A Very Rude Awakening: The Night the Japanese Midget Subs Came to Sydney Harbour

by Peter Grose

Overview

On the night of 31 May 1942, Sydney was doing what it does best: partying. The theatres, restaurants, dance halls, illegal gambling dens, clubs and brothels offered plenty of choice to roistering sailors, soldiers and airmen on leave in Australia's most glamorous city. The war seemed far away. Newspapers devoted more pages to horse racing than to Hitler.

That Sunday night the party came to a shattering halt when three Japanese midget submarines crept into the harbour, past eight electronic indicator loops, past six patrolling Royal Australian Navy ships, and past an anti-submarine net stretched across the inner harbour entrance. Their arrival triggered a night of mayhem, courage, chaos and high farce which left 27 sailors dead and a city bewildered. The war, it seemed, was no longer confined to distant desert and jungle. It was right here at Australia's front door.

Written at the pace of a thriller and based on new first person accounts and previously unpublished official documents, A Very Rude Awakening is a ground-breaking and myth-busting look at one of the most extraordinary stories ever told of Australia at war.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781741762457
Publisher:	Allen & Unwin
Publication date:	05/01/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

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 An Awkward Truth.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Part I Preparation 1

1 There's a war on 3

2 England expects 12

3 Running wild 23

4 Rather peculiar instruction 45

5 Date of attack will be notified 57

6 Day of attack shall be May 31 71

7 Somehow come back alive 82

Part II Attack 97

8 The net 99

9 All hell breaks loose 118

10 Men with black beards 133

11 Sudden death 144

12 Matsuo's turn 156

13 Examining the wreckage 171

Part III Aftermath 185

14 No reference whatsoever 187

15 Has everybody seen a submarine? 201

16 Caught napping 212

17 The nightwatchman's tale 223

18 The Admiral's report 235

19 Final rest 248

Epilogue: Whatever happened to …? 258

Appendix I Genuine seller 265

Appendix II Other gentlemen's mail 271

Appendix III The Admiral's report 282

Acknowledgements 307

Bibliography 312

Index 316