How Patonga was affected by the war

When Japan entered the 1939-1945 war, defence planners realised some areas of Broken Bay were urgently in need of protection.

The Hawkesbury River railway bridge was a prime target and, if knocked out, the effect on the transportation of men and materials to the north of the country would have been enormous.

A second area of concern was Pittwater.

Australia, at the time, had a much reduced defence capacity due to the fact the bulk of their forces were engaged in battle in the European sector.

The enemy, being well aware of our capacity, could consider an attack on Sydney.

The ideal place to land such an attacking force would be Pittwater, a calm waterway only 24 miles from the city.

The planed defences were: the fortification of West Head with two four inch cannons, two heavy machine guns and a search light, a four-inch cannon on Juno Point, a gun emplacement on Flat Rock Point at Brooklyn and anti-aircraft guns placed on the bridge.

Anti-submarine nets were to be built from Barrenjoey to West Head and from Flat Rock Point to Wobby.

The fortifications at West Head proved a very difficult task, since there was no road access to the area and large amounts of concrete, reinforcing steel, guns and searchlights had to be deposited by sea.

This was accomplished by anchoring a ship offshore and building a flying fox to swing the goods ashore.

While this was going on, a road was constructed from coal from Candle Creek to Commodore Heights where a military base was built to house the personnel who would man the guns and searchlight.

The only troops available to carry out these tasks were drawn from the militia units which, at that time, could not be sent overseas.

This led to some old shellbacks giving them some insulting labels such as "Chockos" (short for chocolate soldiers).

When a Japanese submarine shelled Sydney and Newcastle it caused a rapid increase in activity.

Engineers had blasted a track down the face of West Head, which allowed ammunition and goods to be lowered by winch to the troops below.

A rail line was laid across the bottom so these items could go directly to the guns.

When the shelling occurred, it was suddenly clear that the scar down the face of the mountain would provide an ideal vantage point for attack, so the entire area was hastily shrouded in camouflage netting.

At the same time, all privately owned boats, with a few exceptions, were towed away and stowed in Berowra.

The exceptions were a few boats that were left behind so Creek residents could get to their homes and for professional fishermen who provided an invaluable source of food.

They could also be relied upon for the reportage of any unusual activity in the area.

The plan was, in the event of an invasion, all boats could be destroyed which would prevent the enemy from gaining any transport assistance from them.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided to play a part and as the arrival of a large flood washed the vessels away, with dozens reduced to pieces in the process.

The completion of the submarine net from Flat Rock Point to Wobby had a profound effect on the residents of Patonga because it meant the termination of the ferry service from Brooklyn.

Prior to this, nearly all passenger traffic and a lot of goods were delivered to the village by these ferries.

When they stopped, Patonga became isolated.

Strict petrol rationing was in effect, with a private vehicle allocated to provide four gallons a month.

This meant only essential trips and no joy riding became common practice.

It was then that the government asked the Riley brothers to provide a bus service from Woy Woy.

This was warmly welcomed by the residents as it provided transport in and out of the town.

The pack of submarines which were to attack Sydney was comprised of five of the largest submarines in the world.

They assembled off Maitland Bay to launch the attack.

Three of the submarines carried midgets as deck cargo.

After releasing their charges, the fleet proceeded down to Wollongong to wait to retrieve the midgets after the attack.

It is well documented that only two of the midgets managed to enter the harbour and, when detected, fired their torpedoes indiscriminately, missing the American cruiser USS Chicago. Unfortunately, the Cuttabel, a ferry being used by the navy to billet off-duty seamen, was struck and 16 sailors were killed.

The third submarine had not entered the harbour and, due to the fact a large hunt would result, a false trail was made leading away from the pack waiting off Wollongong.

This information was obtained from Japanese records.

It's almost certain that this sub entered Broken Bay because, soon after, there were three sightings on July 14 off West Head.

There were further sightings on July 18, midway to Lion Island and on the 21 near Challenger Head.

Patrol boats rushed to the scene but as they were requisitioned private cruisers and were not equipped with ASDIC or sonar, they failed to make contact.

After this, a Corvette was stationed in the area.

The wreck of the third midget was found only a couple of years ago, off Mona Vale.

Following these sightings, defence was upgraded by laying a minefield which covered an area from Juno to the south head of Brisk Bay across to Hungry Head and most of the way to Cowan Creek.

These were not floating mines but were laid on the bottom in a grid pattern and connected electronically to the naval headquarters at Hungry Beach from where they could be detonated manually.

To aid detection, a magnetic loop was laid from West Head to behind Lion Island, along the shore to Dark Corner and back across the river to naval headquarters at Hungry Beach.

Power to operate this cable was drawn from the electricity supply in Patonga.

Any vessel crossing this cable would show up on a plotting table at Hungry Beach and be destroyed if it crossed the minefield.

Another historically important event which occurred in this area was the training of the crew of Krait for the commando raid on Singapore.

This was carried out in Refuge Bay which was a remote and secluded area.

The only sign of this area's involvement is a small plaque set in a rock at the bottom of the waterfall in Refuge Bay.

Retired judge Jim Macken has carried out a great deal of investigation into the events which happened during the war and has written a book called The Pittwater War.

It is very informative and we are indebted to Jim for ensuring the cataloguing of events which locally will now not be lost in the sands of time.

Lest we forget.

Letter, 1 May 2013

Chas Sproul, Patonga Beach