SPARROW FORCE MONUMENT OESAU NEAR KOEPANG, EAST NUSA TENGGARA PROVINCE (WEST TIMOR) 2/2 CAMPAIGN TRAILS

[Edward Willis]

SPARROW FORCE MONUMENT

OESAU NEAR KOEPANG, EAST NUSA TENGGARA PROVINCE (WEST TIMOR)

2/2 CAMPAIGN TRAILS

Tom Vallas and Heath Crotty of the ADF’s Defence Cooperation Team – Timor-Leste recently visited the Sparrow Force Oesau Memorial that is located 30km from Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara province (West Timor), in the village of Oesau.  It is situated on a low knoll about 50m from the road on the left hand side heading east along the road to Atamboea. [1]

Map showing the Japanese attack on Dutch West Timor 20 February 1942 – OESAU location highlighted [2]

Tom and Heath were impressed with the appearance of the memorial that was refurbished earlier in 2025 by the Friends of the Sparrow Force Monument with support of a $16K grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs Overseas Privately-Constructed Memorial Restoration Program. [3]

Sparrow Force Monument, located 30km from Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara province (West Timor), in the village of Oesau

Earlier, on Remembrance Day November 11 2025, Naval Attache Jakarta, Captain Mark Daly, laid a wreath at the memorial to recognise “those members of the 2/40th Australian Infantry Battalion (Sparrow Force), who made the ultimate sacrifice alongside the brave people of Kupang and surrounds in 1942”. [4]

Remembrance Day November 11 2025, Naval Attache Jakarta, Captain Mark Daly, laying a wreath at the memorial

HISTORY OF THE SPARROW FORCE MEMORIAL

The proposal to erect the Sparrow Force Memorial was developed by veterans in 1990 and its construction was funded by the veteran community with a contribution by the Office of Australian War Graves.  On 16 June 1992, the memorial was unveiled at Oesau Ridge near Kupang.

The following contemporary report provides the background:

"Sparrow Force gets memorial in Timor

FEBRUARY 23 marked the 50th anniversary of the surrender of Sparrow Force to the Japanese following the battle of Oesau near Kupang at the southern end of Western Timor.

Sparrow Force, mainly 2/40th Infantry Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel W. (later Sir William) Leggatt was deployed in December 1941 to defend Kupang and the nearby airfield.

The defences of Kupang included two six-inch gun emplacements (2/1 Heavy Battery) overlooking the bay and positioned to engage a seaboard invasion.

Early on February 20, 1942, the Japanese assault began with air raids followed by a landing at Amarassi south of Kupang and a parachute assault near Oesau to the east of Kupang.

The Japanese therefore positioned themselves between the Australian force and their main supply depot at Champlong.

Although the Australians tried to fight their way northward against a numerically superior enemy, their fighting capacity was soon reduced through casualties and shortage of water, food and ammunition.

Faced with possible annihilation and no prospect of relief, Lieutenant Colonel Leggatt had little option but to surrender his force to the Japanese at 9am on February 23.

No official memorial exists at Kupang to mark the valiant stand of Sparrow Force.  Only the two spiked six-inch guns remain as monuments to the battle.

2/40th was a Tasmanian battalion and, at the initiative of certain private citizens, the Tasmanian R&SL Branch, the National President of the R&SL and the Office of Australian War Graves, a memorial has been constructed at Oesau.

The memorial is a cairn on which is mounted a plaque bearing the following inscription in English and Indonesian:

IN MEMORY OF THE TIMORESE

PEOPLE AND THE MEN OF

2/40TH AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY

BATTALION (SPARROW FORCE)

WHO DIED IN THE DEFENCE OF

TIMOR IN 1942

The project has been jointly funded by the R&SL and the Office of Australian War Graves and has been managed locally by the Australian Defence Attache at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.

The Office of Australian War Graves arranged for the plaque to be manufactured by Arrow Engraving of Cheltenham, Victoria. [5]

Peter Henning, unit historian of the 2/40 Battalion, has provided the following background information on the memorial and its subsequent history:

“Some of the Australians always appreciated the element of anti-colonial, particularly anti-Dutch sentiment that influenced attitudes among the local people, and have always realised how the Japanese threats to life and property created understandable unwillingness to assist allied troops, and even to 'betray' them.  But as late as 1992, the 50th anniversary of Sparrow force's defence of Timor and capture, when a commemorative ceremony and the laying of a memorial plaque were held near the site of the battle at Usau, there was no representation from the ranks of the 2/ 40 Battalion.

Part of the reason for their absence can be explained by the continuing strong feelings of hostility of some of the veterans for the actions taken by some Timorese people in handing them over to the Japanese.  This is particularly felt by some members of Trevor Sharman's platoon who were forced-marched by Timorese highlanders into Japanese captivity.  Unlike Gull force survivors, whose veterans' association has been actively involved in projects to aid the people of Ambon since the end of the Sukarno era in Indonesia, in order to 'repay the debt of gratitude' to Ambonese who had helped Australians during the war, the Sparrow force survivors have had little contact with Timor since the war, except for the isolated visit by one or two veterans who returned to see the sites of the action and incarceration for their own personal reasons.

