Backyard Battlefields James De Leo

The IJN Ibuki was a Japanese battlecruiser which in 1914 escorted the Gallipoli bound Australian and New Zealand troops from Albany at the Southern tip of Western Australia to the Middle East.

Now a backpackers hostel, the Old Swan Barracks on Francis Street in Northbridge, former headquarters and home to Perths Central Drill Hall, was an important feature of the pre-Federation military forces in Western Australia. 

Dilhorn is a Federation Queen Anne style house located in the Perth suburb of Highgate. It was designed by Soldier Architect Joseph John Talbot Hobbs in 1897.

Following the Japanese midget submarine raid on Sydney Harbour in 1942 the remains of 4 Japanese submariners were recovered. The officer commanding Sydney Harbour Rear Admiral Muirhead-Gould ordered that the men be cremated with full military honours. It was an extraordinary gesture at a time of heightened fear and anger and his decision was criticised in many quarters.

In March 1944 a powerful Imperial Japanese Navy flotilla entered the Indian Ocean with the purpose (it is believed) of attacking the Western Australian port of Fremantle, then the largest submarine base in the Southern hemisphere. Artillery expert Phil Rowson gives a brief account of the details of the incursion.

This episode is an interview with Peter Grose, author of 'A Very Rude Awakening' an excellent account of the May 1942 Japanese raid on Sydney Harbour.