First Attack! 26 July

At 12:40am on 26^th July 1942 two Japanese ‘Emily’ Flying boats (W-45 and W-46) captained by Asai and Sub Lieutenant Kiyoshi Mizukura bombed Townsville, dropping fifteen 250kg bombs.  They had left their base at Rabaul at 4:18pm the day before.  Confusion reigned in Townsville, where only minutes before city lights had been ablaze and revellers were still out drinking.  War had arrived.

This was the first of 3 such raids conducted by the Japanese. Five raids had been originally planned by the 2nd Group of 14th Kokutai (Air Group), Japanese Naval Air-Force, under the command of Major Misaburo Koizumi.

The bombs from this first raid landed near SS Bantam, SS Burwah and the HMAS Swan. Hastily trying to head out to see to escape, HMAS Swan and SS Time had a minor collision. The anti-aircraft guns on Magnetic Island seemingly did not fire, due to be ordered not to give away their positions.

Several of the bombs fell harmlessly into the harbour where the 2nd and 3rd sections of a Bomb Disposal Company were later sent to find evidence/ unexploded bombs. The squad was led by QX42377 Lieutenant William George Solomon Huxley of Wooloowin, Qld. As you can see their equipment and techniques of the time were rudimentary…. Ingenuity and bravery were often called into play.

Though not on the same scale as the 64 separate bombings of Darwin, for the residents of Townsville, it brought home that the war that was now right on Australia’s doorstep. Where previously the war had played out on nightly radio broadcasts, in distant lands with strange names, the war had well and truly arrived. A minor panic gripped the poputlation. Townsville at the time was the most important airbase in Australia and, by the end of the war, service personnel outnumbered Townsville residents 3 to 1. The historian McIntyre has described Townsville as one of the largest concentrations of airfields, stores, ammunition depots and port operations in the in the South West Pacific theatre.

Second Attack! 28 July

The second raid on Tuesday 28 July was conducted by a single plane, dropping eight bombs near the Many Peaks Range outside of the town. Again, one plane was flown by Sub Lieutenant Kiyoshi Mizukura. The other having turned back with engine trouble. This time the raider’s bombs fell harmlessly into the harbour or onto the ranges behind the town. The last bomb of the final raid landed at the racecourse, breaking windows in nearby houses. Incidentally, the final attack on the Queensland coast would occur at Miallo, near Mossman two nights later, the plane for this raid was again piloted by Mizakura.

 

Final attack! 29 July

The final attack took off from Rabaul  at 5pm. Once again a raider had to turn back with an engine problem. The other plane, Emily W-47, commanded by Kingo Shoji, with co-pilot Fukuki Morifuji, continued on alone.  This time the Australians and Americans were prepared.

This raid was perhaps the most significant of the three; A bomb fell close to a populated area, Allied fighters made contact and the whole thing was recorded for the ABC by Correspondent Chester Wilmot on Stanton Hill. The entire recording of the actual raid with Wilmot narrating still exists in the ABC archives. It is quite remarkable. You can listen to it here:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-06-08/archive-audio-eyewitness-report-of-japanese-air/1705516

3FSHQ at North Ward had issued a yellow warning at 2350 and had 8 US P39 Airacobras airborne some fifteen minutes before the raider appeared. Shoji’s aircraft was picked up by searchlights almost immediately. Shoji dropped his bombs a matter of only seconds before the Airacobras intercepted the flying boat.

Shoji recorded that while caught in the beam of ten searchlights, he was intercepted by what he believed to be two Hurricane fighters which made seven attack passes at him. The plane sent the following message to its base:

“The Emperor’s ship has been attacked from both broadsides and damaged.”

It must have been terrifying for the crew of the flying boat, caught in up to 11 search lights at one point, harassed by 8 P39’s and even HMAS Swan opening fire with its 4-inch guns.

Seven of Shoji’s eight bombs fall in Cleveland Bay, between the southern end of Magnetic Island and the breakwater at Townsville, about one mile from the wharves. The eighth was dropped in a paddock in Oonoonba, damaging a palm tree and creating a crater about four feet deep and ten feet wide. This crater still exists today, though it is on private property. The Oonoonba Bombing Memorial was dedicated near the site in 1992.

The only damage from this raid was a single palm tree. A fact not lost on the residents of Townsville, who when victory parades were held at the end of the war, displayed a damaged palm tree on one of the floats.

Several of the pilots believed the damaged plane had crashed. No. 104 Radar Station at Kissing Point had tracked the aircraft as far as Palm Island at which point Harriger turned back, low on fuel and ammunition exhausted. In fact, Shoji’s damaged plane did make it back to Rabaul but Harriger and the other witnesses would never know. The authorities of the day, keen to protect morale, classified the evidence, and the ABC’s recordings were never broadcast.  No.1 Wireless Unit had intercepted a message from Emily W-47 requesting touch-down around 0750 on Wednesday 29 July. The communiqué was immediately “classified”.  Today, copies of the planes logs from the three raids are available at RAAF Townsville Museum. You can also read them on the Oz at War website:

26 July – https://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/tvbomb01.htm

28 July – https://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/tvbomb02.htm

29 July – https://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/tvbomb03.htm

The following day ABC correspondent Dudley Leggett interviewed Captain Mainwaring:

Question: Now, Captain Mainwaring – Do you think you hit the bomber?

