Does your Country keep Secrets from its Residents?

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74th Commemoration of the Bombing of Darwin During World War II, the public were told only what the government of the time wanted them to know. Nowadays what with mobile phones, drones and the internet, it would be much harder to keep news under wraps. One event which many Australians knew very little about at the time it happened concerned the bombing of Darwin in the Northern Territory by the Japanese. Seventy-four years ago, on 19 February 1942, the Japanese mounted two air raids on Darwin involving 54 land-based bombers and around 188 attack aircraft launched from four aircraft carriers. At least 243 people were killed and 300 to 400 wounded. At the time Darwin was a small town with limited infrastructure. During the 1930s and early years of World War II, the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force had constructed bases near the town. The pre-war population was 5,800. The Japanese wished to prevent the Allies from using the bases against the Japanese invasion of SE Asia and their intended strike against New Guinea. In addition to the human casualties, twenty military aircraft were destroyed and eight anchored ships sunk. One of the ships sunk was the American destroyer, USS Peary. More bombs were dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbour. Although I've known about it for some time now, it was years after the event that I first learnt of the bombing raids. In just a few days time, commemorative services will be held,74 years after the bombing. Have there been major events in your country of which you've had little knowledge? Photo is of a World War I memorial in Albany, Western Australia