Edward Willis

Nigel: Thank you for your enquiry. I've attached extracts from two primary sources - the Area Study of Portuguese Timor (1943) - and the Area Study of Dutch Timor (1943) - that cover the WWII airfields Both publications can be downloaded from the Monash University Special Collections database: https://collections.monash.edu/nodes/view/76647?keywords=area+study+Portuguese+timor&type=all&highlights=eyIwIjoiYXJlYSIsIjEiOiJzdHVkeSIsIjIiOiJwb3J0dWd1ZXNlIiwiMyI6InRpbW9yIiwiOCI6InRpbW9yLiIsIjkiOiJhcmVhLiIsIjExIjoiYXJlYXMiLCIxMiI6InRpbW9yLCJ9&lsk=5e05be81f002c0035b436b6b505f1d58 https://collections.monash.edu/nodes/view/76591? I've also attached extracts from my publication WWII in East Timor: an Australian Army site and travel guide that cover the airfields that may also assist you. Get back to me if you need any additional information. Regards Ed Willis Vice-President, 2/2 Commando Association of Australia Airfield content - WWII in East Timor - an Australian Army site and travel guide.pdf Airfield content - Area study of Dutch Timor, NEI.pdf Airfield content - 1 Area study of Portuguese Timor.pdf

Thank you for your prompt reply Gavin - I'll ask Peter to contact you. Regards Ed

Former 2/2 Commando Association President and current Committee member Peter Epps has devoted many years to developing and maintaining the popular “Men of the 2/2” database on the Doublereds website (https://doublereds.org.au/history/men-of-the-22/). To assist in completing the database, Peter is seeking information on 37 2/2 men who went on to serve after WWII and whose digitised service records are not available on the National Archives of Australia website. He has compiled the attached list of these men and would be grateful if any members or supporters who have obtained the service records of any individual man listed would be willing to make information in them available to the Association. Peter advises: “The families can redact any info they do not wish to be common knowledge as all we are interested in is their military service with the Unit up to the end of hostilities and whatever military info is available after; i.e., promotions, unit changes, awards etc.” Anyone who assist with this task is requested to reply to this post and Peter will respond directly to them and follow up as required. Thank you in anticipation. Ed Willis Vice-President, 2/2 Commando Association of Australia List for Courier.docx

Following up my report at last Monday’s meeting, as requested, I’ve attached Tom Hoyer’s (Byford Rotary) documentation regarding the “Los Palos - Escola Secundário Técnico Vocational No 1. Vocational Tools Project” – recall we recently provided funding for a water supply and purification system for the school that has been successfully installed. See - Tom comments: (a) On 16 Mar 2026, at 10:22 am, Tom Hoyer <tom.hoyer@skymesh.com.au> wrote: Bondia Ed Yes, I am looking for more sponsors, but have decided to half their request (or less) to make it more achievable. Any start will be better than no tools. I am thinking of going again around September to look at another water project. I could use the money I have got to purchase in Dili and get them to the school site. A work in progress. Cheers Tom (b) On 16 March 2026 at 1:58 pm Tom Hoyer <tom.hoyer@skymesh.com.au> wrote: Hi Ed See attached the project profile and 2 tools photos. I have narrowed the list down to about $7000.00US dollars to get them started. Cheers Tom RECOMMENDATION: Building on our previous support for the school, I recommend the Association contributes US$700 (approx. A$1,000) for this project. Vocational School Tools Project 2025-26.docx

