Australia's first action in the Pacific in World War II a valiant catastrophe
Just before midnight on 7 December 1941, Flying Officer Peter Gibbes stepped off the train at Kota Bharu on the coast of northeast Malaya after a long, tiring journey up the peninsula from Singapore. Gibbes, an airline pilot in peacetime, had been newly posted to the Royal Australian Air Force’s 1 Squadron, which in the ensuing hours would become the first Australian military unit to see action in the Pacific War. Soon after he headed for bed at the officer’s mess at Kota Bharu airfield, the sound of gunfire shattered the balmy night air. Reassured by the mess staff that the noise was sim...
Source: aspistrategist.org.au