One exception to this was a visit to Timor by Fred Smith on the 67th anniversary of the action and surrender of the 2/ 40 Battalion, in February 2009.  Smith, together with a small group of Sparrow force descendants, had contributed funds towards restoring the 1992 memorial at Usau.  He also sought out the family of Jermias Koanfora, of the town of Pariti, who had been tortured and imprisoned by the Japanese for assisting Australians after Timor fell to the Japanese.  Jermias Koanfora had been instrumental in saving the lives of a number of AIF and RAAF men in Japanese occupied Dutch Timor in 1942, including at least six men who were evacuated from Timor by the US submarine Searaven.  Smith knew that an acknowledgement given to Koanfora by the Australian government in 1961 had been confiscated by Indonesian officials, so in 2009 replicated the presentation to Koanfora's sons as a symbolic gesture of appreciation on behalf of the 2/40 Battalion.  Fred Smith was 87 when he undertook this journey to Timor in 2009”. [6]

In the intervening years, the Sparrow Force memorial sustained considerable damage and deterioration.  An extensive restoration, including provision of a new bronze memorial plaque acknowledging the entire Sparrow Force Order of Battle, was arranged by OAWG through AusAid officers engaged in a water supply project in Timor.  Arrangements for the protection and maintenance of the memorial have also been made with the landowner on whose property it is located. [7]

Bronze memorial plaque acknowledging the entire Sparrow Force Order of Battle

The memorial was deliberately positioned at Oesau, site of the decisive battle in the defence of Koepang, as this recollection by Sparrow Force veteran Tom Uren makes clear:

“Sparrow Force troops, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel William Leggatt, landed first at Koepang in West Timor on 12 December 1941, soon afterwards the 2/2 Independent Company proceeded to Dili in East Timor. 

From the end of January right through until February 19, we were under daily bombing and strafing attacks by the Japanese.  On 19 February 1942, the Japanese mounted a massive air attack and sea invasion of Koepang.

Just before the attack Japanese paratroops were dropped into the Babau region of West Timor between the port of Koepang and Champlong in the mountain range, where our main stores base was situated, their purpose was to cut off an Australian withdrawal from Koepang, into the mountains.

I was a member of the 2/1 Heavy Artillery Battery.  We had the old 6" guns that were formerly on the "Sydney" that sunk the "Emden" in the First World War: mounted to protect the harbour at Koepang.  We only primed and calibrated them and then the Japanese landed on the other side of the island.

“Silent guardian” 2/1 Heavy Artillery Battery, Koepang Harbour painted 14 September 1945 by official war artist Charles Bush – Australian War Memorial ART26335 [8]

We dismantled them and we became foot troops or infantry back up troops to the 2/40 Battalion.  The 2/40 Infantry Battalion, under Colonel Leggatt’s leadership, counter attacked the Japanese paratroops.

Our forces had retaken the town of Babau and were pinned down at a river bank just below the slopes of Usau Ridge.  Before advancing on the attack to take Oesau Ridge, a Bren gun carrier returned to our rear position and asked for a volunteer to fill ammunition cams for a Lewis gun which was mounted on top of the Bren gun [carrier], I volunteered.

We then moved forward over the river and on the road leading up to the slopes to Oesau Ridge, giving cover fire to the troops of the 2/40 battalion as our troops advanced up the hill.  The Japanese were dug in on Oesau Ridge.

They had machine gun emplacements.  As our men strode up the hill at bayonet-point and took Usau Ridge.  It was one of the most courageous actions I have ever seen in my life.

“From Oesaoei [Oesau] Ridge” painted 16 September 1945 by official war artist Charles Bush – Australian War Memorial ART26315 [9]

Colonel Leggatt was in the centre of the road, standing near our Bren gun carrier, giving leadership and direction to his men.

Christopher Wray reports that of some 500 Japanese paratroops which had landed, only a small number survived.

The tragedy of the magnificent struggle carried out by Colonel Leggatt and the 2/40 battalion is that after destroying the Japanese in the Babau and Oesau Ridge area, the long column progressed forward slowly to the foot of the hills below Champlong not knowing that there were no further Japanese troops between our troops and Champlong.

It was a failure of leadership of those people in the reserve at Champlong.  Christopher Wray’s book depicts the traumatic surrender of Colonel Leggatt’s forces on the morning of 24 February 1942 and, soon after, the bombing of our position by Japanese bombers, killing both Australian and Japanese troops.  Luckily the area where we were situated was very muddy and the explosions of the bombs were less effective than if it had been in a dry or coral area.  We had over 150 wounded soldiers in our lorry convoy”. [10]

REFERENCES

[1] Google Maps coordinates: -10.11121080787035, 123.81630265166396.

[2] Debt of Honour exhibition panel – The Battles for Timor - https://museum.wa.gov.au/debt-of-honour/battles-timor

[3] https://www.grants.gov.au/Ga/Show/5fddc49d-c528-44c2-b2d1-c6863b30acc8; see also https://www.indonesiacouncil.org/meet-our-members/michael-kramer

[4] https://www.facebook.com/australianembassyjakarta

[5] “Sparrow Force gets memorial in Timor” VetAffairs April 1992: 5.  https://nla.gov.au:443/nla.obj-1108109572

[6] Peter Henning. - Doomed Battalion: mateship and leadership in war and captivity - the Australian 2/40 Battalion 1940-45. – 2nd ed, rev. & enl. - [Exeter, Tasmania] : Peter Henning, 2014: 423.

[7] “Sparrow Force Oesau Memorial” https://www.dva.gov.au/recognition-and-commemoration/memorials/memorials-asia-pacific/indonesia/sparrow-force-oesau-memorial

[8] https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C174970

[9] https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C174950

[10] Tom Uren “Address by Tom Uren, MP at launch of Timor 1942 : Australian commandos at war with the Japanese by Christopher Wray, Sydney, 14 April 1987”.  Paper in 2/2 Commando Association of Australia archives.  See also Henning, Henning, Doomed Battalion: Ch. 4 “Action February 1942” 109 - 171.

 

[Edward Willis]