The morning of 19 February 1942 saw the grim face of war on Australian shores for the first time as a Japanese task force attacked Darwin. Two hundred and forty-three people died as Japanese fighters and bombers struck terror into the minds of Australians who were experiencing the real threat of invasion for the first time.

A correspondent for the Melbourne Herald at the time of the bombings, author Douglas Lockwood, witnessed the event with his own eyes. Lockwood spent many years after the war interviewing servicemen from both sides who were involved in the conflict making 'Australia Under Attack' the most comprehensive account of the events of the worst wartime disaster in the nation's history.