An Awkward Truth The Bombing of Darwin, February 1942

The compelling and very human story of the first foreign assault on Australian soil since settlement--the attack on Darwin by the Japanese in February, 1942The bombing of Darwin on February 19, 1942, is the battle Australia tries to forget. Although there was much to be proud of that day--courage, mateship, determination, and improvisation--the dark side of the story lingers: looting, desertion, and a calamitous failure of Australian leadership. The Japanese struck with the same carrier-borne force that devastated Pearl Harbor only ten weeks earlier. There was a difference: they dropped more bombs on Darwin, killed more civilians in Darwin, and sank more ships in Darwin than in Pearl Harbor. It remains the single deadliest event in Australian history. Yet the story has remained in the shadows. Absorbing, spirited, and fast-paced, An Awkward Truthis a compelling and revealing story of the day war first came to Australia, and of the underarmed and unprepared soldiers and civilians who faced their toughest test on home soil.

Peter Grose is a former publisher at Secker & Warburg, founder of Curtis Brown Australia, and was until recently the chairman of ACP (UK). He is the author of A Very Rude Awakening.