The account shows why reconnaissance could make a convoy vulnerable even before a main strike arrived. A Japanese H6K Mavis flying boat could search the Timor Sea from newly captured Ambon, shadow the ships beyond gun range, and bring pressure onto the convoy. The lone P-40 interception became a running fight in which both aircraft were mortally damaged. The encounter also exposes the wider problem of warning, communications, and fighter cover around Darwin four days before the main Japanese carrier raid of February 1942.
Chapter · 10:21-13:28
Darwin convoy defence and the P-40 interception
A book passage follows a Timor-bound convoy, Japanese Mavis reconnaissance, and the fatal P-40 interception before the Darwin raid.