As a bright, sunny dawn broke over Broome's Roebuck Bay on March 3, 1942, the tiny pearling harbour was already abuzz with activity.
Fifteen Dutch, Australian and US flying boats loaded with refugees and servicemen who had fled the Japanese advance in the Dutch East Indies bobbed in the calm waters, awaiting their turn to refuel and take off again. But at 9.30am, all hell broke loose. In the bloodiest wartime event in WA history, nine Japanese Zero fighters swooped repeatedly over the bay and local airstrip, killing more than 80 people and destroying 22 Dutch and Allied aircraft.
Two weeks earlier, the Allied and Dutch commands had ordered the emergency evacuation of military aircraft, personnel and families from the East Indies as Japan advanced. Broome, a sleepy outpost 900km from Java, seemed a safe and logical choice for a fuel stop and a steady stream of planes loaded with refugees was using it. As the Japanese unleashed 20 minutes of rapid gunfire on the flying boats, the turquoise waters became awash with blood and blazed with spilt oil as the planes and the passengers trapped inside - mostly women and children - were incinerated.
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