JAPANESE MONUMENT PENFUI NEAR KOEPANG, EAST NUSA TENGGARA PROVINCE (WEST TIMOR) 2/2 CAMPAIGN TRAILS INTRODUCTION The most recent Doublereds History post featured the Sparrow Force Oesau Memorial that is located 30km from Koepang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara province (West Timor), in the village of Oesau. [1] It is not well known that nearby this Australian built monument is a Japanese Shinto monument honouring their war dead during the Timor campaign that is situated at Penfui village, approximately one kilometre south of El Tari Koepang International Airport. [2] The monument, locally known as Situs Cagar Budaya, Tugu Jepang [Japanese Monument, Cultural Heritage Site], was erected in April 1943. Japanese Monument location map Japanese Monument, Penfui [3] Though under provincial government protection, the monument is neglected and in need of restoration. A Japanese veterans group last visited the site in 1983. These veterans may have been associated with the 228th Regimental Group and/or the 3rd Yokosuka Special Naval Landing Force that were the main units involved in the Battle for Koepang that raged from 20 February to 23 February 1942. Both units suffered heavy casualties during the fighting with the Sparrow Force defenders, primarily men of the Australian 2/40th Battalion. DESCRIPTION Heritage consultants Beribe, To and Katulote prepared a site report on the monument in 1991 – edited translated extracts from their report follow: "In East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province, particularly in the Koepang City area, there are numerous historical relics. One of these is the Japanese Monument Site, built during the Japanese occupation in the 1940s. The Japanese Monument Site is a relic of the Japanese people’s struggle against the Allies during WWII. The site was built in April 1943. Japanese Monument in Penfui, which is rarely visited by the people of Koepang City. The monument is located in Penfui Village, Maulafa District, Koepang City, East Nusa Tenggara Province, specifically on Jl. Antonov, RT 17/RW 18. It is located approximately one kilometre south of El Tari Koepang International Airport. This Japanese monument site, which is a cultural heritage site, is also a tourist attraction in Koepang City. However, unfortunately, many irresponsible people have defaced the Japanese monument site. Eventually, the government erected a fence so that visitors and tourists can only view it from outside, as shown in this photo of us visiting the Japanese monument site. According to Anselmus Mabikafola, the former caretaker of the Japanese Monument Site, interviewed some time ago, before the site’s construction, the area served as a crematorium for Japanese soldiers who died on the battlefield fighting the Allied forces. The monument was built by local people under strict supervision by the Japanese Army. The first level has five steps, the second has seven steps, and the third has six steps. On the third step is a one metre square room with a door facing north. The 1x1 meter peak room of the Japanese Monument Site is a place of worship for six Japanese soldiers. The room was guarded by six Dai Nippon soldiers. Two sat facing east, two facing south, and two facing west. Every morning at 6:00 a.m. and evening at 5:00 p.m., these six soldiers worshipped the Shinto statues they carried, their gods. The front monument, facing south, featured two marbles inscribed with the names of Japanese soldiers whose bodies were cremated at the site. Unfortunately, these marbles were stolen and their whereabouts remain unknown. In 1983, a group of Japanese Army veterans visited the site. They performed a ritual of worship and respect by burning incense and arranging it around the site. There are mystical stories from residents around the Japanese Monument in Kupang City. Some locals have seen short men dressed as Japanese soldiers pushing cannons in and out of the monument. They often hear the stomping of boots, which locals believe are the spirits of Japanese troops marching. Others have seen cigarette flames, believed to be the spirits of Japanese soldiers smoking around the monument, and others at night". [4] Other Shinto shrines did exist in the Koepang area as evidenced by photos taken by the Military History Section’s Sergeant Keith Davis in September-October 1945. Taroes, Timor 1945-10-10. TIMFORCE. Japanese prisoners of war were imprisoned in a self-supporting camp under Colonel Kaida at Taroes, about seven miles east of Koepang. Because most of them were infected with malaria it was thought wise that they should not endanger the health of Australian servicemen by bringing the disease bearers within “mosquito range” of the allied camp. A Shinto shrine has been built within the camp area. (Photographer Sgt K.B. Davis) [5] BACKGROUND Japanese Casualties During the Battle of Koepang The main landing force in Timor was the Imperial