Darwin remembers the day war came to Australian shores

AT 9.58am on February 19, 1942, the first air raid siren sounded across Darwin, the first warning of the impending wave of Japanese bombers which would fly over the city

Austin Asche was born in Darwin and served with the RAAF in World War II as a radar control operator. Picture: Che Chorley

AT 9.58am on February 19, 1942, the first air raid siren sounded across Darwin, the first warning of the impending wave of Japanese bombers which would fly over the city.

Seventy-eight years later, the siren will sound at the exact same time again in honour of those who fought to defend Australian soil.

Wednesday’s commemoration service marks the Territory’s most poignant day, as the NT stops and remembers those who paid the ultimate sacrifice as war hit Australia’s shores for the first time.

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Former RAAF radar operator Austin Asche didn’t serve in Darwin but grew up here and saw how the bombing, which happened while he was boarding at school in Melbourne, changed the city forever.

“I was the most cognisant of the whole thing because I’d left Darwin as a town of about 1200 people and came back to a Darwin which had been very thoroughly bombed, bombed in all places everywhere,” he said.

“The Bank of New South Wales that was wrecked, I don’t know what happened to the houses up at Myilly Point but they weren’t there any more.”

Mr Asche said the war was the beginning of Darwin turning from a small town into a big city.

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“The most amazing thing was the number of people,” he said. “There must have been thousands and thousands, wherever I walked around you saw the boys or the US boys and you might walk down a path somewhere and hit a camp with a couple of thousand fellows.”

Wednesday’s ceremony and re-enactment to be performed by members of the Australian Defence Force, runs from 9.30am to 11am.

Originally published as Darwin remembers the day war came to Australian shores