Japanese Submarine Attack

I think this was the only occasion when the defence nets strung between the two harbour mouths were ever penetrated by enemy submarines. The small miniature Japanese submarine was put on show in the Botanical gardens, and we like thousands of others queued up to see it. It really was a minute little space for two men to be in. I remember a very embarrassed Australian soldier having to explain to one old lady that what she thought was an odd-shaped can was in fact the Japanese latrine, and that another utensil was made for holding their tea.

Amazingly that was the only contact with the war that we had in New South Wales. Darwin to the north of Australia was of course bombed by the Japanese quite heavily [the first attack being 19 February, just 1 week into the school term. It was after this incident that many Sydney residents fled inland, including the owners of the bungalow in Vaucluse], but apart from these incidents the Americans were able to keep the Japs from getting any nearer than New Guinea, and Australia survived the war intact.

There were thousands of American troops everywhere one looked, but as I have mentioned before, very few Australians except those returning eventually from the Middle East. The Queen Mary, Mauretania, and Queen Elizabeth used to glide into Sydney Harbour silently overnight depositing their service personnel passengers, and then glide out again the following night. No mention was ever made of the fact that they were there. One simply ignored the ships, and yet they were so vast that they took up virtually the whole of the space between the pillars of the Harbour Bridge.