Japanese Army’s Eastern Detachment (commanded by Major General Ito Takeo), a detachment built around the 38th Infantry group, and supported by the Imperial Japanese Navy’s 3rd Yokosuka Special Naval Landing Force and two platoons of the Sasebo Combined Special Landing Force (SNLF). The 38th Infantry Group was largely made up of the 228th Infantry Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the 38th Mountain Artillery Regiment. [8] 228th Infantry Regiment The 228th Infantry Regiment’s history provides a vividly detailed sequential account of the unit’s involvement in the Battle of Koepang including enumerating the number of killed and wounded and listing their names. [9] For example, see the unit history’s account of the end of the battle on the 22 February 1942: “The battle ended around 19:00. The enemy vehicles had also passed through. The Oesau plains, which had been a hellish battlefield only an hour earlier, had turned into a dreamlike, quiet plain, with the remains of burnt houses brightly shining in the twilight. …….. Map of the battle near Oesau The unit had been through two days of hard marches since landing, with no time to rest. Our encounter with the land's central crossroads, and the struggle in the scorching heat, without sleep, rest, food, or drink since the previous evening, had exhausted both our energy and soul, and for a while, I nearly lost the will to move on my own. The soldiers killed in the final hour of fighting were Lieutenant Ogawa Masami, the machine gun platoon commander, and 42 others, whose names are as follows: Command Squad Leader Warrant Officer Haruo Ohno, Squad Leaders Sergeant Fujisaku Tominari, Shigeru Mizukoshi, Akio Tsuge, Corporal Ryuzo Ichihara, Machine Gun Squad Leader Shigeru Fujita, Corporal Noriyuki Saito, Officer Candidates Seinosuke Ito, Kikuo Kondo, Sadao Sayuki, Hatsushirou Kosuga, Sergeant Kazunao Takamura, Kenichi Tamura, Yoshiyoshi Miyashitani, Kazuo Matsuda, Takeo Koike, Fukuichi Fujita, Isamu Shinkai, Kinzo Hasegawa, Private First Class Minoru Ito, Noboru Mori, Saijiro Judai, Kintaro Sakagami, Takao Esan, Jinji Uehara, Yoshio Kusunoki, Toshio Miwa, Akira Kawai, Riichiro Yamabuta, Minoru Hige, Fumiji Torada, Zenichi Higashio, Meiji Matsuda, Yoshiyoshi Mori, Katsutaro Yajima, Kanesaburo Nishimoto, Taisaburo Shimogishi, Shoichi Iriyama, Hisakazu Nishikawa, Motosaburo Kitamaki, and Private First Class Masao Oku. Under the command of Lieutenant Murota, the unit concentrated on retrieving survivors and tidying up the battlefield. …… The following day, on the 23rd, all seriously injured on the battlefield were taken in by the detachment's medical unit and transferred to a hastily established field hospital in Koepang. Those with minor injuries were treated on-site and moved together with the main force of the company, tidying up the battlefield and in particular searching for and gathering the bodies of fallen comrades, and holding cremation ceremonies in two locations, on the left and right sides, throughout the day on the 23rd. …… The site of the funeral of the war dead on the [Oesau] plateau occupied by the 2nd Platoon (photographed from the direction of the central highway) The total casualties in this battle were: Killed in action: 1 officer, 1 warrant officer, 8 non-commissioned officers, 57 enlisted men, a total of 67. Severely wounded: 1 officer, 3 non-commissioned officers, 38 enlisted men, 42. Lightly wounded: 2 officers, 6 non-commissioned officers, 29 enlisted men, 37. Of the seriously wounded, Private First Class Ogawa Mitsutoki was seriously injured in the final battle at the field hospital on the Coupin on February 25th; Private First Class Oya Osamu was shot around 16:00 and died on March 9th; Medical Corporal Kosakai Hiroshi died on March 8th; and Private First Class Sato Seitaro finally died on March 21st. ……. Return of the Remains: Following the conclusion of the operation, memorial services were held in Koepang and Dili for the remains of those who had made their honorable sacrifices in the attacks on Ambon and Timor Island. Following this, on June 11th, representatives from each unit carried the remains of those who had made a silent triumphant return to the mainland. Many of the field soldiers who had seen their comrades off at the pier, wishing them peace, had participated in the Battle of Guadalcanal, and had no way of knowing that their bodies would end up exposed to the steaming grass on a remote island in the middle of the ocean”. 