A Clipped Wing: The Darwin Tally Board of No 54 Squadron, RAF

Between February 1942 and November 1943, Japanese fighter and bomber aircraft penetrated Australian airspace, with sites around Darwin receiving the greatest attention from the munitions they brought. Like the Battle of Britain, the Battle of North Australia was an air war, though unlike the European battle, that over Australia consisted of a series of air raids that were seemingly unrelated in strategic terms and with no intention of being the precursor for a later invasion.²
The Supermarine Spitfire—an iconic fighter aircraft of the Second World War which became the 'darling of the British public' after the Battle of Britain— was used to defend northern Australia from January 1943.³ No. 1 Fighter Wing, consisting of Nos. 452 and 457 Squadrons, RAAF, as well as No. 54 Squadron, RAF which had arrived in Australia from the United Kingdom in August 1942⁴ had its first aerial victory in the Darwin area on 6 February 1943 when Flight Lieutenant Bob Foster shot down a Mitsubishi Ki-46 (aka 'Dinah') reconnaissance aircraft.⁵ Spitfires continued to be used for the area's defence until the end of the Second World War.