“I thought they were escort planes waiting for other machines to take-off, but I soon realised there was more to it than that.”
“Suddenly, all the native population on the foreshore came tearing inland. My native maid-servant, greatly agitated, demanded that I should go bush. I hurried away, even though there was an air-raid shelter at my own home, and, when I realised the danger, I took cover in a tiny dell between some oleander shrubs in the grounds of my sister’s home,” she said.
“From this refuge I was able to see some of what took place. It was all incredibly quick. I suppose the whole attack was over in 20 minutes. Those eight fighter planes tore round at a terrific speed, dived, one by one, on their objectives, and the rat-tat of their machine-guns was followed by a spectacular display of fireworks.”
“They used incendiary bullets, like this,” said the woman, displaying a brass cartridge case nearly an inch in diameter.
One of the six large aircraft, which included two Flying Fortresses and a Liberator, destroyed during the Japanese air-raid on Broome on March 3, 1942. Credit:Australian War Memorial
“They left a trail of smoke behind them and set fire to everything they hit in a few minutes. The whole of the harbour was covered by a pall of thick, black smoke, through which it was impossible to observe what was going on. The waters of the harbour were soon filled, I learned afterwards, with people from damaged craft.”
“a refugee woman supporting her husband in the deep water… he was machine-gunned and killed in her arms”
“As far as I know, they attacked nothing but military objectives, although I learned afterwards that some of the victims left swimming in the harbour were machine-gunned.”
“One man said he saw a refugee woman supporting her husband in the deep water. He was machine-gunned and killed in her arms. A woman, with a month-old baby in her arms, was urged to jump from a craft and swim for it. She did, and was picked up a considerable time later by a rescue boat, after the raiders had gone.”
REFUGEE CHILDREN KILLED
“Those Dutch refugees were absolutely marvellous,” said the woman. “They were left with nothing but the clothes in which they stood, but they endured the ordeal without a tear, without a word of complaint.”
“One Dutchman left Java with six children and a brave wife. After the raid at Broom he was left with a wounded wife and two children. Another man lost his wife and two children. One Dutchman brought down one of the raiding planes with an A.A. gun. Another was brought down by a four-engined bomber.”
“I left Broome in a mail plane about an hour after the raid” said the woman. “We landed at Port Hedland and waited while our pilot went back to Broome to do some rescue jobs.”
“After the actual raid, three of the planes came back and circled high overhead to survey the damage,” she added.
Additional details of the raid on Broome by Japanese fighter aircraft were given to-day by Mr. G. M. Litster, a master mariner, who has been a resident of Broome for 26 years.
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Litster saw men diving overboard from flying-boats moored in the harbour. Two Qantas machines which had just taken on passengers and were ready to take off were also attacked. One flying-boat managed to get off the water and was then shot down.
Postscript: While on the day following the attack on Broome no casualties were reported in the Herald it would ultimately be recorded as Australia’s second worst air raid by the Australian War Memorial (after the attack on Darwin two weeks earlier), with 70 people killed and 24 aircraft including 16 flying boats destroyed.
From the Archives 1942: Japan air attack on Broome, eyewitness account
Source: Philippines Alive