3rd Yokosuka Special Naval Landing Force Henning provides a valuable summation of the available English language evidence on the severe casualties suffered by the 3rd Yokosuka SNLF during the battle: [10] “The Japanese who defended Oesau were virtually destroyed by the Australian attack. According to information Leggatt obtained later from the Japanese 'there were only 78 survivors of the paratroops units engaged and one enemy infantry company (with mountain gun) which had moved overland from Baoen had also been destroyed, apart from casualties inflicted on the enemy in the rear guard action'. Fred East, the intelligence officer, recorded that 111 of the Naval paratroopers survived, of whom '82 were fit', and that about 200 Japanese infantry lost their lives at Oesau. Japanese sources accessed after the war gave the paratrooper casualties as 36 killed and 34 wounded, and Japanese infantry losses as 67 killed and 56 wounded. These sources have been treated as credible in some accounts of the action in Timor, but they are not supported by original records. Japanese casualty lists have not been found. [11] An unknown number of Japanese had been killed in Babau, particularly in the action of sappers Livingstone, Chandler and Hickey, and at least one full planeload had been shot down by anti-aircraft fire from one of the British Bofors gun crews on the morning of 21 February, but the majority of the Japanese casualties occurred at Oesau, most of them, it appeared, due to the mortar fire. One of the reasons for the devastating impact of the mortars was because the Australians had a 'spotter' in a tree with a clear view of the Japanese positions throughout the action. However, when the Japanese informed the Australians of the high casualties suffered by the paratroopers, it is possible that they had overlooked or not known of Fukumi's trek through the jungle to Penfui. It is not known how many paratroopers arrived at Penfui with Fukumi on 22 February, although one Japanese Inter said at one of the war crimes trials that there were 'about 100 or more' troops with him on the march. Hayakawa's officers would not have so readily concluded that few paratroopers survived unless they had seen convincing evidence of the scale of casualties as they followed the Australians through Babau and Oesau. Whatever the case, the 3rd Yokosuka SNLF never fought as a unit again, and in December 1942 on returning to Japan its survivors were merged with the 1st Yokosuka SNLF, perhaps a sign that its operational effectiveness had been destroyed in Timor. Apart from the paratroopers, Japanese infantry losses are difficult to quantify, but Kanbe's unit at Oesau had 100 who 'were fit after the action', according to information given to Fred East. It is also unknown how many Japanese were killed when their planes were shot down. For example, Fred East wrote that Timorese people later informed him they had 'seen two crashed Jap planes in the bush with about 28 bodies in each', and that one of the Japanese army officers said that 'about 20 of their planes had not returned'”. [12] [13] Japanese Armed Forces Burial Practices During WWII [14] During WWII, the Imperial Japanese Army prioritised the cremation of their war dead on the battlefield whenever possible, with the intention of returning ashes to families in Japan. When cremation was not possible due to, for instance, forced retreats or lack of fuel, alternative methods were used, or the bodies were left behind. Early in the war, the goal was to cremate the remains of fallen soldiers and repatriate their ashes to their families in Japan, allowing for proper funeral rituals. Cremation was considered a solemn duty to prevent leaving comrades behind. In some cases, especially in the early stages of the war (1942-43), remains were cremated shortly after battle, a process that could take up to 10 hours. Don Turton of the 2AIC submitted the following report: On 11 Jul, I visited the Portuguese plantation-owner at HIFU [Ai-Fu] near ERMERA, and on 12 Jul the Chefe de Poste at ERMERA. The reports of the latter confirmed those from HIFU [Ai-Fu]. A Major was shot dead at ERMERA 1900 hrs 17 Apr, whilst on sentry rounds. On this date most troops were in HATOLIA. The Major was boiled in a 44 gal drum until well stewed then his bones were removed, burnt, and the remains casked in cement, borrowed from the Chefe de Poste. After an action, dead and wounded brought back, and those suffering from broken bones, were machine-gunned and buried, sometimes whilst still kicking. This was not seen by the Chefe de Poste, but told to him by Inpoushi (a pre-war resident of DILLI, who assumed the rank of Captain in the army). [15] As death tolls mounted and territory was lost—particularly after the 1942-43 Guadalcanal campaign—it became impossible to recover bodies. The military shifted to sending families white wooden boxes containing only soil, stones, or small bits of wood, rather than remains, to signify the soldier’s death while maintaining morale and avoiding public resentment. If bodies could not be cremated, soldiers sometimes sent hair clippings or fingers home to families in place of ashes. As the war turned against Japan, many soldiers were buried on the battlefield, in caves, or left in the jungle where they fell. The vast majority of Japanese soldiers who died in WWII were never returned home, with their remains left in the islands and jungles of the Asia-Pacific region. Members of the 4AIC observed the latter practice: “Hatu Builico was in a natural basin, surrounded by towering peaks. On the Mt Ramelau side, a huge crowd of our natives were waging a hand to hand war with the opposition from Maubisse way. We heard later that King Ananias of Ainaro was in charge of them, who we estimated to be 1,000 strong. They routed their unfriendly neighbours in no uncertain manner. Later in the day, after Bonabear and I had returned to Alfano, No.2 Sub-section had moved down into Hatu Builico on the off chance of being able to entertain any Japs who might be around. They were fortunate, for just after they had taken up a perfect position covering the town at a range of about 200 yards a big party of about 120 enemy troops arrived. Very kindly they bunched themselves in a square and a Bren gunner's dream came true. Lieut. Lane said later that about 20 per cent of them were killed and the remainder scattered in all directions. Bill Vickers, with some accurate shooting from the Bren, was chiefly responsible. A recce party several days later reported seeing signs of a mass burial underneath a former overhanging bank”. [16] Due to the scale of casualties, many remains were never recovered or cremated. Over 1.1 million of the 2.4 million Japanese soldiers who died during the war are still unaccounted for, with their remains scattered across Asia and the Pacific. “Bone collecting” (ikotsu shūshū) Process Since the end of the war, Japanese organisations has conducted missions to retrieve and cremate the remains of fallen soldiers. A “bone collecting” (ikotsu shūshū) process began slowly after the war. However, of the approximately 2.4 million Japanese who died overseas, about one million remain missing in the field. [17] Formal cremation ceremonies for recovered remains are still occurring. For example, in 2018 and 2026, ceremonies were held for Japanese soldiers whose remains were discovered in the Northern Marianas (Saipan and Tinian). Regardless of whether the body was recovered or cremated, the spirit of the fallen soldier was, in theory, honoured as a deity (kami𝑘𝑎𝑚𝑖) at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Shinto shrines During WWII, Japan established hundreds of Shinto shrines across occupied Asia to promote State Shinto, facilitate loyalty to the Emperor, and commemorate fallen soldiers. Major examples included Syonan Shrine (Singapore), Chinnan Shrine (Malang), Hirohara Shrine (Medan), Yorioka (Sarawak) and various sites in Taiwan and Korea. Most were destroyed after the war, though some remains or restored sites exist. [18] Blackburn and Lim [19] provide additional context for the development of these memorials: Memorials, such as the Yasukuni Shrine, appear to represent what the historians Benedict Anderson, Ken Inglis, and Jay Winter have called ‘a type of speech’ or ‘a living conversation’, in which the monument ‘tells’ the public the version of the past it