The 'Bombing of Broome' was a Japanese air attack on the town of Broome, Western Australia, by fighter aircraft on 3 March 1942, during World War II. At least 88 civilians and Allied military personnel were killed.

Although Broome was a small pearling port at the time, it was also a refuelling point for aircraft on the route between the Netherlands East Indies and major Australian cities. As a result, Broome was on a line of flight for Dutch and other refugees, following the Japanese invasion of Java, and had become a significant Allied military base. During a two-week period in February and March 1942, more than 1,000 refugees from the Netherlands East Indies, many of them in flying boats, passed through Broome.

The number of refugees has previously been given as 8,000, but modern research contends that this figure is massively overstated. The actual number of aerial evacuees passing through Broome at this time is estimated to have been 1,350, most of them military personnel. There were about 250 Dutch civilian refugees, most of them family members of Dutch aircrews.

Lieutenant Zenjiro Miyano, commander of the 3^rd Kokutai of the Imperial Japanese navy air service, led nine Mitsubishi A6M2 Reisen 'Zero' single-engined fighters and one Mitsubishi C5M2 'Babs' single-engined reconnaissance aeroplane from their base at Kupang on Timor island on the morning of 3 March. From about 09.20, the A6M fighters made strafing attacks on the flying boat anchorage at Roebuck Bay and the Royal Australian Air Force’s base at Broome airfield. No bombs were dropped, although some were reported, perhaps a result of witnesses seeing the A6M pilots releasing their drop tanks. The raid lasted one hour. The Japanese fighters destroyed at least 22 Allied aircraft. These included an airborne US Army Air Forces' Consolidated B-24A Liberator four-engine bomber full of wounded personnel, and nearly 20 of these died when the aeroplane crashed in the sea about 10 miles (16 km) off Broome. The Allies also lost 15 flying boats at their anchorage; many Dutch refugees were on board and the exact number and identities of all those killed is unknown, though the ages and names of some were recorded when they were moved from Broome to the Perth War Cemetery at Karrakatta in 1950: the known casualties include nine children, aged from one year old. At the airfield, the Japanese fighters destroyed two USAAF Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress four-engined heavy bombers, one USAAF B-24 bomber, two RAAF Lockheed Hudson twin-engined light bombers and a Royal Netherlands East Indies air force Lockheed Lodestar twin-engined transport aircraft.

The aircraft destroyed included eight Consolidated PBY Catalina twin-engined flying boats operated by the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Netherlands naval air service, US Navy and Royal Air Force, two Short 'Empire' class four-engined flying boats of the RAAF and QANTAS, and five Dornier Do 24 three-engined flying boats of the Royal Netherlands East Indies naval air service.

A Douglas DC-3 twin-engined airliner of the Dutch KLM airline, carrying refugees from Bandung, was pursued and attacked by three A6M fighters some 50 miles (80 km) to the north of Broome: the airliner limped on to perform a successful landing on a beach near Broome, but was then strafed, causing the loss of four lives and the theft of diamonds worth between £150,000 and £300,000.

No Allied fighters were based in Broome at the time, so the A6M fighters encountered only some light arms fire from the ground. It was believed for some time that one A6M pilot, Warrant Officer Osamu Kudo, was killed by ground fire from a Dutch pilot, 1^st Lieutenant Gus Winckel, using a 0.31-in (7.9-mm) machine gun he had removed from his Lodestar. Winckel balanced the weapon on his shoulder and sustained burns to his left forearm when it touched the barrel of the gun after firing. Another A6M ran out of fuel and ditched while returning to base, although the pilot survived.

In 2010, new research found that Kudo’s A6M had in fact been shot down by the tail guns of a B-24A, which was itself shot down by Kudo’s attack with the loss of 19 of the 20 US military personnel on board.

Japanese aircraft later made several smaller attacks on the Broome area. On 20 March, Mitsubishi G4M2 'Betty' twin-engined medium bombers made a high-altitude attack on the airfield: one civilian was killed and there was some crater damage. The last attack was in August 1943.

It is also worth noting that Japanese naval flying boats conducted four small air raids on the northern Queensland city of Townsville and the town of Mossman late in July 1942. An important military base, Townsville was raided by Kawanishi H8K1 'Emily' four-engined flying boats operating from Rabaul on three nights late in July 1942. On the night of 25/26 July, the city was attacked by two flying boats but did not suffer any damage as the six bombs dropped by these aircraft fell into the sea. Townsville was attacked for the second time in the early hours of 28 July when a single flying boat dropped eight bombs which landed in bushland outside the city. Six Bell P-39 Airacobra single-engined fighters unsuccessfully attempted to intercept the Japanese aircraft. The third raid on Townsville occurred in the early hours of 29 July when a single flying boat again attacked the city, dropping seven bombs into the sea and an eighth which fell on an agricultural research station at Oonoonba, damaging a coconut plantation. This 'boat was intercepted by four Airacobra fighters and damaged. The fourth raid on northern Queensland occurred on the night of 31 July when a single flying boat dropped a bomb which exploded near a house outside of Mossman, injuring a child.

There were also many small Japanese raids on targets in northern Australia, most of them in the Northern Territory but a few in Western Australia and Queensland. Few of these raids caused significant damage or struck people.