OECUSSE DISTRICT - WWII IN EAST TIMOR

[Edward Willis]

“Oecusse is located on the north coast of the western part of Timor Island.  It is separated from the rest of Timor-Leste by the Indonesian territory which surrounds the small enclave in all directions, except to the north, where it borders the Savu Sea.  The district of Oecussi-Ambeno was named after the two original kingdoms which now constitute the district.  The territory has 64,025 inhabitants (Census 2010) and an area of 815 km².  The capital is the city of Pante Macassar, formerly known as Vila Taveiro during the Portuguese administration.  The district of Oecussi-Ambeno is identical to that of the same in Portuguese Timor.  It was the last Timorese circumscription elevated to district in August 1973.  It now includes the subdistricts of Nitibe, Oessilo, Pante Macassar and Passabe. [1]

Ocussi of Ambeno (Portuguese Timor) –20 August 1943 [2]

PORTUGUESE PROVINCE OF OCUSSI: (9° 20' S, 124° 20' E).  (See also Part II, Chapter I, Section I).

a. General:

Ocussi (Oekoesi) is a Portuguese enclave on the north coast of Dutch Timor.  It extends from lat 9° 10' to 9° 30' S and from long 124° 03' to 124° 28' E of Greenwich, and comprises an area of approx 328 square ml.  The boundaries are shown on Map No.1.

b. Areas of Military Importance:

The capital Ocussi-town has good facilities for anchorage and is connected via Kefannanoe with the trunk road of Dutch Timor (See Map 19). [3]

SRD Operation Sunable

On 27 June 1945 SRD Operation Sunable Operatives parachuted into a drop zone south west of Cape Batoemerah in Oecussi.  They reported on 4 July that they are unable to carry out their mission.  One Operative was killed on 12 July 1945 and the remainder of the party were captured by the end of the following week.

Members of SUNABLE Mission - June 1945

L to R: Sgts Jack Shand (ex 4AIC), Frank Curran, Jack White, Lieut. Des Williams (ex 4AIC) [4]

Powell:

“SRD returned to Timor in June 1945.  Wanting news of Japanese shipping movements along the north coast of that island, SRD parachuted the SUNABLE party into the Portuguese enclave of Ocussi on the night of 27 June.  Lieutenant D.M. Williams, AIF, led the party.  Sergeant J. Shand, recovered from the hand injury that had put him out of the ADDER party - and probably saved his life - and two other AIF sergeants, F.A. Curran and J.R. White, made up the balance of the party.  None of the Timorese at LMS Darwin would volunteer for this mission, which showed good judgement, for though the four Australians landed unseen and SRD had not informed LAGARTO or COBRA of their-presence, Japanese patrols were on their trail from the moment they met native Timorese on the third day of the operation.  On 4 July Williams realised the position was hopeless and signalled Darwin for withdrawal, but on the following morning the party ran into a Japanese ambush.  Williams fell, wounded.  The others tried to work their way towards him, and he waved them off, calling on them to hide.  From concealment, Shand heard a single shot and saw Japanese standing around Williams' position -another brave man dead on Timor.  The others' escape proved to be temporary.  The Japanese captured Shand on 10 July, Curran and White two days later.  All three were taken to Dili, chained, interrogated and thrown into jail”. [5]

Operation Sunable Members

Lt Desmond Maurice "Pancho" Williams	NX72314	Ex 4AIC	KIA, 5 July 1945 [6]
Sgt Jack Archibald George Shand	VX66803	Ex 4AIC	POW, Dili
Sgt Francis Edward Anthony Curran	VX89740 (V45180)		POW, Dili
Sgt Jack Russell White [7]	QX57559 (Q22868)		POW, Dili

Current map of Oecusse District [8]

Rose: 

“Bi Tunis is notable for being the probable site of the only fighting to occur in Oecussi during WWII, the destruction of an Australian reconnaissance patrol by Japanese soldiers.  Although this incident is remembered through a variety of oral legends the core detail – that four Australians were captured/killed after a gun battle near a cave – are consistent with the Australian Government’s record of a disastrous July 1945 operation: Sunable [8] in which four Australian soldiers were parachuted into Oecussi to obtain information on what was happening in the enclave only to be quickly captured after their leader was killed in an ambush”. [9]

Pante Makassar

d. Towns, Important Villages, Mission Stations:

i. Ocussi-town (9°12'S, 124°22' E).

The capital of Ocussi is shown on the General Map of Dutch Timor (Map 1) under the name of Ocussi.  Other names are Pante Makassar and Vila Taveiro.

The town is situated on the coast and contains the office and the house of the Administrator, a Roman Catholic mission station with a church and school, the house of the native king, a telephone office, and a few Chinese shops and houses.  The principal buildings are made of stone with corrugated iron roofs.

About 1 ml (1 1/2 km) SE of the town are a few large buildings, made of stone with corrugated iron roofs and situated on the hill Fatoe Soeba at an elevation of approx 500ft (152 meters).  Among these is a hospital and the former house of the Administrator.  The place is connected with the town by telephone and by a motor road.  The road has steep gradients. [11]

Rose: [12]

A Chinese trader from Pante Makassar, Leong Kim, used to come and buy sandalwood trees, which were extracted from the forest with the full cooperation of its customary authorities, and one incredible day about 20 years before he was born, a Japanese ship was bombed from the air and wrecked off the beach (Carey and Nielson, 2002). [12]

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oecusse#/media/File:2015_East_Timor_Oecusse_locator_map.png; http://timor-leste.gov.tl/?p=91&lang=en#Oecussi-Ambeno.  Accessed 5 February 2024.

[2] ASDT: Map no. 9.

[3] ADST: 63.

[4] Lambert, Commando, from Tidal River to Tarakan: 242.

[5] Alan Powell. - War by stealth: Australians and the Allied Intelligence Bureau, 1942-1945. - Carlton South, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1996: 143-144.  See also, Chamberlain, Forgotten men: Timorese in special operations during World War II: 32 “SUNABLE: 27 Jun to 12 Jul 45” and Courtney, Silent feet: the history of Z' special operations 1942-1945: 222-225.

[6] Williams body was recovered post-WWII and re-interred at the Ambon War Cemetery; see Lieutenant Desmond Maurice Williams, Service Number: NX72314 - https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2172233/desmond-maurice-williams/. – Accessed 5 February 2024.

[7] Jin Hui “Sergeant Jack White – a silent hero”.  https://warwicktoday.com.au/news/2022-04-24/sergeant-jack-white-a-silent-hero/.  Accessed 5 February 2024.

[8] Adapted from MapCarta map – 5 February 2024.

[9] Michael Rose. - Indigenous spirits and global aspirations in a Southeast Asian borderland: Timor-Leste’s Oecussi enclave. – Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press B.V., 2020: 148.

[10] National Archives of Australia: A3269, V17, 126-132.

[11] ASDT: 63.

[12] Michael Rose. - Indigenous spirits and global aspirations in a Southeast Asian borderland: Timor-Leste’s Oecussi enclave. – Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press B.V., 2020: 173.

[13] S. Carey and H. Nielson. - Investigation report on the identity of apparent WWII Japanese ship wreckage. - Dili: UNMISET, 2002.  [Not sighted]

Additional Reading

Laura S. Meitzner Yoder “The formation and remarkable persistence of the Oecusse-Ambeno enclave, Timor” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 47 (2) June 2016: 281 – 303.