Glimpse of the RAAF Meteorological Service
Preface
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: Growing Up
Chapter 2: Port Moresby Before Pearl Harbour
Chapter 3: Port Moresby After Pearl Harbour
Work in the Meteorological Office
Japanese Land in Rabaul
Catalina and Hudson Operations
First Sight of the Japanese
Japanese Plans for the Invasion of Port Moresby
RAAF Meteorologists Under Threat of Japanese Advance
More Air Raids on Port Moresby
The Story of the Hudson
A Blow to Morale
More Air Raids but No 75 Squadron Kittykawks Arrive
Japanese Attempt to Invade Port Moresby by Sea
Japanese Submarines Attack Sydney
Attack on MV MacDhui
Return to Australia
The Meteorologists' Contribution
Chapter 4: Allied Air Force HQ and RAAF Command, Brisbane
Chapter 5: Japan Surrenders and We Are Demobilised
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Appendix 1: References
Appendix 2: Milestones
Appendix 3: Papers Published in Tropical Weather Research Bulletins
Appendix 4: Radiosonde Observations 1941–46
Index
Search
Help
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Japanese Submarines Attack Sydney
I remember our reaction to news of the attack by Japanese midget submarines on ships in Sydney Harbour on 31 May 1942. The midget submarines had been launched by a large mother submarine a short distance out to sea. The mother submarine, which also carried and launched a small reconnaissance aircraft, shelled eastern suburbs of Sydney and Newcastle a week later. Our reaction was one of delight!!!We were unaware of the plight of the residents of the shelled suburbs and the unfortunate loss of life of some of the RAN sailors who had been aboard the ferry Kuttabul which was moored near the harbour shore and served as quarters for the sailors. Our delight was a spontaneous widely-shared feeling that at last the military big-wigs might realise what it was like to be stranded in a place like Port Moresby! In retrospect it seems a childish reaction but war and the tropics play strange tricks on one's personality.
The audacity and innovation of the Japanese submarine attack on Sydney is described in some detail by Jenkins (1992) and Stevens (1992). As early as February 1942 a similar mother submarine, during a long and adventurous voyage, launched a small reconnaissance float plane which flew undetected in darkness over Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Wellington, Auckland and Fiji.
Although at least one midget submarine penetrated the defence boom at the harbour entrance on 31 May, its torpedoes missed the larger naval vessels anchored in the harbour and the only casualty was the ferry Kuttabul.
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© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
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