Answer: Yes we did, we are quite sure of that. We attacked just after he dropped his bombs. We both made the first pass at him and I think we killed the rear gunner because he didn’t fire on us at all the whole time. I know we started a fire in his tail, but it soon went out.

Question: Yes, we saw the fire quite distinctly – it flared up just when you made the first attack and lasted a short time after you’d finished. I thought it might have been an explosion shell from your cannon.

Answer: Yes, it could have been that.

Question: How did you first come at him?

Answer: We were both above him when we saw him so we were some distance away. Then we edged up on him. Actually we let him go by and then made a stern attack as you could see from the way the tracers went. He began to turn for home then.

Question: I thought he seemed to lose height just a little after that first attack. As a matter of fact having seen the fire on his tail we thought he was starting down.

Answer: Yes, he did come down a little but I think he shoved his nose down to get more speed. I made another pass at him, but it didn’t seem to affect him. But I’m pretty sure I put some more holes in him.

Question: How do you like night fighting?

Answer: Well, it is different from day fighting, but the search-lights picked him up nicely for us.

Additionally, Wilmet interviewed Lieutenant Harriger:

Answer: I made about seven passes at him. I chased him till I ran out of ammunition.

Question: You must have followed him out to sea?

Answer: Yes, I followed him out about 40 miles. I made two passes at him after the … I made belly passes at him from the front and side and could see my tracers going into him.

Question: Was he firing at you?

Answer: His turret guns were firing at me, he was not using tracers, but I could see his gun flashes.

Question: What about his nose guns?

Answer: I didn’t give him a chance to use them.

Question: Ah, ah, — well, how was he getting along when you left him?

Answer: He was at about 12,000 feet and still diving away to get speed.

Question: Do you think he would get back?

Answer: Well, he might, it is hard to say. But if he did get back I imagine he would sink.

Aftermath:

Despite Japanese and Axis radio reports to the contrary, the raids damaged very little, but they did shake the moral of the town’s inhabitants. Townsville’s residents had a rude awakening to the reality of the war and they began to take the threat of the Japanese raids more seriously. No more standing outside watching ‘reconnaissance flights’ overhead. The final attack on the Queensland coast would occur at Miallo, near Mossman two nights later. The intended target for this mission was again Townsville but engine problems forced Mizakura to jettison his bombs. The fifth planned raid did not eventuate. A plan that had involved up to seven aircraft, each flying a return distance of some 3000 miles, would yield little more than propaganda for the Japanese.

What where the “Emily’s”?

Emily was the codename given by the allies to the Kawanishi H8K flying boat, an all metal, four engine, large type 2 flying boat. It was considered to be the best flying boat of World War II, on par with even the excellent British Short Sunderland. With a range of 4131km / 2567 miles, a fifteen-hour flight from Rabaul to Townsville and back was possible. It could carry two 800kg torpedoes, or 2,000kg of bombs or depth charges (700kg more than the B25 Mitchell).

Whilst looking like a lumbering flying boat, you would underestimate it at your peril.  Armed with five 20mm cannons and either four or six 7.7mm machine guns, it was a prickly plane to deal with.

Considered to be the most difficult Japanese aircraft to shoot down, it had considerable protective armour, and its fuel tanks were partially self-sealing. If punctured they were designed so fuel collected in the bilge and could be collected and pumped into undamaged tanks. Additionally, the hull tanks carried a carbon-dioxide fire extinguisher system.

The H8K was particularly effective in an anti-submarine role when paired with an ASW radar. The H8K was credited with finding and sinking several American submarines during its combat life.

Sources:

Australia under attack: Townsville, July 1942, Australian War Memorial

Dunn, P, Australia @ War

Francillon, R J, Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1995. 308.

Hansen, G & Menghetti, D, Townsville in War and Peace 1942 – 1946, North Queensland History Preservation Society and Townsville Museum and Historical Society, 2020.

Imperial Japanese Combat Evaluation Sheets, 28/29 July 1942.

Jenkins, David, Battle Surface: Japan’s Submarine War Against Australia, Random House

Policy File – Air Raids – reports Townsville raids 1942 ; Vic series MP535/3/0, item P/6/2344.

70th anniversary of the bombing of Townsville during World War II, State Library of Queensland

RAAF Historical Section, Units Of The Royal Australian Air Force, A Concise History: Volume 5 Radar Units, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1995.

Townsville Defence Scheme 1942; Vic series 1587/1, 218P.

Townsville Air Raids – Commentaries and Int. By Dudley Leggett & Chester Wilmot, tape no. 72/7/399, W (AP) 24. ABC Archives.

Townsville Air Raids 1942; AWM series 60, item 9/468/42.