Description
Title: Hitting Home – The Japanese Attack on Sydney 1942
Author: Jenkins, David
Condition: Near Mint
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Date: 1992
ISBN: 0091826683
Cover: Soft Cover without Dust Jacket – 88 pages
Comments: In May of 1942, the war seemed very far away to most Sydneysiders – until the night the three Japanese midget submarines crept into the harbour and caused an unforgettable night of mayhem, high farce, chaos and courage. A ground-breaking new look at one of the most extraordinary stories of Australia at war.
On the night of 31 May 1942, Sydney was doing what it does best: partying. The theatres, restaurants, dance halls, illegal gambling dens, clubs and brothels offered plenty of choice to roistering sailors, soldiers and airmen on leave in Australia’s most glamorous city. The war seemed far away. Newspapers devoted more pages to horse racing than to Hitler.
That Sunday night the party came to a shattering halt when three Japanese midget submarines crept into the harbour, past eight electronic indicator loops, past six patrolling Royal Australian Navy ships, and past an anti-submarine net stretched across the inner harbour entrance. Their arrival triggered a night of mayhem, courage, chaos and high farce which left 27 sailors dead and a city bewildered. The war, it seemed, was no longer confined to distant desert and jungle. It was right here at Australia’s front door.
Now a scarce account of the Japanese midget submarine attacks.
