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Speaker 1: You're listening to mix one oh four point nine three

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Speaker 1: point sixty now. As we know, tomorrow will mark a

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Speaker 1: day of national observance to remember the day exactly eighty

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Speaker 1: years ago when World War II forced itself onto Australia's

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Speaker 1: mainland for the first time. The Darwin community will gather

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Speaker 1: to pay their respects to the men and women who

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Speaker 1: fought during the war or during the Darwin air raids,

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Speaker 1: and the community who survived at the annual Bombing of

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Speaker 1: Darwin commemoration service. Just before ten am on the nineteenth

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Speaker 1: of February nineteen forty two, a formation of one hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighty eight Japanese aircraft mounted a deadly air raid

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Speaker 1: on Darwin and the sound of whistling bombs rang in

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Speaker 1: the years of Allied troops and civilians. Life for the

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Speaker 1: people of Darwin would never be the same. We'd suffered

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Speaker 1: the largest single attack ever on Australian soil and its

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Speaker 1: impact is still felt eighty years later. Now. One of

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Speaker 1: the last surviving veterans who was in Darwin during the

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Speaker 1: bombing will attend the service tomorrow. His name is Brian Winspear.

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Speaker 1: He is one hundred and one years old and he

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Speaker 1: joined me in the studio a little bit earlier this morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Brian, Good morning Kate. Lovely to

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Speaker 2: have you in the studio.

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Speaker 1: Brian.

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Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit about what it was like

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Speaker 2: for you on that day.

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Speaker 3: Well, you've got to bear in mind that I joined

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Speaker 3: the Air Force at nineteen and by the time I

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Speaker 3: got to Darwen, I was only twenty twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 3: and so that was all fairly new and strange and

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Speaker 3: so on. But yeah, after we finished the training, I

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Speaker 3: was supposted to two squadron locked Hudson's and at the

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Speaker 3: time we had twelve locked Hudson's to a squad udron

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Speaker 3: and and we're at Leveton and they decided that we

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Speaker 3: should go to down because there's a bit of a

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Speaker 3: war brewing, and and so the whole squadron part of

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Speaker 3: Melbourne to go down and flying over Lake Air out

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Speaker 3: of radio opera done playing with the radio, I heard

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Speaker 3: that Pearl Harbor had been bombed, And when we landed

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Speaker 3: for few Hell the Springs, I told the other cruising

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Speaker 3: in the twelve planes, and no one would bloome me

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Speaker 3: that that it was on. So when we got to

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Speaker 3: dow and it was it was that out we had

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Speaker 3: to want to They all built up ammunition and it

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Speaker 3: was my first taste of tropical tropical climate and all

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Speaker 3: I wanted to do was to have a cold sharer

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Speaker 3: and go to bed Tenerators all followed on from there

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Speaker 3: and then our squadron was had that then have to

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Speaker 3: go to West Temor because we had uh the powers

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Speaker 3: of the being, the bee that organized what who goes where,

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Speaker 3: decided that that in Tasmania we had the second fortieth

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Speaker 3: Army group and they had to go to Kopang in

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Speaker 3: West Timor to look after because there's one thousand Tasmania

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Speaker 3: there in the army to stop the jets coming as

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Speaker 3: far as as Darwin and what happened after after that year.

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Speaker 1: And so Brian were you were you always supposed to

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Speaker 1: be in Darwin at the time when that bombing occurred.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was our job. Yeah, two

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Speaker 3: two squads, three lo Huchins had to had to be

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Speaker 3: air cover for the the thousand Tasmanians there and and

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Speaker 3: Australia didn't have any fighters and Locky Hudson's are not

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Speaker 3: fighters anyway, but we had to go through the motions

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Speaker 3: of patrolling the guys and trying to find the Japanese

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Speaker 3: Asian fashion.

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Speaker 1: Brian, you'd said that you worked, you know, you worked

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Speaker 1: in radio, like you had the radio side of things.

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Speaker 1: So you'd listened and you'd heard what had happened in

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Speaker 1: Pearl Harbor.

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Speaker 2: Could you did you ever.

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Speaker 1: Anticipate that what would happen in Darwin was going to unfold?

