Australia Under Attack: The Bombing of Darwin - 1942

2022 marks 80 years since Australia faced an unprecedented foreign attack on home soil.Author Douglas Lockwood was an Australian newspaperman and author. Born in Natimuk, 25 kilometres west of Horsham in Victoria s Wimmera district, Lockwood left school at 12 to help run his father s newspaper, the weekly West Wimmera Mail, at the height of the Great Depression.With his father s blessing he left home at 16 and worked as a reporter on rural Victorian papers in Camperdown, Tatura and Mildura before being hired by Sir Keith Murdoch in 1941 as a journalist on The Herald in Melbourne. He stayed with The Herald s parent company, the Herald and Weekly Times (HWT), for the rest of his life.At the end of 1941, during World War II, he was sent to Darwin with his new wife, Ruth , and was there for the first Japanese attack on Australia on 19 February 1942.While Douglas was there and was able to share his personal story he also Interviewed American s Japanese and other nations who took part. He was able to meet & interview former airmen who had flown against the Japanese that day and been shot down.He tells the story of the Bombing of Darwin not only from this experience but of the many he interviewed who were in the air, at the aerodromes, in the harbour, on the wharf, in the town and at the hospital.

About the Author :
Douglas Wright Lockwood (1918-1980), journalist, soldier and author, was born on 9 July 1918 at Natimuk, Victoria, second child of native-born parents Alfred Wright Lockwood, journalist, and his second wife Ida Dorothea, née Klowss, daughter of a German immigrant. Alfred had four children by a previous marriage. Educated at Natimuk State School, Douglas worked on his father's newspaper, the West Wimmera Mail, and on newspapers at Camperdown, Tatura and Mildura. In 1941 Lockwood oined the Melbourne Herald. On 4 October that year at the Methodist Church, Wangaratta, he married Ruth Hay, a clerk. Soon afterwards he was sent to Darwin and in February 1942 saw the first enemy bombs fall on Australian soil. Enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force on 15 June, he trained in intelligence and security duties. He served in New Guinea and on Bougainville in 1944-45 with 'V' and 'Z' Field Security sections, and was promoted warrant officer. Following his discharge on 15 June 1945 in Melbourne, he was a war correspondent for theHerald, reporting from the Netherlands East Indies. In 1946 he returned to Darwin and, except for postings to the Herald's Melbourne (1947-48) and London (1954-56) offices, was to remain there until 1968.