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Reminiscences of the Japanese mini submarine attack in Sydney Harbour 1942

CC BY-SA 2.0
By
Magella Blinksell
Contributed By
Internet Archive
[ReminiscenceOfNightOfSubAttacksOnSydneyHarbourWwii]
(Excerpt from A Track Winding Back: Morshead Home Oral History & Reminiscence project)

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Japanese submarine attack 1942 Maroubra Sydney
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Japanese submarine attack 1942
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Blinksell, Magella

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is a non-profit organisation based in San Francisco that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.

Japanese submarine attack 1942

Often warned of the possibility of invasion, Sydneysiders were to experience the real thing in 1942 when three Japanese midget submarines slipped into the harbour, destroying the naval ship HMAS Kuttabul.

Sydney

Founded by Europeans as a social experiment, Sydney's beginnings brought death and dispossession to the original inhabitants of the place, as well as surprising freedom and prosperity to many of the convicts. Over its history, the city's growth has been shaped by factors that are common to many cities, but also by unique forces. In the twenty-first century, for the first time, the idea of sustainable progress is itself in doubt.

Maroubra

Originally fishing and camping grounds for the local Muru-ora-dial Aboriginal people, Maroubra is now the largest suburb in the area governed by Randwick City Council, in both area and population. However, its early beginnings did not foresee such developments. Industry and the spectacle of dramatic shipwrecks drew Europeans to the area in the late nineteenth century but development didn't begin in earnest until the early twentieth century.

Submarines

War

World War II

Japanese submarine attack 1942

On the night of 31 May 1942, three midget submarines, each with a two-member crew, entered Sydney Harbour, avoided the partially constructed Sydney Harbour anti-submarine boom net, and attempted unsuccessfully to sink Allied warships anchored near Garden Island.

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Maroubra

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South-eastern beachside suburb. Its name is believed to come from a tribe that lived there, or from a Dharuk companion of Bennelong. Another conjectured meaning is 'like thunder', referring to the sound of heavy surf.

Rose Bay

Eastern harbourside suburb named for Governor Arthur Phillip's friend and mentor George Rose, later Treasurer of the Navy. It was the site of a flying boat airport until 1974 and seaplanes still land there.

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