embodies. These historians have set memorials alongside films, cartoons, and other forms of political communication whose meanings can be deciphered. [20] Their argument implies that the creators of war memorials, like curators of museum exhibits, have used material culture to tell the public a particular narrative of the past. The hypothesis put forward by Anderson, Inglis, and Winter is given support not just by the Yasukuni Shrine but also by Japanese shrines and memorials to the war dead established in former Japanese colonies across Asia. The Yasukuni Shrine was not the only war memorial that was used by the militarists to propagate their view that Japan was honourably pursuing a noble cause. Helen Hardacre has briefly discussed how in Japanese-occupied Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria, hundreds of Japanese Shinto shrines were styled on the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. They were also run by the military, which compelled their colonial populations to pay respect to Japanese deities and Japan’s war dead at the shrines, as a sign of their obedience to the Japanese Empire. [21] While there exists a body of research on these Shinto shrines in North East Asia, literature on the shrines in what the Japanese called the ‘Southern Regions’, namely South East Asia, is lacking. The chief Shinto shrine in the Southern Regions was the Syonan Jinja of Singapore (Syonan or ‘Light of the South’, was the name the Japanese gave Singapore). Post-War Status Following the 1945 Allied “Shinto Directive,” most overseas shrines were destroyed by local populations or Allied forces to dismantle vestiges of Japanese militarism. [22] Very few, such as the Yorioka Shrine (Sarawak), survived or were later restored. While most overseas shrines were destroyed, the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo remains the central, highly controversial institution, honouring over two million Japanese war dead, including convicted Class-A war criminals. [23] Japanese Veteran and Family Pilgrimages Japanese WWII veterans and their families conducted pilgrimages to former Pacific battlefields after travel restrictions eased in 1964, focusing on memorialising the dead, particularly in locations like Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and various locations in Southeast Asia, where battles were fought. These trips serve as a form of ‘life review’ for veterans, offering a chance to process trauma, visit the sites of their youth, and honour fallen comrades and often involved Buddhist ceremonies, erecting cenotaphs, and returning to sites of battle. Veterans have participated in joint memorial services, such as on Iwo Jima, allowing for reflection and reconciliation. According to Akira Nishimura: Towards the end of the Pacific War (1941-1945), members of the Japanese Army were engaged in mortal combat with the Allied Forces. For many the outcome was fateful, and for those soldiers serving on the Pacific islands and in Southeast Asia a large number of them would not return home alive. Despite the Japanese military agency receiving orders to retrieve the bodies of those killed, remains were not recovered to send back to their bereaved. Previous studies revealed that the great majority of the funeral urns delivered to bereaved families contained nothing but a small stone or a chunk of wood. Furthermore, the religious explanation given by the heads of the armed forces was unconvincing, claiming that while the soldiers’ remains could not be returned home, their souls would. Consequently, it is no surprise that the families and the surviving comrades of the fallen regarded this explanation as unsatisfactory. In view of this, the bereaved began to visit the battlefields to hold memorial services for their relatives, and to re-locate and recover their remains. ….. Just before Japan recovered its sovereignty in 1952, the government began preliminary research on the possibility to recover the remains on Okinawa and Iwo Jima Islands sanctioned by the United States. This action was strongly backed by the citizens’ movement instigated as a consequence of an airplane crash. The airplane, enroute to Hawaii in 1950, made an emergency landing on Wake Island. Its passengers, including a popular Japanese singer, Kasagi