Attack On Broome - The Attack

The Attack

Lt Zenjiro Miyano—the commander of Dai 3 Kohkuu Sentai (3rd Air Group) of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service—led nine Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters and a Mitsubishi C5M2 reconnaissance plane from their base at Kupang, Timor in the attack, on the morning of 3 March.

From about 09:20, the Zeros made strafing attacks on the flying boat anchorage at Roebuck Bay and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base at Broome Airfield. No bombs were dropped, although some were reported, perhaps a result of witnesses seeing the Zero pilots releasing their drop tanks. The raid lasted an hour.

The Japanese fighters destroyed at least 22 Allied aircraft. These included an airborne United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) B-24A Liberator, full of wounded personnel — more than 30 died when it crashed in the sea, about 16 km (8.6 nmi; 9.9 mi) off Broome. The Allies also lost 15 flying boats at anchorage; many Dutch refugees were on board and the exact number and identities of those killed is unknown. At the airfield, the Japanese fighters destroyed two B-17E Flying Fortresses and a B-24 belonging to the USAAF, two Lockheed Hudsons belonging to the RAAF and a Lockheed Lodestar belonging to the Royal Netherlands East Indies Air Force (ML-KNIL).

The aircraft destroyed included: eight Catalinas belonging to the Royal Netherlands Navy Air Service (MLD), United States Navy and the Royal Air Force; two Short Empires belonging to the RAAF and QANTAS, and five Dornier Do 24s belonging to the MLD.

A KLM Douglas DC-3 airliner—PK-AFV (carrying refugees from Bandung)—was also shot down, 80 km (50 mi) north of Broome, with the loss of four lives and diamonds worth £150,000-300,000 (now approximately A$20-40 million).

There were no Allied fighter planes based in Broome at the time. The Zeroes encountered some light arms fire from the ground. One Zero pilot—Warrant Officer Osamu Kudō—was killed by ground fire from a Dutch ML-KNIL pilot, First Lieutenant Gus Winckel, using a 7.9 mm (0.311 in) machine gun he had removed from his Lodestar. Winckel balanced the weapon on his shoulder, and sustained burns to his left forearm, when it touched the barrel of the gun after firing. Another Zero ran out of fuel and ditched while returning to his base, although the pilot survived.

In 2010, new research argued instead that Kudo’s Zero was shot down by the tail guns in the B-24A Arabian Nights, which itself was downed by Kudo’s attack with the loss of 19 of the 20 American military personnel on board.