Wikipedia:Today's featured article/February 27, 2008
There was considerableAxis naval activity in Australian watersduringWorld War II.A total of 54GermanandJapanesewarshipsandsubmarinesentered Australian waters between 1940 and 1945 and attacked ships, ports and other targets. Among the best-known attacks are thesinking of HMASSydneyby a German raider in November 1941, thebombing of Darwin by Japanese naval aircraftin February 1942, and the Japanese midget submarineattack on Sydney Harbourin May 1942. In addition, manyAlliedmerchant ships were damaged or sunk off the Australian coast by submarines andmines.The level of Axis naval activity peaked in the first half of 1942 whenJapanese submarinesconducted anti-shipping patrols off Australia's coast and Japanese naval aviation attacked several towns innorthern Australia.The Japanese submarine offensive against Australia was renewed in the first half of 1943 but was broken off as the Allies pushed the Japanese onto the defensive. Few Axis naval vessels operated in Australian waters in 1944 and 1945 and those that did had only a limited impact. Due to the episodic nature of the Axis attacks and the relatively small number of ships and submarines committed, Germany and Japan were not successful in disrupting Australian shipping. (more...)
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