![]() ![]() "There is evidence they were planning major attacks from somewhere off Innisfail - that is, a major carrier-based air raid." "The reconnaissance missions over the city in March 1942 were for an air raid much larger and more destructive than the July attack," Townsville historian Ray Holyoak said. Just two months before enemy planes bombed Townsville in a scaled-down air raid in July 1942, Japanese commanders had been planning a major attack on the city, it has been revealed. Only a comedy of errors and an overstretched enemy force saved north Queensland from becoming Australia's Pearl Harbor. What history hasn't told us is that Townsville was next. It is impossible to quantify precisely how many people have been saved by the early warning of air raid sirens, but to this day, their sound remains a symbol of moments that no one wishes to return.HISTORY tells us that the Japanese attack on the Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii 70 years ago was a devastating act of aggression that shocked the world and forced the US into World War II. They were later installed almost everywhere in response to Cold War tensions, both in the Eastern and Western Blocs (just for the record, sirens have only been used to warn of tornadoes in the US since the 1970s).Īir raid sirens were also sounded in the NATO bombings in Bosnia in 1995 and in what is now Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo in 1999, which, together with the Russian army’s bombing of the Chechen city of Grozny in the 1990s, were, fortunately, the last large-scale military air raids in Europe.Īn occasional test of the public warning system in Slovakia may seem unpleasant for many nevertheless, in a certain sense, it is a reminder of a terrible history when military air raids were a living memory and potentially a real threat. They were electric and emitted two signals: a waxing and waning warning signal and a steady tone which meant that people could come out of their hiding place. Thus, as the aviation industry further developed, so did warning mechanisms, and a system of anti-aircraft sirens was developed in Britain between 19.Īir-raid sirens first sounded the warning in London in September 1939. However, during World War II, air raids were already being announced, and people were urged to escape to shelters or London Underground stations. Even though they had existed since 1799, when the air-raid siren was invented by the Scottish natural philosopher and physicist John Robison, these sirens were not used during World War I. That was later overtaken by the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.Īir raid sirens are a relatively new phenomenon. ![]() However, the single most destructive bombing raid in human history was the so-called Operation Meetinghouse by the US Army Air Forces on Tokyo in March 1945, leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead and over one million homeless. Petersburg), Belfast, and London.īy comparison, air raids on London in 1915-1917 claimed about 700 dead and 2,000 wounded, unlike the “Blitz”, which killed more than 20,000 people in 1940-1941. German air raids targeted, among others, Warsaw, Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Leningrad (now St. Well-known are also bombings on Hamburg, Cologne and Dresden, and Bratislava during the Apollo refinery attack conducted by allied forces. The Polish city of Wieluń was bombed first, followed by multiple other cities, the most famous being Japan’s naval and aerial attack on the American Pearl Harbour, after which the United States entered the war. The incident inspired Pablo Picasso in painting his famous masterpiece.ĭuring World War II, many cities and military targets were bombed. The raids were carried out by the German Luftwaffe, an ally of General Franco. One of the worst incidents was the infamous bombing of the Basque city of Guernica in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. During the inter-war period, bombs were dropped from the air in Iraq, China, and Europe. Since War I, air raids have become an increasingly common form of military attacks. ![]()
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