Pearl Harbor and the Darwin Raids – a comparison

Author
Dr. Tom Lewis OAM

​Pearl Harbor is often compared to the Darwin attack but the similarities are very few.

​Although both were surprise initial raids on an enemy of the Japanese Empire, the destruction caused in each raid was disproportionate in the extreme. 

Some people say Darwin was “bigger” than the Pearl Harbor strike. The chairwoman of the Northern Territory's Centenary of Federation committee in 2001, Carole Miller, said: “'It was bigger than Pearl Harbour...and it's time the nation knew about this."[1] 
 
Many say: “More bombs fell on Darwin”, a phrase now common in much of the publicity surrounding the commemoration of the first raids.[2] True enough but it is just used to be sensationalist if used without the correlation that the tonnage of bombs which fell on Pearl Harbor was greater: the Japanese were using smaller bombs in the Darwin raid.  It’s a bit like saying the Darwin assaults were more significant than the Nagasaki raid because that attack on Japan only used one bomb.

The following tables shows the statistics of the two raids.

Explosive Ordnance tonnage – Pearl Harbor v Port Darwin

Pearl Harbor - First Wave

Aircraft	Number launched	Aborts	Total attacking	Ordnance load	Ordnance released	Tonnage (kgs)
B5N2 Kates	50 *	1	49	One x 800kg bomb	49 x 800kg bombs	39,200kg
D3A1 Vals	54	3	51	One x 250kg bomb	51 x 250kg bombs	12,750kg
A6M2 Zeroes	45	2	43	Nil	Nil	Nil
Totals	149	4	100	100 bombs	100 bombs	51,950kg

* - A further 40 Kates were each armed with one 800kg Mk 91 Aerial torpedo, totaling 32,000kg

Pearl Harbor - Second Wave

Aircraft	Number launched	Aborts	Total attacking	Ordnance load	Ordnance released	Tonnage (kgs)
B5N2 Kates	27	Nil	27	Two x 250kg bombs	54 x 250kg bombs	13,500kg
B5N2 Kates	27	Nil	27	One x 250kg bombs six x 60kg bombs	54 x 250kg bombs 162 x 60kg bombs	6,750kg 9,720kg
D3A1 Vals	81	3	78	One x 250kg bomb	78 x 250kg bombs	19,500kg
A6M2 Zekes	36	1	35	Nil	Nil	Nil
Totals	171	4	167		321 bombs	49,470kg

Pearl Harbor Total

Weapons	Number launched	Tonnage (kgs)
Bombs	421	101,420
Torpedoes	40 x 800kg	32,000
Total	461	133,420

Port Darwin - Carrier strike

Aircraft	Number launched	Aborts	Total attacking	Ordnance load	Ordnance released	Tonnage (kgs)
B5N2 Kates	81	Nil	81	One x 800kg bomb	81 x 800kg bombs	64,800kg
D3A1 Vals	71	Nil	71 - one lost after release, MN3304	One x 250kg bomb	69 (2 x hang-ups - Vals returned with bombs)	17,250kg
A6M2 Zekes	36	Nil	36	Nil	Nil	Nil
Totals	188	Nil	188	152 bombs	150 bombs	82,050kg

Port Darwin - Land-based trike

Aircraft	Number launched	Aborts	Total attacking	Ordnance load	Ordnance released	Tonnage (kgs)
G4M1 Bettys	27	Nil	27	212 x 60kg and one x 250kg	212 x 60kg and one x 250kg	12,970kg
G3M2 Nells	27	Nil	27	318 x 60kg	318 x 60kg	19,080kg
Totals	54	Nil	54	531 bombs	531 bombs	32,050kg

Port Darwin Total

Weapons	Number launched	Tonnage (kgs)
Bombs	681	114,100
Total	681	114,100

Steve Bullard’s table: Wartime magazine No. 59 Winter 2012

Raid	Number of Bombers	Number of Bombs	Totat weight (kgs)
Pearl Harbor	273	457	133,560
Darwin	205	681	114,100

The comparison is also a rather disingenuous one.  A torpedo strike from a Japanese bomber would do far more damage than a bomb from the same aircraft: as air group leader Fuchida discussed in conferences before the attack: “…the torpedoes below the surface would do more effective damage than bombings from the air.”[4] Torpedoes were not used at Darwin but they inflicted massive damage at the American base. To just compare the weapons by their weight is to miss this point.
 
