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USS Peary - AussieMick - 02-19-2019 05:29 AM
77 years ago, 19 Feb 1942. The first destroyer of the Asiatic Fleet to be sunk in World War Two.
'On 19 February 1942 Darwin Australia experienced a massive Japanese air attack. The Peary was attacked by Japanese dive bombers, and was struck by five bombs. The first bomb exploded on the fantail, the second, an incendiary, on the galley deck house; the third did not explode; the fourth hit forward and set off the forward ammunition magazines; the fifth, another incendiary, exploded in the after engine room. A .30 caliber machine gun on the after deck house and a .50 caliber machine gun on the galley deck house fired until the last enemy plane flew away. Lost with the ship were 88 officers and men, including Bermingham. The only senior survivor was her gunnery officer, Lieutenant W.J. Catlett.'
"The doomed yet magnificent reply by the destroyer USS Peary in Darwin harbour as Japanese dive-bombers swarmed around her deserves a place in the legend books of American military history".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Peary_(DD-226)
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Copyright held By John Alexis Richards - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18333552
http://www.ntlexhibit.nt.gov.au/exhibits/show/bod/roh/bermingham
There's other information here about WW2 and the Australian Northern Territory. You can search on US military personnel names...
http://www.ntlexhibit.nt.gov.au/exhibits/show/bod/roh/location#United
"Lest We Forget"
RE: USS Peary - RJNorton - 02-19-2019 06:01 AM
Thank you for posting this remembrance, Michael. Here is another link on the Bombing of Darwin:
https://www.4bc.com.au/today-marks-77-years-since-the-war-came-to-australia/