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Speaker 3: That was incredible because if you follow the history, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: Pearl Harbor was on the day that Trove Harbor was

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Speaker 3: December the twelfth, was I think, yeah, Well, you know

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Speaker 3: they were the japan Japan started heading south and and

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Speaker 3: and and polishing off every country they went into and

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Speaker 3: until they got it on. It took them two months

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Speaker 3: to to get there. And in the meantime, we had

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Speaker 3: a couple of Australia had a couple of second rate

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Speaker 3: fighter squadrons in Malaysia and and team all those sort

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Speaker 3: of places. And uh, I've got a he had at

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Speaker 3: one hundred and one. I've got to I've got to

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Speaker 3: give my brain a.

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Speaker 2: Bit of Brian. That's okay, we don't mind.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think most people listening to you this

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Speaker 1: morning will be absolutely you know, have so much respect

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Speaker 1: and so much pride listening to you this morning, So

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Speaker 1: we don't mind if you need a moment, mate.

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Speaker 2: You know, for so many of us who live in

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Speaker 2: Darwin now, we just have.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely no idea what it would have been like to

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Speaker 1: be here and to see those bombs raining down. I

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Speaker 1: had read somewhere that you described it as saying that

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Speaker 1: you looked up and the sun glinted, and the bombs

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Speaker 1: looked as they were falling down. They just looked like confetti.

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Speaker 1: It must have been just an unbelievable thing to see happening.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, there were thousands and thousands of bombs all

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Speaker 3: come at the same time, and everybody saw the fifty

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Speaker 3: four planes coming in, and because they're coming from the south,

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Speaker 3: they thought they were the Americans coming. But the Japs

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Speaker 3: always do that, they sort of fly around the target

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Speaker 3: and the aways come in the back door. Yeah, they

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Speaker 3: did exactly the same thing when they were when they

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Speaker 3: were invoding, a team or Kopang had six inch guns

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Speaker 3: or facing out to see whether they thought that the

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Speaker 3: japri going to come. And the came in and came

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Speaker 3: came and landed on a beach at the back and

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Speaker 3: then rode bikes and walked in. It came in in

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Speaker 3: the back door, so.

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Speaker 1: It is it's unbelievable, you know, to think of what

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Speaker 1: happened here in Dahlwa. My grandfather worked in logistics at

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Speaker 1: the time and he was stationed here. He was only

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Speaker 1: seventeen when he was first in dar when he was

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Speaker 1: here when Darwin was bombed. And I think that it's

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Speaker 1: such an important thing for all Australians to actually understand

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Speaker 1: what happened eighty years ago right here in the Northern territory.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, Well, one of the sad things was that

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Speaker 3: absolutely no new came out from Darwin for about six

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Speaker 3: or eight months at that time because all the pol

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Speaker 3: pariticians had egg on their face because we had basically

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Speaker 3: no army. All our divisions were in the Mediterranean and

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Speaker 3: and our front line aircraft was only two squadrons of

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Speaker 3: like Ed Hudson's and and the navy was almost you

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Speaker 3: know finished, and and and it's sad that that no

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Speaker 3: news ever came out. And being in the front line

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Speaker 3: up there, we didn't know what was going on either

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Speaker 3: because our war was being controlled, our air force war

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Speaker 3: was being controlled in an office in sin Kettled Road

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Speaker 3: in Melbourne, and they didn't sort of forget the feel

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Speaker 3: of what was going on.

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Speaker 2: It's really happening.

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Speaker 1: Can you tell me what was it like looking around

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Speaker 1: Darwin after after we'd been bombed, you know for us

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Speaker 1: here now, I know you've been back to Darwin on

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Speaker 1: so many occasions. When you walk around town now and

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Speaker 1: then when you remember what it was like eighty years

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Speaker 1: ago and how the place looked after it had been bombed,

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Speaker 1: what was it.

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Speaker 3: Like, Well, it was in another another world because Darwin

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Speaker 3: had ceased to exist just about after that bombing. Between

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Speaker 3: the bombing and the and the strong Wednesday, you get it.

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Speaker 3: It was amazing. I was absolutely amazed at the development

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Speaker 3: of Darwin and how it's grown up into it's trying

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Speaker 3: to take over Sydney. In Melbourne and the high risis,

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Speaker 3: I just shuddered to think of another cyclone came along.

