge sums up | 63 |
Convoy for Koepang to return to Darwin | 72 |
Zeroes Zeroes Zeroes | 82 |
The military takes over | 162 |
Telling the world | 172 |
Not many dead | 188 |
Post mortem | 194 |
Whatever happened to ? | 210 |
Evacuation notice | 217 |
Report of the Lowe Commission | 221 |
Acknowledgements | 238 |
QQQ QQQ QQQ de VZDN | 95 |
Between the raids Can anyone drive? | 118 |
The second raid Chinese whispers | 132 |
Things go badly wrong | 151 |
Notes | 244 |
Bibliography | 250 |
Index | 252 |
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An Awkward Truth: The Bombing of Darwin, February 1942 Peter Grose Náhled není k dispozici. - 2009 |
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