The bombing of Broome, 3 March 1942
· Two weeks after the Darwin bombing, on 3 March 1942, the Western Australian town of Broome suffered Australia's second-worst air raid. The attack killed an estimated seventy people and injured another forty, as well as eight large aircraft and 16 flying boats.
· At that time, Broome was a significant military and civilian staging post for air evacuees from Java, then part of the Dutch East Indies, both military and civilian. In the last two weeks of February, 8,000 mostly Dutch refugees, including many women and children, passed through Broome on their way south.
· On the day of the attack, Japanese fighter planes attacked without warning. Nine Mitsubishi Zero fighters arrived over Roebuck Bay at 9.30 am, and promptly destroyed the targets they found. As there were no Allied fighters in the area, the Japanese faced minimal opposition.
· Many victims were Dutch women and children packed into flying boats on the harbour either waiting to be unloaded and ferried ashore or waiting to depart for the southern states. Another 30 crew and passengers, mostly military personnel, were lost when an American Liberator bomber was shot down shortly after taking off. The bodies of the Dutch victims, initially buried at Broome, were moved in 1950 to the Perth War Cemetery at Karrakatta
· Two weeks after the Darwin bombing, on 3 March 1942, the Western Australian town of Broome suffered Australia's second-worst air raid. The attack killed an estimated seventy people and injured another forty, as well as eight large aircraft and 16 flying boats.
· At that time, Broome was a significant military and civilian staging post for air evacuees from Java, then part of the Dutch East Indies, both military and civilian. In the last two weeks of February, 8,000 mostly Dutch refugees, including many women and children, passed through Broome on their way south.
· On the day of the attack, Japanese fighter planes attacked without warning. Nine Mitsubishi Zero fighters arrived over Roebuck Bay at 9.30 am, and promptly destroyed the targets they found. As there were no Allied fighters in the area, the Japanese faced minimal opposition.
· Many victims were Dutch women and children packed into flying boats on the harbour either waiting to be unloaded and ferried ashore or waiting to depart for the southern states. Another 30 crew and passengers, mostly military personnel, were lost when an American Liberator bomber was shot down shortly after taking off. The bodies of the Dutch victims, initially buried at Broome, were moved in 1950 to the Perth War Cemetery at Karrakatta