On a lush North -Queensland cattle -ownership in April 1942, a strange shape fell from the clouds the eye of a woman while she was shot.
A mushroom -shaped cloth attached to a glittering figure was scoured from the low -lying skyshade, the feet of the parachutist bumping away from the farm.
American landing ships on the beach beach in Townsville. ((Lever: Geoff Hansen))
Eyewitnesses quickly mounted on their horses and drove to the landing site, but the shadow figure had disappeared.
It is a story that seems almost fictional, one that will happen far from the coasts of Australia.
But the Australian historian Ray Holyoak of James Cook University has discovered Radarrecords, police reports and eyewitness reports that reveal evidence of a joint foreign espionage effort in North Australia in wartime.
Ray Holyoak is investigating reports and eyewitness reports. ((ABC North Queensland: Chloe Chomicki))
“There is some detailed information in various Australian archive files that are at least one parachute drop spies around the end of April 1942,” he said.
“There was someone there who passes on vital information.“
Vital northern basis
During the Second World War, the North -Australian Garrison City of Townsville was an important allied basis during the battle for the Pacific.
Darwin and Townsville were important northern bases for the Allied forces. ((ABC News))
The Diepwaterhaven, railway facilities and troops of the city made it an important strategic location of great importance for enemies in wartime.
“After the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941, they really think that there will be a landing, or at least a heavy attack, north of Australia,” said Mr. Holyoak.
The fall of Lae in Papua -Ginea gave Japanese troops a base closer to Australia, so that they can increase supervision.
“We already had the bombing of Darwin in February 1942, and in March Japanese security aircraft will be on Townsville,” said Mr. Holyoak.
“It was possible to get that far.”
American bombers stationed near Mount Louisa in Townsville. ((Lever: Geoff Hansen))
Parachute Spy is probably presented as a ‘swaggie’
Allied interceptions from the Time Show records of spies or sympathizers who feed information from Townsville about troop movements and popular pubs at the beginning of 1942, Mr. Holyoak said.
Then the parachute drop came from a suspected spy on a farm in North Queensland through a Japanese plane, on the Woodhouse-pastoral near Giru, southeast of Townsville.
A Mitsubishi MC-20 KI-57 aircraft, as used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. ((Liver: Ray Holyoak))
“It sounds like a story or a training exercise, but on the day there are radar records of a certain Japanese plane, an MC-20, used in the early stages in Southeast Asia for spy and parachute drops,” said Mr. Holyoak.
A first search for the area near the farm was fruitless, but later that night a sentry shot two warning shots on an unknown man who had approached an American airport in Woodstock, about 8 kilometers from the landing site.
A search light placed on the coastline of Townsville. ((Lever: Geoff Hansen))
The next morning, Mr. Holyoak said, the authorities noticed that a traveling Swagman walked along the road to Townsville, near Toonpan.
“Someone who walks through farms or in an allied uniform – they would have stopped and checked,” he said.
“But someone in a Swaggie’s outfit who walked to Townsville would have been ignored, so the Queensland police really thought this was the perfect disguise.
“They were not challenged and they walked to Townsville and were never seen again.”
80 years since the connected victory
August 15 is 80 years old since the Allied victory in the Pacific, when Japanese troops surrendered after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Historian and author of North Queensland and author of Townsville in War and Peace 1942-1946, Geoff Hansen, said that the war developed the northern region in the important defense base it is today.
“It changed very, very quickly. Business buildings and private houses were negotiated for military occupation and other purposes,”
Hansen said.
“We had air strips, forts, air strikes, search lighting, anti -aircraft fermentation weapons, large military camps and hospitals, schools were closed.
“We had entered many Americans and Australians, and it was also where the fifth American air force was formed, so it was a major transformation.”
An American soldier who reads in a camp in Townsville. ((Lever: Geoff Hansen))
Mr Hansen said it was crucial that local historical reports of the broader conflict were remembered and commemorated in the right way.
“While we are moving further and further, there is less of that direct knowledge of what it was like,”
he said.
“I think it is important to remind ourselves that the world can change very quickly, and Noord -Veensland experienced it in 1942 to 1945.”
The Garrison City will mark the 80th birthday of the end of the war in the Pacific with a joint American Australian memorial service involving veterans, families and dignitaries.
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