In March 1944, military units were placed on alert in Western Australia
after Allied forces detected the movement of a powerful group of
Japanese warships in the Netherlands East Indies. The main Japanese
fleet had been redeployed to Singapore the previous month, and it was
feared that this force could attack Western Australia. Reinforcements,
including six Royal Australian Air Force flying squadrons, were
dispatched to safeguard Fremantle, Perth, and other cities. Other Allied
air units were held at Darwin in the Northern Territory. An air raid
warning was sounded in Fremantle and Perth on 10 March, but was a false
alarm. Intensive patrols by the Allied militaries did not detect any
Japanese warships off Western Australia, and most units stood down on
12 March. The deployment ended on 20 March after it was concluded that
an attack was unlikely. The Japanese did not attempt an attack on
Western Australia, and the ships that the Allies detected were escorts
for a small raiding force.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Australian_emergency_of_March_1944>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1447:
Tommaso Parentucelli was elected as Pope Nicholas V in Rome.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Nicholas_V>
1904:
Scottish National Antarctic Expedition: Led by William Speirs
Bruce, the Antarctic region of Coats Land was discovered by the Scotia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Speirs_Bruce>
1988:
The Troubles: In Operation Flavius, the Special Air Service
killed three volunteers of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
conspiring to bomb a parade of British military bands in Gibraltar.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Flavius>
2000:
The Marine Parade Community Building, the mural cladding of
which is the largest installation art in Singapore, was opened.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Parade_Community_Building>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
culture vulture:
(humorous) A person with a rapacious, sometimes inauthentic, interest in
the arts. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culture_vulture>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Whatever's lost, it first was won; We will not struggle nor
impugn. Perhaps the cup was broken here, That Heaven's new wine might
show more clear. I praise Thee while my days go on.
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Barrett_Browning>
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