Attacks on Sydney and the east coast in 1942

The Japanese had bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942 and then Broome 2 weeks later. In May, they turned their attention to Australia's east coast.

Strategic context

The Battle of the Coral Sea was a series of naval engagements off the north-east coast of Australia from 4 to 8 May 1942. Many consider the battle to be the turning point of the Allies' war against the Japanese. Some described it as the battle that saved Australia.

The Japanese ships were not, as many feared at the time, heading for Australia. They were heading for Port Moresby in New Guinea. Nevertheless, at the time, Australians were very worried.

Fear of Japanese attacks

Even though the Japanese were not planning a large-scale invasion of Australia, attacks on Australia in 1942 brought much fear. They caused destruction of property and casualties.

Australia took measures to lower the threat and make it hard for the Japanese to land. Barbed-wire fences were strung up along beaches, including Bondi and Manly. Air raid trenches were dug, and the light from streetlights and buildings was blacked out.

Australian forces set up gun emplacements around key harbours. They positioned anti-aircraft guns and searchlights and guarded important installations.

Sydney attacks in May and June 1942

On 30 May 1942, the Japanese flew a small floatplane over Sydney Harbour. The crew circled the harbour and reported the presence of battleships and cruisers. They spotted a prize target, the American heavy cruiser, the USS Chicago. The Japanese aimed to sink this warship and perhaps others.

On 31 May 1942, 3 Japanese submarines sat about 7 nautical miles (13 km) out from Sydney Harbour. Each mother submarine launched a Type A, 2-man midget submarine into Sydney Harbour. All 3 submarines made it into the harbour.

First submarine

Australians mistook the electronic signature of the first submarine. They thought it was either a ferry or another surface vessel. A Maritime Services Board watchman spotted an object caught in an anti-submarine net between George's Head and Green Point.

Naval patrol boats confirmed it was a submarine. They raised the alarm. Before HMAS Yarroma was able to open fire, the midget submarine's crew, Lieutenant Kenshi Chuma and Petty Officer Takeshi Ohmori, blew up the submarine. In the process, they killed themselves.

Second submarine and HMAS Kuttabul

The second submarine headed west towards the Harbour Bridge. The Naval Officer in Charge in Sydney issued a general alarm. About 200 metres from Garden Island, the heavy cruiser, USS Chicago, fired on the submarine.

The submarine fired 2 torpedoes at the ship. One torpedo ran ashore on Garden Island but failed to explode. The other passed under the Dutch submarine K9. It struck the harbour bed beneath the depot ship HMAS Kuttabul.

The torpedo exploded, killing 19 Australian and 2 British sailors on board the Kuttabul. The Allies pulled survivors from the wreckage. The submarine slipped out of the harbour, its mission complete. It did not make it much further. In 2006, amateur scuba divers discovered the wreck of the submarine off Sydney's northern beaches.

Third submarine

Crew from HMAS Yandra spotted the third submarine at the entrance to the harbour. The ship was equipped with the anti-submarine warfare weapon called a 'depth-charge'. These weapons are dropped into the water near submarines. They detonate, causing a powerful and destructive hydraulic shock.

Some 4 hours later, having recovered, it entered the harbour again. Royal Australian Navy vessels attacked with depth charges and sank the submarine in Taylor Bay. Both members of the submarine's crew died by suicide.

RAN veteran, John Abraham, remembered the midget submarine attacks. That night, he drove a motorboat with a depth charge into the harbour. He later saw the raising of the sunken submarine, and the extraction of some of the people out of Kuttabul:

We arrived in Sydney roughly on the 29th May which meant, when you think about it, the mother submarine was sitting out there waiting for the little submarines to launch but we realised, I realised, that they wouldn't have upset the apple cart because they'd have never recovered the midgets and so they launched the submarines and came into Sydney.

We were tied up around Balmain. I was down on watch until 12 o'clock. I watched just near the engine room and we got a signal. We got 'repel aircraft'. We didn't know it was a surface craft. All that we got 'repel aircraft'. We didn't know what was going on until about 9 or 10 o'clock. We didn't have a clue what was happening in Sydney Harbour until it filtered through that there was midget submarines in the harbour.

Shelling of Sydney suburbs

Soon after midnight on 8 June 1942, the submarine I-24 surfaced off the coast of Sydney. It attacked the suburbs of Rose Bay and Bellevue Hill with shells.

There were no serious casualties and not much damage, but the population was alarmed. The attack prompted some Sydneysiders to depart for the Blue Mountains and country New South Wales.

Newcastle attacks in May and June 1942

While the Japanese shelled Sydney's eastern suburbs on 8 June 1942, they also attacked Newcastle. At approximately 2:00 am, the Japanese submarine I-21 approached Newcastle to attack the shipyards.

Captain Kanji Matsumura fired 34 shells from a position about 9 km north-east of Fort Scratchley. Most of the shells landed near Customs House and the power station. All but one failed to explode. There was some damage to buildings and houses near Parnell Place.

The attack lasted about 20 minutes. It generated further concern about the vulnerability of the east coast.

Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) veteran, Pat Guest, witnessed the Japanese submarine shelling the coast at Newcastle:

The four of us walked up to the beach. Standing on the beach and I could hear this thud, thud. A funny noise. I was looking out at the ocean and I think, "God, all that water." And I could see a light and every now and again it'd flash. I thought, "It can't be a light house, it's the middle of the ocean."

... The sailors were talking to Dorrie and they were all laughing and I said, "Excuse me, have a look out there. What's that light that keeps coming on every now and again?" He looked and then all of a sudden he yelled out, "Christ, they're shelling the coast!"

It was the mother sub that dropped those two subs in Sydney Harbour. This was the mother submarine. They were getting their range, I think, and that was the thuds. There were dud shells on the beach. They took out the shop front behind where we were standing and I'm standing there thinking, "God, I've only been in the army half an hour and they're bloody well shooting at me already?"

East coast patrols in July and August

In the 2 months after the midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour, 14 Allied merchant ships were attacked, and 6 were sunk. Sixty merchant seamen died in these attacks. The attacks caused the loss of 29,000 tons of shipping.

In July 1942, 3 submarines began operations off the east coast. While this offensive did not have a serious impact on the Allied war effort in the South-West Pacific, or the Australian economy, it forced ships to sail in convoys. This kept the ships safe from attack but reduced the efficiency of Australian shipping.

Impacts on the war and Australia

Although it was widely believed and feared that Japan was planning an invasion of Australia in 1942, the Japanese submarine attacks were not a precursor to invasion. They were intended to isolate Australia and hinder our war effort. The Allies were forced to deploy substantial assets to defend shipping in Australian waters.

The Axis naval offensive against Australia was 'the most comprehensive and widespread series of offensive operations ever conducted by an enemy against Australia'. Despite this, the offensive did not have a significant impact on the Australian war effort. Operations in the South-West Pacific Area were not greatly affected.

The effectiveness of the Japanese submarine campaign against Australia was limited by inadequate numbers of vessels and flaws in Japan's submarine doctrine. Likewise, Australia's anti-submarine forces were inexperienced. They had a shortage of anti-submarine assets. They had problems coordinating searches and struggled in the poor sonar conditions in Australian waters. They did, however, make it harder for Japan to attack.