Why hadn't I heard about this before?

[red750]

My brother texted me this link, asking if I had heard about it before. I hadn't. Why has there not been more discussion of this incident? Who in this group knew about it?

[Jerry_Atrick]

Not me

[onetrack]

I knew nothing about this incident. No doubt, Wartime censorship and embarrassment hushed it up.

[nomadpete]

My dad would have loved to know about the Japanese submersible aircraft carriers! He was operating searchlights at South Head when the mini subs came in, and saw the periscopes in the wake of the Manly Ferry as it came through the nets.

Pretty sure very few people heard anything about how the Japanese managed to make reccy flights over capital cities.

 

And there is a story down here about a bunch of people walking to southernmost Tassie in 1942 to check in case the Japanese had used a remote harbour for their navy. There was no aircraft available for the task.

[old man emu]

7 hours ago, onetrack said:

I knew nothing about this incident. No doubt, Wartime censorship and embarrassment hushed it up.

I had heard of the flight over Sydney. We have never been told about the intense submarine activity along Australia's coastline and the many ships that were sunk. I read a book about a tour made by a German submarine that patrolled around the coast of New Zealand. The captain was amazed at the lack of blackout in the towns along the coast.

 

Once again, our Nation's history has never been revealed to us.

[facthunter]

Well once upon a time,  there was this bloke called Don Bradman and that was the beginning...............................  Nev

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

Well once upon a time,  there was this bloke called Don Bradman 

Who went into battle against the Jardine-ists mounted on Phar Lap

[willedoo]

I'd never heard of these submarines before. They were 400' long with a 100' watertight hangar on deck containing three floatplanes. The aircraft were launched from the deck with a compressed air catapult and retrieved via a deck crane.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400-class_submarine

[nomadpete]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

Who went into battle against the Jardine-ists mounted on Phar Lap

STOP!

 

We already have a Never Ending Story on the aeroporn forum

[nomadpete]

11 minutes ago, willedoo said:

I'd never heard of these submarines before. They were 400' long with a 100' watertight hangar on deck containing three floatplanes. The aircraft were launched from the deck with a compressed air catapult and retrieved via a deck crane.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400-class_submarine

I believe that the mini submarines  in Sydney harbour were launched from a mother submarine.

A big mutha, I'm thinking.

[onetrack]

I wasn't even aware that a Jap submarine visited Fremantle in 1942 and surfaced off Cottesloe beach, and the crew reported that they could clearly hear the music from a local Dance Hall!

 

https://www.cottesloepast.net/waves-of-change/1942-war-comes-to-cottesloe/

 

The American submarine base in Fremantle was crucial to the War effort, and Gen Thomas Blamey was so concerned about a Japanese attack on the base that he split the base and moved some of the American subs to a base in Albany.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremantle_submarine_base

 

My Dad was tasked as Manpower during WW2 as he had taken a temporary job in a galvanising works just before the Americans entered the War - but as soon as the ordure hit the fan in early 1942 and the American subs rolled up, the business that employed him was given major contracts for steady and continuous galvanising jobs for the U.S. Navy submarines.

 

So they claimed Dad was vital for the War effort - and his move to join the RAAF (which he actually did join) was thwarted, and the RAAF CO called him in and berated him for not telling him he was Manpowered!  

Dad informed he had no idea he'd been Manpowered, it was done as he was joining the RAAF! The galvanising works job was a prick of a job, dealing with acids, hot metals and constant burns - but it did pay good money.

He got out of the place as soon as he could, near the end of the War as the U.S. sub work disappeared.

[facthunter]

The mini subs were not a lot bigger than a torpedo.  Nev

[pmccarthy]

My uncle Ken was reprimanded for reporting seeing a submarine off his post at Sydney heads. Later the story about the Jap subs came out, but he didn't get an apology!