Shizuko, and a famous composer, Hattori Ryoichi, happened to see the remains of many Japanese soldiers on the island. Kasagi wrote an article in a magazine to inform the Japanese people about this situation. As a consequence of the publicity, the government carried out a three-stage plan between 1953 and 1975 to recover the remains from former battlefields. By 1964, overseas travel became popular, and one out of 1,000 Japanese citizens took trips abroad at this time. This phenomenon was enabled by the economic growth in Japan and the regional development in the locations of the former battlefields. In addition, the Japan Confederation of Promoting Recovery of Remains Organizations was established in 1972. This body liaised with individuals and groups representing bereaved families, deceased soldiers’ comrades, and youth volunteers whose private activity of recovery was now eligible to receive government subsidies. Since 1976, however, the main target of the government project has shifted to the support of pilgrimages for memorial services held by the Japan War-Bereaved Association at former battle sites. In addition, there are many other tours hosted by associations of surviving comrades or religious groups. Recently, there has been an increase in individual pilgrimages by the retired children of fallen soldiers. Although it is quite difficult to grasp the overall trend of the pilgrimage phenomena, it is apparent that recovering remains is not always the pilgrim’s main purpose. It might be also important for them to travel to the very place where the soldiers met their fate and to hold some personal ritual by themselves. [24] REFERENCES [1] Ed Willis “Sparrow Force Monument Oesau near Koepang, East Nusa Tenggara Province (West Timor)” https://doublereds.org.au/forums/topic/494-sparrow-force-monument-oesau-near-koepang-east-nusa-tenggara-province-west-timor-22-campaign-trails/ [2] Google Maps coordinates: 10.178714538925965, 123.65995722227576. [3] https://share.google/B2lfghIpHhlMEs2XF [4] Yohanes Beribe, Selif M.K. To [and] Rivaldy I. Katulote. – Research proposal Japanese monument at Penfui. – Kupang: SMA 4, 1991. [5] https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C201548 [6] https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C221316 [7] The invasion of the Dutch East Indies / compiled by The War History Office of the National Defense College of Japan ; edited and translated by Willem Remmelink. - [Leiden] : Leiden University Press, [2015]: 411. Originally published in Japanese: Tōkyō: Asagumo Shinbunsha, 1967. https://www.cortsfoundation.org/images/PDF/9789087282370 The Invasion of the Dutch East Indies.pdf. [8] The earliest source for the Japanese forces is a monograph prepared in 1947 by a senior staff officer in Major General Ito's command, Lieutenant Colonel Susumo Tozuka. The brief monograph was based on Tozuka's diary notes of the operations in Ambon and Timor. Tozuka's account was the basis for an expanded description published in 1951: Ambon and Timor Invasion Operations / Prepared by Military History Section Headquarters, Army Forces Far East. (Japanese Monograph No. 16) https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Japan/Monos/pdfs/JM-16/JM-16.pdf . Two volumes of the Japanese official war history that cover the Timor campaign have been recently re-published in English translations: (1) The invasion of the Dutch East Indies originally published in 1967 (1) and (2) The operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal originally published in 1969. (1) The invasion of the Dutch East Indies – see citation [7] for full details. (2) The operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal / compiled by The War History Office of the National Defense College of Japan; edited and translated by Willem Remmelink. - Leiden: Leiden University Press, [2018]. Originally published, Tokyo: Asagumo Shinbunsha, Shōwa 44-nen, [1969]. https://www.cortsfoundation.org/images/PDF/Senshi Sōsho Vol. 26.pdf [9] 歩兵第二二八連隊史編纂委員会 、歩兵第二二八連隊史刊行会 、[Ho hei Dainihyaku-nijuhachi Rentaishi Hensan linkai] 228th Infantry Regiment history / 228th Infantry History Compilation Committee. – Nagoya: 228th Regiment Infantry History Publishing Committee, 1973. See esp. Chapter 3 “The Campaign to Capture Timor Island”: 