Shelling of Bondi, 1942
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W A V E R L E Y C O U N C I L SHELLING OF BONDI A W a v e r l e y L i b r a r y L o c a l H i s t o r y F a c t S h e e t When World War II broke out in As part of the defence plan, a 1939, steps were taken to first-aid post was established at protect residents of Waverley Bondi Beach Public School. Municipality in the event of The main injuries of patients enemy attack Identified as a visiting the first aid room early potential invasion point for a in the season of 1942-43 Japanese attack on Sydney, related to cuts and bruises military fortifications in the form encountered with the beach’s of iron stakes, barbed newly built defences. Despite concertina wire, concrete tank such impediments, surf bathers traps and wire coils were still came to Bondi in droves. constructed along Bondi Beach The Bondi Surf Bathers’ and surrounds. Lifesaving Club continued to Bronze squads were forced to operate, although surf carnivals train in Bondi Park due to were cancelled for the duration space limitations, and any of the war. The club made activity on the beach required preparations for the possibility the permission of the army of enemy attack on 28 officer charged with the December 1941. defence of the beach. Committee minutes record: Bathers had to negotiate their "Resolved that a wooden rake way through a barbed wire and shovel be purchased for maze before they could reach use in event of air raid." the surf by one of two gates. The locals nicknamed this maze “the rat run”. W A V E R L E Y C O U N C I L SHELLING OF BONDI Blackout regulations were in An attack on Garden Island force and all windows facing Naval Base was launched. A the sea had to be blacked out. torpedo fired at an American Marine Drive was closed to cruiser, USS Chicago missed traffic between 8 pm and 7 am, its target. Instead it hit Kuttabul, and all names of streets and a former ferry converted to a suburbs were removed to Navy stores ship, with a loss of confuse the Japanese. nineteen lives. One submarine was hit by The Bondi Pavilion was depth charges, one occupied by the Volunteer disappeared, and the third, Defence Corps and was caught in the anti-submarine designated the Bondi Beach net opted for suicide by Club. It served afternoon teas detonating explosives carried and held dances which catered on board. to enlisted men. When the midgets failed to return, four of the five large A radar station was set up at Japanese submarines turned Rodney Reserve. It was also their attention to the task of used as an astronomy field disrupting merchant shipping station and many discoveries along Australia’s eastern coast. about the southern skies were During these operations, two of made there. The Eastern these submarines shelled Suburbs Hospital was used by Sydney and Newcastle. the United States army authorities. A week later, it was Bondi's turn. Early on 8 June, 1942 a On Sunday 31 May 1942, five Japanese submarine, about Japanese submarines, nine kilometres offshore including three midget proceeded over a four-minute submarines arrived off Sydney. period, to fire about a dozen Two midget submarines made shells from its 140mm deck gun it past the anti-submarine boom over Bondi and into the across the entrance Sydney Woollahra Municipality. One Harbour, and one became shell landed in The Waverley hopelessly entangled in the net. Local government Area. W A V E R L E Y C O U N C I L SHELLING OF BONDI Bondi’s protection, the 250mm In September 1942, the gun placed at North Bondi in Australian Army, on the orders 1892, missed its chance to of the American military retaliate. authorities, destroyed the large concrete groynes that had been Official reports suggest that built at the centre of the beach only one shell exploded, beside in the late 1920s. The groynes a block of flats in Rose Bay. were tunnels which allowed The Rose Bay Air Base was people to walk to the water probably the enemy’s intended after having changed in the target and apart from surface Bondi Pavilion dressing sheds. damage, no-one was injured. One shell fell in Simpson The amount of explosives Street, Bondi, and although it required to destroy them was tore a large hole in the road, vastly overestimated and there was no damage to chunks of concrete were thrown property or injuries to the great distances. The buildings inhabitants of the area. Local of Campbell Parade were lore holds that a second shell sprayed with concrete, breaking landed in Bondi, hitting the tiles and smashing windows. promenade in front of the surf Being directly in the face of the club and peppering the building blast, the Bondi Surf Bathers’ with concrete fragments. Life Saving Club and Bondi However no evidence is Pavilion suffered extensively available to support this claim. with almost every window smashed and the roof severely Once the war in the Pacific damaged. It is reported that commenced Bondi was no Waverley Council applied for longer the desirable place it compensation through The once had been. Among Commonwealth’s War residents of the Eastern Damage Scheme, but there are Suburbs the attacks brought on no records to show whether this a wave of hysteria. Those who application was successful. could afford it closed up their homes and headed west to the Blue Mountains. Images from top: Two soldiers installing barbed wire on Bondi Beach, 1942. Barbed wire at Bondi Beach, 7 July 1943. W A V E R L E Y C O U N C I L Wire fortifications at Bronte Beach, WWII. HMAS Kuttabul after the explosion, 1942. Image SHELLING courtesy of the Australian War Memorial, No. 012422. Front page of the Canberra OF BONDI Times, 8 June 1942. House at 4 Bradley St, Woollahra badly damaged in the shelling attack, 1942. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial, No 012594. Since the commencement When Waverley Council of the Pacific war, another rejected the Hall Street Damage at 4 Bradley St, invasion occurred. Sydney had proposal on the grounds that it Woollahra following the shelling been inundated with American was too conspicuous, the attack, 1942. Image courtesy of Service personnel and Bondi Americans looked to the surf the Australian War Memorial, quickly became a popular club. Whether they were aware No. 012595. destination for American of the true purpose of the servicemen for rest and request or not, feeling within recreation. To facilitate the the club was that this was the enjoyment of American last straw for the American personnel in Bondi, US Forces invaders of Bondi. took over a floor of the pavilion The Americans were informed and the old Esplanade Cabaret that they would not be became a private military club. permitted to occupy the club and, on this occasion, the US In 1944 the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Army accepted the decision. Life Saving Club was approached by the American military and informed of their intention to commandeer the club’s ambulance room and turn it into a 24 hour “dispensary”. Council records suggest that the planned dispensary was in fact an American Red Cross clinic for treating sexually transmitted diseases, originally destined for a shop front in Hall Street. P u b l i s h e d b y W a v e r l e y L i b r a r y f r o m s o u r c e s i n t h e L o c a l H i s t o r y C o l l e c t i o n , 2 0 2 0.