....Second, there was a panicky response by the population and by some in the military, with an unseemly scramble to get away, for fear of a Japanese invasion.
Third, there was a shocking lack of leadership among the civilian administration and the military, which compounded the sense of chaos and incompetence.
It was a somewhat ignoble record - one that not everyone wanted to see in the history books.
A sense of partial anarchy prevailed in the hours and days immediately after the raid.
For example, the station commander of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) ordered his men to rendezvous in the bush, but as the instruction was passed around by word of mouth, its message became confused.
Four days after the bombing, nearly 300 RAAF personnel were still missing, leading to claims some had deserted. One man turned up in Melbourne, 13 days later.
The Northern Territories administrator, Aubrey Abbott, appeared to compound the problems by his ineptitude
In an acclaimed book on the Darwin bombing, An Awkward Truth, Peter Grose writes that Abbott tried to enlist the help of military police to restore order, but that they ended up drunk and took part in the looting that followed the attacks.
Abbott himself spent his time securing his drinks cellar and making sure the bank's money was sent away for safe keeping - a strange set of priorities for a man whose town was in ruins..............