At the commencement of World War 2, Darwin, Australia was a quiet port city of approximately 5,000 inhabitants; hardly what one would call a strategic military city. But by February 19, 1942 Darwin was being looked at closely as an important naval port and airbase and there were approximately 15,000 Allied military personnel there at that time.
Using the same element of surprise that served them so well at Pearl Harbor, Japan launched two waves of planes on the morning of February 19th, totally 242 planes, towards Darwin in what would be the first of over 100 air raids against that Australian city. More bombs were dropped during that air raid than were dropped at Pearl Harbor and it was a devastating testament to the Japanese ability to attack swiftly and silently.
The Darwin attack was a complete success for the Japanese and it delivered a massive psychological blow to Australia in the early stages of World War II. Approximately 300 people were killed; most of the aircraft were destroyed and ten ships sunk and another 25 damaged. By comparison Japan only lost one airman and at most lost ten aircraft in what could only be construed as a major victory.
But setting aside the loss of life and devastation to the aircraft, the air raids of Darwin paralyzed an entire country. Australia simply did not have the industrial might to recover from this totally surprising attack and they knew it. Unlike the United States after Pearl Harbor, Australia did not have the ability to crank up the war machine and make Japan pay for their transgressions. The citizens of Australia were, in fact, sitting ducks and they knew it, and in the ensuing years they fought in the Allied Forces as if their very lives depended on it, because, quite frankly, they did.
At HiTech Creations we are fascinated by the individual battles of World War Two. Few out there have even heard of the air raids of Darwin and yet they were very real to the people of Australia and are remembered by survivors with as much clarity as those who survived a much more devastating attack at Pearl Harbor. It is, in fact, our fascination with all things World War 2 that led us to make Aces High and to commit to making just one flight sim and thus putting all our efforts into that combat flight simulator. We think our commitment to making only one game is apparent in the realism and attention to detail, and we are sure that once you try our World War 2 Flight Simulator that you will agree.
