Jap plane flies over Hobart
 

Glen
 

Further investigation has me thinking the aircraft would have been a IJN "GLEN" reconnaissance. Maybe that chap was dreaming it all while dozing on the verandah . Something I never knew, if you can believe WIKI , one of these planes bombed mainland USA, Oregon , dropping two incendiary bombs , with hopes of starting a forest fire.

I believe the official records show that the IJN had at least one aircraft equipped submarine operating off the Australian coast. IIRC a reconnaissance flight over Sydney took place at around the time of the submarine attack.
Why they would bother looking at Hobart I don't know.

David

Battleship
 

Reminds me of when I was in Hobart , 1991 or around then. Sitting at anchor in the Derwent river at the time was the USS Missouri , the famous WW2 surrender battleship with MacArthur and all those generals lined up on the deck. Big big ship, there were pimple faced US sailors running all around Hobart . The 1942 Japs were looking for the Cadbury chocolate factory :salute:

Hi Dave,

There was a steady stream of cargo shipping moving via Tasmania/Hobart during the war picking up agricultural & mining product, much of it destined for the UK.

There was also the occasional troop transport unit 'pickup/setdown', too as there had been in WW1.

I suppose it was worth a look as a possibly lightly defended potential target.

Mike

Apples
 

Apples and more apples - ship loads of them were transported to the UK until the UK joined the European common market , late 1960's. Result, the Tasmanian apple industry took a deep downhill turn , many orchards were ripped out. I recall the Aust. Govt. was not too happy, they sent off the trade minister ( Andrew Peacock ? ), he had serious heated discussions with the brits to no avail, they kicked Tassie badly.

EU Common Market destroyed UK apple growers as well, they demanded trees be ripped out because some our varieties were banned.

IJN activities
 

Hi Mike
I suppose that the Japanese could have just been snooping around. They would not have had access to the large amount of information on coastal defences etc gathered by the Nantucket whaling fleet during their operations in southern waters. It's quite extensive I hear though probably a bit dated by WW2 anyhow.
I don't know how active the Japanese whalers were in the first half of the last century. They've come to world attention in more recent times.
Britain's entry into the common market caused hardship in a number of Commonwealth countries that relied on trade with the mother country. Resumption of trade should be a real possibility and ease Britain's exit from the hideously bureaucratic EU.
Richard, as we found out on a visit to Somerset some years ago, they didn't pull all of the apple trees, there was still plenty of scrumpy available.

David

Hi David,
Not all, but Kent's orchards suffered badly as I well remember bulldozers going in and grubbing them out. It was certain varieties that Europe banned, then we were swamped with French apple imports. Hopefully the tide is now turning ....