so ? 

Gday...

Vic, given war time 'censorship' "for our own good" there was considerable 'enemy' activity around our coastline that was never publicised then or even post-war.

Protection of Coastal Shipping

In 1917 German raiders laid mines in Bass Strait (near Cape Howe) and recognising its strategic importance, returned to the area in 1940.

Between June 1942 and June 1943 the 13 Japanese submarines operating off the east coast of Australia claimed 22 Allied ships, of which twelve were Australian owned, with the loss of 194 lives. These submarines were capable of carrying a midget submarine or a floatplane.

These aircraft were launched at sea using a catapult and carried out surveillance flights over Australia. Wartime censorship meant that these events were not reported.

Two ships were sunk off Gabo Island. The freighter Iron Crown was the only vessel torpedoed by a submarine in Victorian waters (70 km SW of Gabo Island) with a loss of 38 lives. A memorial is located near the RSL Cenotaph in the Mallacoota town centre.

A RAAF Landing Ground was located adjacent to the Operations Bunker. This extended the range of aircraft engaged in coastal reconnaissance by providing staging facilities for refuelling, re-arming and maintenance.

The aerodrome was used initially by Avro Anson aircraft, and later by Beaufort aircraft after a third runway was built.

A Seaplane Depot was also located on the lake at Mallacoota. No 9 SQD Detachment Operations was based at Mirrabooka House.

https://www.mallacootabunker.com.au/about-the-bunker

cheers - John

Thanks Rocky, I read somewhere about one of the Jap surveillance aircraft from a sub flying over Melbourne, nobody took any notice as they thought  it was impossible for one to be there.   Yes, a lot was covered up from the general population during and post war.  

yogi wrote:

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so ? 

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 So this is "I digress", don't know what you are on about, some of us are interested in this stuff.    

The Belmont Bear wrote:

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Weevil wrote:

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We became the target of German U Boat operations off the Australian Coast, however becaue of U Boat losses in the Pacific it never fully came about and all U Boats in our area were recalled.   One was sunk by a Dutch submarine operating out of Fremantle, WA.    Another was recalled to Penang Jap sub pens.

See:  http://www.navy.gov.au/history/feature-histories/german-u-boat-operations-australian-waters       

Jap subs were still active around Australia, besides the Jap Mini Sub attack on Sydney Harbour, a surfaced Jap sub shelled Port Gregory (just south of Kalbarri) WA, but only destroyed a fish factory with no loss of life.   Another Jap sub was sighted off Fremantle.   The allied Naval base at Garden Island, WA had it's beaches patrolled by soldiers of an Australian Army unit.  Two Australian soldiers were found on the beach with their throats cut, suspected by enemy commando's recon from an enemy sub.

With the Jap bombings of Darwin (64 bombing raids) and bombings of Broome and Derby etc, if the war had not turned due to the Yanks entering the war after Pearl Harbour we would more than likely been invaded and occupied IMHO, despite our government denying this was on the cards.     

-- Edited by Weevil on Monday 7th of January 2019 04:10:39 PM

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One of the best known attacks by a Japanese submarine on Australia during WW2 (other than Sydney harbour) was on Newcastle on 8 June 1942 which was then home to BHPs steelworks & critical to the Australian war effort. The I-21 fired 34 times at the city including 8 illumination shells luckily only one of them caused any real damage which was to a local residence in Newcastle's east end. Apparently this has been the only time that an Australian fort has engaged an enemy as the gun battery located at Fort Scratchely opened up and fired 4 rounds at them before they took off. Seaplanes from Jap subs flew over both Newcastle and Sydney looking for possible shipping targets in the harbours and there were also a few attacks reported by submarines on shipping off the coast near both of these cities..

Cheers

BB

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 Thanks BB, interesting stuff.   How lucky we were the war turned against the Japs (and previously the Germans) and their supply lines, otherwise things could have been a lot different.