New America Base

[Lasher]

7. That Darwin attack occurred on 19 February 1942.

Most of the attacking Japanese planes in that raid came from Hiryū, Sōryū, Akagi and Kaga. These were the same four enemy carriers that we sent to the bottom during the Battle of Midway in early June of that same year. My father's submarine, the USS Nautilus (SS-168), was involved in that battle. She was based out of Pearl Harbor at that time.

My father first joined her crew at Pearl Harbor on 29 May 1944, when they sailed from there to Brisbane, and proceeded north on the boat's ninth War Patrol. Nautilus would launch her remaining five War Patrols out of Darwin, which was closer to Japanese positions in the Philippines.

Edit to add photo: