ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about the exodus of population of the Darwin city before the Japanese raid on 19 February 1942. With no direction or leadership and with conflicting orders and suggestions coming at them from all sides, people ran everywhere like a flock of sheep and panicked. The Naval Intelligence Chief in Darwin, Lieutenant-Commander James McManus, did not attempt to hide his contempt for those civilians who fled southwards at top speed, any more than Major-General Blake did. But there was no reason why they should not have run. They were only there in the first place because the administration had been slow in evacuating them, and they were certainly not subject to any military discipline. They were unarmed civilians, far ahead of the Army's advance position, expecting at any moment to see a horde of murderous Japanese soldiers storming up the beach or landing by parachute.
