What no bombers? The Japanese Takao Kokutai sent an unescorted flight of 7 Mitsubishi G4M bombers to raid Darwin on 28 March 1942. As the Allied fighters had been unable to intercept a number of the recent bombing raids, the Japs decided they would not send any escort fighters.
On 19 February 1942 mainland Australia came under attack for the first time when Japanese forces mounted two air raids on Darwin. The two attacks, which were planned and led by the commander responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbour ten weeks earlier, involved 54 land-based bombers and approximately 188 attack aircraft which were launched from four Japanese aircraft-carriers in the Timor Sea. In the first attack, which began just before 10.00 am, heavy bombers pattern-bombed the harbour and town; dive bombers escorted by Zero fighters then attacked shipping in the harbour, the military and civil aerodromes, and the hospital at Berrimah. The attack ceased after about 40 minutes. The second attack, which began an hour later, involved high altitude bombing of the Royal Australian Air Force base at Parap which lasted for 20–25 minutes. The two raids killed at least 243 people and between 300 and 400 were wounded. Twenty military aircraft were destroyed, 8 ships at anchor in the harbour were sunk, and most civil and military facilities in Darwin were destroyed.
The 1st and 2nd Kokusentai comprised respectively of the aircraft carriers Kaga and Akagi, and Hiryu and Soryu, sailed from Palau (west of the Philippines) on the 15th of February bound for Timor and Darwin. They reached their fly-off point, 200 miles north west of Darwin, on the morning of the 19th. The first raid was launched from the carriers and consisted of 71 B5N2’s (Kate) level bombers, 81 D3A1’s (Val) dive bombers, and 36 A6M2’s (Zero) fighters led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. (There is a discrepancy in the number of Japanese aircraft reported as participating in the carrier-borne strike. Analysis of observer reports of the raid concluded the total to be 81 aircraft, whereas a contemporary Japanese report records 188 carrier aircraft launched (Hermon Gill, 1985). As each of the four aircraft carriers had a complement of 66 aircraft (plus reserves) at the time of the attack (Chesneau, 1984), the second, higher number seems most likely.)
Co-ordinated to closely follow this first strike were 54 twin engine land-based bombers of the 1st Air Attack Force flying from Kendari on the island of Sulewasi. They were G3M2’s (Nell/Tina) and G4M1’s (Betty) of the Takao and 1st Kokutai’s.
Not very realistic.
