On this grassy hill, with its commanding views over picturesque beaches, a desperate battle was once fought.
In the heart of Newcastle City, Fort Scratchley affords panoramic views over the beaches and buildings of this maritime town. On a clear day, you can see all the way to the white sands of Port Stephen's. Whales breach in the Pacific and dolphins race tug boats up the industrial harbour.
Flagstaff Hill has been a military base since the earliest days of the colony. But it wasn't until Lieutenant Colonel Peter Scratchley was sent by the British Government to review Australia's defences that the fortress was constructed in 1882.
Built on a cliff face with an unobstructed 360-degree view, the multi-level stronghold incorporated some of the best technology of the age. The state of the art artillery included 3 hydraulically operated 'disappearing' guns; the ammunition magazines contained numerous worker safety protections, and there was a built-in communication system. Above ground were additional gun placements, sentry towers and barracks.
Despite the elaborate nature of the fort, and its commanding position at the mouth of Australia's coal and steel city, the only time the guns went into action was when a ship's captain tried to leave port without paying the departure tax. A 9-inch shell across the bow was usually enough to turn a cheeky captain back to Customs House.
All that changed one night in June 1942.
Newcastle Under Attack
On the chilly winter evening of June 8th 1942, Japanese Submarine I-21 manoeuvred into position off Nobby's shoreline. A short distance away, Fort Scratchley was about to enter the military history books as the only Australian fort to return fire at an enemy vessel in battle. But it would take the guys a while to get a ping on it.
At around 2am, the submarine fired several star shells into the night sky, lighting up the city. As curious locals turned their faces to the flares, I-21 began the assault. Shells rained down on the BHP steelworks, dockyards and into the harbour waters. Though most failed to explode, they were clearly reaching their targets.
Scrambling to the alert, duty soldiers at the garrison ran to their posts while searchlights scoured the black waters desperate to identify the source of the attack. In the meantime, more shells buffeted the city. The enemy guns turned their attention to the city's East End. One bomb exploded against the sea wall of the Ocean Baths another struck Nobby's as the submarine tried to take out searchlights.
Woken by the noise, Mrs Wilson, who lived in Parnell Street only meters from the Fort, hustled her sons out of their beds moments before the building was hit by the blast of a Japanese shell. Glass splashed over the beds, shrapnel shredded the walls, and the stairs shattered. Splinters tore through the balcony and iron roof, lodging in the walls as Mrs Wilson and the boys took shelter under an upturned sofa.
Other residents in the street reported similar narrow escapes. Mrs Gibson had just gone back into her house to re-light a candle when a shell burst on the road, blowing the door through her house and filling the front room with metal fragments. Elsewhere, a mother and her daughters retreated to their shelter after a shell whizzed over their heads while they stood on the balcony watching the action.
War on our Shores
Australia joined the United States in the war against Japan after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941. Over the next few months Japan advanced across the Pacific, annexing countries on its march toward Australia. By 1942, thousands of American troops were stationed here as a bloody war raged in the Coral Sea to our north. And occasionally on our shores.
Newcastle wasn't the only Australian city to come under enemy fire during WWII. Darwin was shelled on 19 February 1942, killing 243 people in the first of more than 60 raids on that city. Townsville, Broome and Sydney also came under attack. Only one week before the Newcastle raid, a Japanese midget submarine entered Sydney Harbour and sunk the cadet training ship Kuttabul with a devastating loss of 21 young lives.
With its shipbuilding, coal and steelworks, Newcastle was a significant port in the war effort, making it a prime target. To counter this, US Soldiers practised manoeuvres on the beaches while Fort Wallace at Stockton, and gunneries at Shepherd's Hill and Nobby's, were added to Newcastle's defences. Mines and tank traps were also laid along the miles of sandy beaches and can still be found on the coastline today. But until this night in June, the only attack the boys at Fort Scratchley had come under was during their cricket games in the local comp.
20 Minutes of Battle
Obscured from sight, Sub I-21 had the upper hand and managed to fire off 13 shells before our boys got their first shot off. The observers finally spotted the enemy drifting out from behind Nobby's Head. Captain Watson, on the Observation Post, gave the gunners the position and range. Jim Cannon and his companions, manning the 6-inch gun, didn't wait around. The first shots fell short. With the guns at Fort Wallace remaining silent, unable to lower sufficiently to fire at the enemy, the pressure was on. The second shot faired better: a near-miss for the Japanese submariners who heard the splash rain down on their vessel.
The Fort Scratchley boys were readying their third shot, almost certain to sink the submarine, when the Birubi, steaming hard for the safety of port, passed through the middle of the line of fire and obscured the submarine with black smoke. The enemy shelling stopped. Under the cover of the Birubi's smoke, the sub escaped.
In the morning light, Novocastrians surveyed the damage. All up, 34 shells had been fired from the submarine. Windows were shattered, some bricks were lost and the Parnell Street houses didn't fare too well. But most of the shells, many of which landed around Newcastle's harbour and industrial sites, failed to detonate. The steelworks, dockyards and port were largely unscathed. A few civilians received some minor bruising and a soldier was grazed by shrapnel, but there were no serious casualties.
The Japanese Submarine, I-21, commanded by Captain Kanji Matsumura, was considered one of the most successful to operate in Australian waters. The long-range B1 class submarine was responsible for numerous attacks on ships in the waters off the east coast of Australia and California, as well as participating in the Pearl Harbour offensive. Military historians suspect the boat was sunk on 29 November 1943 at Tawara, Gilbert Islands (Kiribati). In his log, the Captain noted how the return fire from Newcastle's Fort Scratchley was the most accurate he encountered from Australian shores.
In 1962, Fort Scratchley's guns were decommissioned and, ten years later, the fort closed. After extensive rectification work it reopened in 2008, but not as a military site. Today, civilian visitors are free to wander the grounds and enjoy the views, learn about the fort's history or take a guided tour of the underground tunnels to inspect the technology of a bygone era.
HH Visitors can access Fort Scratchley 10am-4pm everyday except Tuesdays. Site entry is free but the optional, and very worthwhile, guided tunnel walks have a small charge.
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