RESEARCH ASSISTANCE SOUGHT

[robert hart]

By way of introduction, I am Robert Hart, a retired public servant, also an unproduced writer and past part-time stringer cameraman for ABCTV back in the now ancient times when motion picture film was still being used. At request of Steven Rice, who filmed oral histories with some of the veterans who were still with us in 2003, I have been co-writing a motion picture film script.

Steve has a longstanding interest in military history, prompted by his father and uncle having been British naval servicemen during the Second World War. 

This is a new project, unrelated to the 20th Century Fox project which was proposed shortly after the Second World War concluded. It depicts the period from the defence against the Japanese invasion of Koepang and Dili on Timor Island to the final evacuation via the dutch destroyer Tjerk Hiddes. 

While filming the oral history of the late Paddy Keneally, Steve learned he was very shortly to revisit East Timor which he apparently had done several times before. With his camera assistant Steve immediately followed him there and filmed a few more interviews. Unfortunately due to a technical malfunction, the recording microphone failed and much of the dialogue recorded on Timor was lost. 

Steve has been drawing heavily upon the collection of books published by veterans and the publication by Cyril Ayris which is available for purchase on this website. With published accounts, sometimes there are unavoidable gaps in a sequence of events which require additional research or fictional infill. To this end we seek to speak with descendants who may have additional information.

We are also seeking any information as to whether kriados Akiu, Berimou and Arnalda survived the post-evacuation reprisals by the Japanese. Arnalda was apparently well educated and self-motivated. Had he survived he might well have become involved in East Timor's resistance to the Indonesian occupation or become a political/local government entity. Who knows?

Steve engaged a newcomer film editor to assemble and edit his oral histories as a teaser presentation to seek funding assistance to create a feature motion picture. His efforts did not meet with success at the time. Now retired in the Kingdom of Thailand, he now has more time to re-engage in his project.

With consent of the Association's members, I seek to attend the gathering at Kings Park this coming November 21st to film the event for an EPK serving the film project should it progress and also to make an enduring record of the event's highlights for the association. 

A link to the 2003 assembly of some of the oral histories is copied below. 
 

 

[Edward Willis]

Thank you for making contact Robert and letting the Association know about your Timor campaign film project.  The video including the interviews with Tom Forster, Ray Aitken, John Burridge, Ray Parry and ‘Doc’ Wheatley is very interesting and will make a valuable addition to our video and image gallery on the Doublereds website.

The post WWII fate of the criados was of considerable interest to the veterans of the 2/2 and 2/4 several of whom visited Timor and attempted to locate the young men who had campaigned with them including Paddy Kenneally, Ray Aitken, John Burridge, Arch Campbell and others.  References to these activities can be found in the Ayris book and Arch Campbell’s book that can also be purchased and downloaded as an e-book from the Doublereds store (https://doublereds.org.au/store/).

Please contact me directly by e-mail at: president@doublereds.org.au and I can refer you to other sources of information that are relevant to your project and also to discuss your request to film the forthcoming 2/2 commemoration ceremony at Kings Park on November 21.

Ed Willis

President, 2/2 Commando Association of Australia

[Colleen Thornton-Ward]

Sheree Hart, 'Doc' Wheatley's granddaughter, will  deliver the address at the Commemoration Service on November 21, 2021.

My father's Kriadu, Nicolau Goncalves, visited Australia in 1968 and stayed with our family; our family is still in contact with the Goncalves family.

In the year 2000, my brother Murray and Nicolau's son, Januario Goncalves, worked together to help  rebuild Timor Lorosae. The sons of two men who fought alongside each other in 1942 are now working together to rebuild Timor Lorosae.

In 1995, Murray and I also met Louis Gon Zaga in Bazartete . Louis was the carpenter who worked with the 2/2 Commando's 4 section.

[Trevor Harrington]

The UNSW Canberra web site "Australians At War Film Archives" contains interviews of several 2/2, 2/4 and 2/40 men. The interviews can be downloaded in video, HTML or PDF.

[Edward Willis]

Thanks Trevor for the reminder about the excellent "Australians At War Film Archive" -- https://australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw.edu.au

 

[robert hart]

Thank you all for your kind responses. I will be in touch via the email address given.