Some say that more civilians were killed in the Australian raids.[5] Untrue. There were 2,388 lives lost in the Pearl Harbor raids compared to 235 killed in Darwin. It’s generally held 68 civilians were killed at Pearl; 25 were killed in Darwin.
 
What about the ships sunk?
​It has been claimed more ships were sunk at Pearl than in Darwin.[6]  Eleven ships were sunk in Darwin: nine inside the harbour. The largest warship was a destroyer, the USS Peary, with 88 of her crew killed. At Pearl all eight battleships of the US Pacific Fleet, the most important capital ship at the time, were sunk or badly damaged. The size difference between a destroyer and a battleship is immense. The comparison is similar to that of a car set beside a three-trailer truck. The firepower is commensurately similar.
 
Three cruisers – again, big, important ships – five destroyers, and seven other ships were also sunk or grounded. Most ships were raised and repaired, although for many wrecks this took years.
 
The strike at Pearl was a massive loss for American aircraft too, and that raid was far more destructive than Darwin’s. For example, 350 aircraft were destroyed or damaged whereas in the Australian assault 30 were lost.
 
None of this is to say that the 19 February 1942 strikes were insignificant. They were. The attacks were the first on the Australian landmass, and signaled a new and sometimes desperate stage of the war, which if Australians had not stood alongside Americans and prevailed in New Guinea, may well have seen invasion. The writer Douglas Lockwood called his 1960s book, the first published about the raids, Australia’s Pearl Harbour.  It’s a good and deserved title. But the important differences should be emphasized, not minimized, to do historical justice to both of the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Darwin.

​
Sources
Ingman, Peter. Citing, “NavSource Naval History”, http://www.navsource.org/Naval/ijnaf.htm
Smith, Carl. Pearl Harbor 1941 The day of infamy. Osprey. 2001.
Stille, Mark. Tora, Tora, Tora!: Pearl Harbor 1941. Osprey. 2011.
Bullard, Steve. “Were more bombs dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbor?” Australian War Memorial. Wartime magazine No. 59 Winter 2012.
Kawano, Capt. Teruaki. The Japanese Navy’s air raid against Australia during the World War 2. Extracts of the Japanese Kodochosho. 1997.

[1] ABC News. http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/nt/archive/metnt-19feb2001-2.htm  Accessed September 2012.

[2] For example in this article, which contains numerous errors:
DARWIN, February 19, 1942,
* 242 Japanese aircraft attack Darwin harbour, town and airfields
* Like Pearl Harbour a total surprise and no air raid sirens sounded
* More than 300 military and civilian personnel killed
* More bombs dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbour
News.com.au. “70 years on, survivors remember the Japanese bombing of Darwin.” http://www.news.com.au/national-old/years-on-survivors-remember-the-japanese-bombing-of-darwin/story-e6frfkxr-1226274422208.  Accessed December 3012.
and in this travel website Darwinhub:
“More bombs were dropped on Darwin than at Pearl Harbour, resulting in 243 deaths.”  http://darwinhub.com/about-darwin/darwin-history/  Accessed November 2012.

[4] Fuchida, Mitsuo. From Pearl Harbor to Calvary. California: eChristian, 2010.

[5] “The Japanese struck with the same carrier-borne force that devastated Pearl Harbor only ten weeks earlier. There was a difference. More bombs fell on Darwin, more civilians were killed, and more ships were sunk.” An Awkward Truth. Publisher’s web site: http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741756432 Accessed May 2012.

[6] “…and more ships were sunk.” An Awkward Truth. Publisher’s web site: http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741756432 Accessed May 2012.