From Brad Argent, Content Director at Ancestry.com.au
February 19th marks the 71st anniversary of the bombing of Darwin in 1942. I asked my nan, Nita (shown in the photo above), what she remembered of the day.
At the time of the bombing – just two days after her 23rd birthday – she was pregnant with my mother and recalled being worried and very scared.
“I remember that we didn’t hear a lot about it, just that it happened. From then on everyone became serious about the blackout blinds and they needed to be drawn by 5 or 6pm. My brother Neville was stationed up in Katherine at the time – when he came back he said that it was a lot worse than we’d been told.”
My father was in school during the later stages of the war and he remembers that after the Darwin bombings they were taught the ‘duck and cover’ process. He tells of being given a wooden peg to bite on and something to stuff in his ears!
What do the older members of your family remember about the bombing of Darwin? Share your story with us on our Facebook wall.