[robert hart]

In the writing of a screenplay, there are often missing pieces in the recollection of an event which require some interpolative wordstuff to be added. In research readings thus far of the first successful transmission to Australia, it was unclear just where that occurred. For now the event is set in Mape. This can be corrected in succeeding drafts. Meanwhile, here is a sample of a scene being worked upon in the first draft.

What is known is that the builder of the radio, Joe Loveless was very unwell and had to push himself through successive build attempts until the contact with Australia was re-established.

Fictional representations of factual events in motion picture films are sometimes resented by family members/next of kin of persons depicted.  Especially sensitive can be when some characters are combined for the sake of the necessary brevity which the 90 to 120 minutes of screen time demands. It is the writers' intent to remain faithful to the truths as they are known and also to respect the memory of the people who gave so much of their lives and well-being for the sake of us who have inherited this country after them. 

Please be gentle with us. We are far from confident in what we are doing. 

-----------------------
CONT'D

INT. BAMBOO RADIO HUT MAPE - NIGHT
Jack Sargeant, stiffens and leans closer to the speaker 
as a faint morse code in tone replies. 

JACK SARGEANT
That's Darwin. They heard us. 

He keys in a reply. 

CLOSE ON:

The heaters in the valves which fade from dull red to 
black. 

ON JACK SARGEANT:

His face creases in concentration. 

JACK SARGEANT (CONT'D)
Nothing. --- I think we've gone dead.

JOE LOVELESS
The batteries are too low. 

Parker moves to Joe Loveless and pats him hard on the 
shoulder. 

CPT PARKER
Doesn't matter. You did it Joe. YOU 
did it. We got through. They know. 

Joe Loveless manages a momentary weak smile.

JOE LOVELESS
I think I'll go and sit down. Maybe I 
better try to have a sleep. --- 

I'm a bit buggered -- you see. 

CPT PARKER
You go and do that Joe. --- 

Joe Loveless walks unsteadily out of the radio room. 

VOICE IN DARKNESS (O.S.)
We'll get the engine running and try 
again tomorrow night. She'll be a sure 
thing. -- She'll be a winner. - You'll see.

CPT PARKER
(plus improvised chorus from 
the other men)
Goodnight Joe. 

Improvised cheers and hollers from the men as Joe walks 
towards our view.

                                                             FADE TO BLACK:

[robert hart]

For the interest of the members, the image below is of co-author, videographer, oral historian, Steve Rice and veteran Paddy Keneally during a 2003 visit to Timor L'este.

[robert hart]

I have another favour to ask of everyone in research. Was Paddy Keneally part of the radio link being set up between Darwin and Timor (Fretilin) after Indonesia invaded,? My vague recollection that the unions were involved. My equally vague recollection is that there remained in our governance and military thinking, a concern about communism getting a foothold in Timor and that Indonesia was strongly anti-communist, thus why the Indos were given licence to do what they did.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

[robert hart]

I would like to thank the members of the Association for permitting me to film the ceremony at King's Park this afternoon. 

[robert hart]

In the course of researching the creado Akiu and his possible later connection with a Sgt. Stevenson of Z force surveilling the village of Maubisse, some interesting information has emerged. That surveillance occurred after the independent companies were evacuated.

It seems that Capt Callinan's suspicions that there was a fifth column at work may have been triggered by non-coincidental events may in part or wholly have resulted from the capture and turning by the Japanese Kempeitai of Australian covert operatives during the latter half of the 2/2nd's presence in East Timor. 

This is a good fit for the sighting of taller Japanese men in black uniforms referred to in one of the published books. 

Sgt. Stevenson discovered only after two long years of Japanese impersonating the covert teams that they had been compromised. It was a remarkable coup by the Japanese.  It unfortunately seems that some incompetences by Australians back on the mainland permitted the Japanese counter-intelligence campaign to succeed as long as it did.

Fortunately, ciphers were redrawn locally by the independent companies when codes and ciphers were lost or had gone obsolete. The frequencies, radio schedules and ciphers between the 2/2nd and the mainland may have been compromised. This observation has only come about though an initial reading with more homework to be done. 

These websites may be of interest to those not already familiar with apparent other parallel development in the Timor campaign. How much Capt. Callinan and Maj. Spence knew of the covert team operating in their patch one can only guess :-

https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2018/08/09/the-kempeitais-game-1942-45-portuguese-east-timor/

Operation Sunlag

If anyone can give me any leads on further information relating to creados Akiu, Montelo, Berimou, Arnalda,during and postwar, this would be much appreciated.