page_title: History of the Northern Territory
section_title: World War Two
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Northern Territory / 20th century / World War Two
caption_attribution_description: English: The explosion of the MV Neptuna and clouds of smoke from oil storage tanks, hit during the first Japanese air raid on Australia's mainland, at Darwin on February 19, 1942. In the foreground is HMAS Deloraine, which escaped damage.
context_page_description: The history of the Northern Territory began over 60,000 years ago when Indigenous Australians settled the region. Makassan traders began trading with the indigenous people of the Northern Territory for trepang from at least the 18th century onwards ‹See TfM›, and possibly 300 years prior to that.
  Europeans first sighted the coast of the future Territory in the 17th century. British groups made attempts to settle the coastal regions of the Territory from 1824 onwards; however no settlement proved successful until the establishment of Port Darwin in 1869.
context_section_description: Australia declared war on Nazi Germany following its invasion of Poland in 1939. After Japan entered the war in 1941, the Northern Territory came under direct attack. With most of Australia's best forces committed to fight against Hitler in the Middle East, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the US naval base in Hawaii, on 8 December 1941 (eastern Australia time). The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse sent to defend Singapore were sunk soon afterwards. British Malaya quickly collapsed, shocking the Australian nation.  After the Fall of Singapore, Australian Prime Minister Curtin predicted that the "battle for Australia" would now follow and on 19 February, Darwin suffered a devastating air raid, the first time the Australian mainland had ever been attacked by enemy forces. Over the following 19 months, Australia was attacked from the air almost 100 times.
caption: The Bombing of Darwin, 19 February 1942. During World War II the Territory suffered attacks from Imperial Japan.
exif: {}