Tom Lewis (4) (1958–)

This is an Australian history of the Japanese air raids on the Australian port of Darwin in 19 February 1942. The book is authored by Tom Lewis, director of the Darwin Military Museum, a former naval officer, and previously published author, and Peter Ingman, a military history enthusiast and manager of a publishing company. What they have assembled in this 368-page work published in 2012 is a tribute to restless research and a thorough approach to a moment immortalized in Australian history show more and lore.

The authors present the reader with an introduction, explanatory notes about terms used in the text, 17 numbered chapters, no less than 17 appendices, a comprehensive list of references and sources, and an index. The book begins chronologically through Chapter 4 in explaining the backdrop to World War II in the Pacific, Australia's place in the Pacific and its complex relationship with Great Britain, and Darwin's place in Australia, especially its profound isolation in the Northern Territories.

After Chapter 4 the text proceeds roughly geographically with the authors detailing the separate actions of the Japanese fighters in the strike force, then the horizontal bombers, then, finally, the dive bomber action. They then proceed around the Darwin area, describing events on the air and on the ground from the Australian/American perspective. This account also discusses the fate of two small Filipino ships seeking to run the Japanese blockade of the Philippines from Australian and subsequently being caught up in the Darwin raid.

The 17 appendices vary widely in their content, from real and rumored warning of the approaching Japanese attack to nicely rendered artwork of the ships and aircraft participating in the events of 19 February. One error I did notice in these renderings is appearances of both American naval vessels present in Darwin. The USS Peary (DD-226) should have been presented in the odd green camouflage with which she escaped from the Philippines little more than seven weeks before, while the USS William B. Preston (AVD-7) should bear the Cavite blue color scheme worn by most of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet.

Noteworthy is the fact that five of the appendices are dedicated to myth-busting as the authors note a number of glaring errors and mis-information that have appeared as part of the Darwin raid mythology. Appendix 17 is dedicated to identifying key World War II areas in the Darwin area--the so-called "Top End" as locals call it. While much of Darwin has changed since World War II, there is still much physical evidence of the war's impact on the region. The provision of this appendix firmly places this book in the ranks of what I term "tourist books", the kind of publication one would pick up while on vacation.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It is well-researched. The authors accessed Japanese language sources to come up with balanced perspectives on the raid, and they did use Parshall and Tully's "Shattered Sword" to provide current understanding of Japanese carrier operations. This book will make an interesting comparison with Bob Alford's 2017 Osprey Publishing's "Darwin 1942", the 304th volume in Osprey's Campaign series. Lewis and Ingman sourced pretty heavily from Alford's previous work, but "Darwin 1942" had to follow Osprey's limits with regard to page count. show less