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Auction: 25111 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 489

(x) Six: Warrant Officer 1st Class, L. M. Jennings, Australian Military Forces Late Australian Army Medical Corps, who returned to service in time to witness the Japanese Raid on Darwin in 1942

1914-15 Star (2088 Pte. L. M. Jennings. 1/G.Hosp. A.I.F.); British War Medal 1914-20 (2088 Pte L. M. Jennings. A.M.C. A.I.F.); Victory Medal 1914-19 (2088 Pte. L. M. Jennings 1 A.G.H. A.I.F.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45 (V1 6602 L. M. Jennings), officially engraved naming; Australia Service Medal 1939-45 (V1 6602 L. M. Jennings), very fine (6)

Louis Michael Jennings was born at Toorak, Victoria on 29 September 1893. A farmer he enlisted in the 1st A.I.F. on 26 January 1915 and posted to the 6th Field Ambulance on 26 January 1915 later transferring to the 1st Australian General Hospital on 31 March 1915 which left Australia for Egypt on 10 April 1915. After service in Egypt, he joined the BEF which arrived at Marseilles, France on 6 April 1916. He returned to the 6th Field Ambulance on 21 April 1917. Returning to Australia on 9 February 1919 he was discharged on 2 June 1919.

He was employed as an assistant cashier when he enlisted again on 24 June 1941. Posted to Darwin on 20 September 1941 he remained there until 20 June 1942 and would have been present when the Japanese mounted two air raids on Darwin on 19 February 1942.

The two attacks, which were planned and led by the commander responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor ten weeks earlier, involved 188 attack aircraft which were launched from four Japanese aircraft-carriers in the Timor Sea, and a second raid of 54 land-based bombers. The carrier battle group consisted additionally of two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, seven destroyers, three submarines, and two other heavy cruisers on distant cover.

In the first attack, which began just before 10.00 am, Kate bombers hit shipping, infrastructure and the town; and Val dive bombers escorted by Zero fighters then attacked shipping in the harbour, and the military and civil aerodromes. The attack ceased after about 25 minutes. The second raid, which began around 11.45 am, involved high altitude bombing of the Royal Australian Air Force base by twin-engine machines.

The two raids killed 235 people with a further 300 to 400 wounded. Thirty aircraft were destroyed, including nine out of the ten flying in defence, nine ships in the harbour and two outside were sunk, and some of the civil and military facilities in Darwin were destroyed.

After service in Darwin, he was posted to Royal Park at Melbourne and was discharged on 12 November 1945. Jennings died at Moe, Victoria on 8 August 1974; sold together with copied service records and research.

Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.

Sold for
£380

Starting price
£80