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Speaker 3: Most of those highs rods had finished up in the bay.

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Speaker 1: Oh we worry about that. Lucky they got those building codes. Brian,

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Speaker 1: we are going to have to wrap up. Brian, tell

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Speaker 1: us why tomorrow is such an important day for all

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Speaker 1: It'sustralians to really sit back and remember what happened to

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Speaker 1: Darwin eighty years ago.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well I've been I've been spooking for yeah, eighty

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Speaker 3: odd years to try and get the message over my

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Speaker 3: own messages and never never forget to remember. And the

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Speaker 3: trouble as they don't one of their big problems with

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Speaker 3: the There we were with Lockied Hudson's looking after the

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Speaker 3: second fortieth Tazzies, the thousand of them, and they only

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Speaker 3: had a brandy on carry her and a few rifles

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Speaker 3: and had had nothing to really take the you know,

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Speaker 3: the jeps on. And then when the Japanese looked like

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Speaker 3: getting down to Dow and they decided that they were

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Speaker 3: going to pull the aircraft out because they were over

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Speaker 3: overtaken by the Japs anyway. And one of the hard

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Speaker 3: things in my life was that I knew a lot

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Speaker 3: of the ten thousand tatty. I went to school with

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Speaker 3: a lot of them, and we did a lot of

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Speaker 3: flying beers whtween Darwin and Copeng, and I used to

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Speaker 3: take milk and ten nugget and beer and all the

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Speaker 3: things that they're short of. Yeah, but the worst thing

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Speaker 3: in my life was that we had orders to live

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Speaker 3: Copeng and we just walked away from a thousand tatsies

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Speaker 3: and and I knew that. In fact, half a half

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Speaker 3: that thousand were even killed or taken prisoner of war.

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Speaker 3: And the ones that were taken a prisoners of war,

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Speaker 3: they were put put on a Japanese boat to go

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Speaker 3: to Tokyo to work in the in the mines and

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Speaker 3: sailing in up near Tea Moor. An American plane came

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Speaker 3: along and struck them and tor peed. The shepherd had

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Speaker 3: killed all their killed all their pow. A few of

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Speaker 3: them swamm and he got away. But it was a

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Speaker 3: pretty deadly time of the year. And it's always all

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Speaker 3: those features have always been tattooed onto my brain and

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Speaker 3: I keep, I keep, you know, remembering them all the time.

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Speaker 3: And at home, I've got a list of all their

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Speaker 3: names of the people that were killed there, and the

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Speaker 3: list is nine feet long. And the sad thing is

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Speaker 3: that everyone these days, in those days, everyone that got killed,

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Speaker 3: it disrupted their family completely because they all had mothers

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Speaker 3: and fathers, and they had girlfriends. And it not only

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Speaker 3: killed the person, but who killed their family as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, life would never be the same for so many Australians. Brian,

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Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for coming in and seeing

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Speaker 1: us this morning. I know it must be difficult for

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Speaker 1: you to talk about and remember, you know, such a

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Speaker 1: such a terribly hard time, but I am so grateful

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Speaker 1: that you've come in and have a chat to me

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Speaker 1: this morning.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, Kate, this, this this weekend is the most

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Speaker 3: memorable event of my whole life. It even takes over

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Speaker 3: being in a in a cockpit of a cockpit of

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Speaker 3: a fast aircraft and all the other exciting things that yeah, yes, sorry, yeah,

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Speaker 3: I sat in the front of a concord while it

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Speaker 3: was learning learning in the Bahrain, and that was one

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Speaker 3: of the terrific experience. But this week weekend, yesterday we

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Speaker 3: had that there was nearly one hundred people out of

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Speaker 3: the museum and everyone was talking, was being interviewed on

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Speaker 3: looking at some of those beautiful planes there. It's a

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Speaker 3: mighty place anyway, very much, thanks for taking your time.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and I think that everybody listening

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Speaker 1: this morning is going to be feeling very humbled listening

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Speaker 1: to your story. So Brian Winsby, thank you so very

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Speaker 1: much for having a chat with us today.

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Speaker 3: Okay, thanks, thank you.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. You are listening to Mix one oh four

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Speaker 1: point nine's three sixty