Darwin bombing ‘would test today’s warships’

JAPAN’S BOMBING OF Darwin 70 years ago was so sudden and overwhelming that even a modern warship would have been challenged, a commander of a US Destroyer says.

Commander Justin Kubu of the USS Chafee, which docked in Darwin on Friday, said the bombing would have tested his ship.

His vessel is a 155-metre modern destroyer with more than $2 billion worth of equipment. It is capable of carrying 96 missiles.

“They brought such numbers that even a ship like this would have been challenged,” Cmdr Kubu from on board the Chafee.

It is thought 188 Japanese planes attacked Darwin on 19 February, 1942, killing at least 243 people and destroying 20 military aircraft and eight ships.

More bombs were dropped than at the bombing of Pearl Harbour in December the prior year.

Cmdr Kubu said the modern capabilities of his ship made it much more accurate than vessels 70 years ago, but that would have helped little without warning the Japanese bombers were on their way.

“Even back in 1942 I think if they had had a little more heads up it would have been a little more evenly matched,” he said.

The American destroyer USS Peary was sunk at Darwin.

On Sunday to commemorate the bombing there will be a re-enactment of the events of 1942 in Darwin, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Governor General Quentin Bryce attending.

While in port the Chafee crew will take on young Aboriginal men in an AFL match.

The USS Chafee has no nuclear weapons and is not nuclear-powered. - AAP

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