The Top Ender Magazine October November 2020 Edition

VP Day at DMM | Photo: Baz Ledwidge
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Plaque to MacArthur in Batchelor
Darwin Millitary Museum VP Day
Strauss Air Strip – completed 1942
December 1940 Alice Springs to Birdum (7km south of
Larrimah) stretch of North–South Road (now Stuart Highway)
sealed and capable of bearing military traffic.
28 July 1941 140,000 Japanese troops invade southern
French Indochina.
August 1941 Japanese garrison of 8,000 troops established
in Cambodia.
7 December 1941 Bombing of Pearl Harbor, brings US into
the conflict.
8 December 1941 Japan initiates invasion of the Philippines
Invasion of Malaya starts
Japan invades Siam (now Thailand), forms alliance
New Zealand declares war on Japan.
10 December 1941 Royal Navy ships HMS Prince of Wales
and Repulse sunk off Malaya. In his memoirs, Winston Churchill
wrote, "I put the telephone down. I was thankful to be alone.
In all the war I never received a more direct shock".
12 December 1941 American Asiatic Fleet withdraws to Java
in Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).
14 December 1941 Japanese forces attack Burma (now
Myanmar) at Victoria Point (now Kawthaung), its southernmost
town, and then occupy the area on 16 January 1942.
16 December 1941 Borneo invaded by Japanese 35th
Infantry Brigade under Major General Kiyotaki Kawaguchi.
17 December 1941 Japan requests surrender of Hong Kong;
Sir Mark Young, Commander in Chief, declines.
18 December 1941 Japanese troops arrive and slaughter
Chinese and British alike, take control of reservoirs, threaten
death by thirst.
25 December 1941 Hong Kong falls.
11 January 1942 Kuala Lumpur falls.
Japan attacks Dutch East Indies (ending Dutch colonial rule in
what is now Indonesia).
23 January 1942 Japan invades Australian administered
New Guinea.
1 February 1942 Japan invades Singapore.
15 February 1942 Singapore falls.
19 February 1942 Bombing of Darwin, and the loss of eight
out of the forty-seven ships in the harbour and many military
personnel and civilians.
12 March 1942 General Douglas MacArthur leaves the
Philippines for Australia.
17 March 1942 MacArthur arrives in Batchelor, before
travelling to Brisbane to establish his Headquarters.
22 March 1942 Bombing of Katherine.
27 March 1942 Residents of Katherine evacuated.
29–30 March 1942 Japanese invade western New Guinea,
part of the Dutch East Indies.
continued on page 60
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