148-157. [10] Peter Henning, Doomed battalion: mateship and leadership in war and captivity - the Australian 2/40 Battalion 1940-45, 2nd ed. [Exeter, Tasmania]: Peter Henning, 2014: 148-149. [11] Japanese casualty lists do exist but are not yet available in English; see two citations for “list[s] of war deaths and casualties” for the Yokosuka 3rd SNLF in [?] Materials on East Timor during World War II / edited by the Forum for Historical Documents on East Timor during the Japanese Occupation Period. Tōkyō: Ryūkeisha, 2008: 175. [12] According to Ron Campbell the Japanese told Leggatt about their casualties. Leggatt's report of casualties is in AWM PR89/99, C9, part v, p. 24. East's summary is in AWM PR 89/154, pp. 6-8. East noted that the Japanese column at Airkom took the brunt of the Japanese bombing runs on 23 February, and 'they lost probably 100-150 men', and that one of the Japanese officers, Captain Fukhada, 'was heard to remark that their casualties were 8 to our 1'. [13] The operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal: 352-353. [14] This section draws on information provided in: Akiko Takenaka “Mobilizing death: bodies and spirits of the modern Japanese military dead” in The Palgrave handbook of mass dictatorship, Paul Corner [and] Jie-Hyun Lim, Editors. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016: 351-363. [15] Summary of report By Lieut D.K. Turton, Ind. Coy, on visit to Hatolia And Ermera 10 – 12 Jul 42. AWM52 25/3/2/5 - Reports, statements and maps - [August to November] 1942 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1367000 [16] Lambert, Commando: from Tidal River to Tarakan: 150. [17] Beatrice Trefalt “Collecting bones: Japanese missions for the repatriation of war remains and the unfinished business of the Asia-Pacific War” Australian Humanities Review 61 May 2017: 145-159. [18] Nakajima Michio “Shinto deities that crossed the sea: Japan’s ‘overseas shrines’ 1868 to 1945” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 37 (1) 2010 :21–46; see esp. 39-40. [19] Kevin Blackburn and Edmund Lim “The Japanese war memorials of Singapore: monuments of commemoration and symbols of Japanese imperial ideology” South East Asia Research 7 (3) November 1999: 321-340; see esp. 323. [20] See Benedict Anderson, Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso, 1983; and Ken Inglis, ANZAC remembered: selected writings of K.S. Inglis. Melbourne: History Department, University of Melbourne, 1998, pp. 8, 240. [21] Helen Hardacre, Shinto and the state, 1868-1988. Princeton, N J: Princeton University Press, 1989, p. 95. [22] “The Shinto Directive” Contemporary Religions in Japan 1 (2) June 1960: 85-89. See also, Franziska Seraphim, War memory and social politics in Japan, 1945-2005. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2006; see esp. 44-46 and Karli Shimizu, Shinto shrines in the Japanese sphere: centre, periphery, and beyond, 1868-1945. Ph.D. Thesis Graduate School of Education, Hokkaidō University, 3 March 2020: 139-143. [23] Akiko Takenaka. Yasukuni Shrine: history, memory, and Japan’s unending postwar. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2015. More particularly, see, for e.g., Utsumi Aiko “Yasukuni Shrine imposes silence on bereaved families” The Asia-Pacific Journal – Japan Focus 4 (9) September 04 2006: 1-5. [24] Akira Nishimura “Battlefield pilgrimage and performative memory: contained souls of soldiers in sites, ashes, and Buddha statues” Memory Connection 1 (1) 2011: 303-311.

THE 2/2 COMMANDO COMPANY’S TIMOR CAMPAIGN 1941-42 TALK TO TOODYAY RSL, 14 FEBRUARY 2026 Good afternoon. Thank you to Toodyay RSL for inviting Noel and myself to address the meeting about the service of the 2/2 Commando Company during WWII. Next Thursday, 84 years ago on the evening of 19 February 1942 the unit first went into action against the Japanese on Timor; Toodyay born Private Jack Hasson was in the thick of it. The Australian Official History records: “The Portuguese force to replace the force at Dili was about due when, near midnight of 19th-20th February, Private Hasson, one of the sentries on the Dili airfield, reported noises which he thought might indicate that the Portuguese had arrived”. Pte J. Hasson, WX13535. 2/2 Indep Coy; 2/2 Cav Cdo Sqn. Truck driver; of Ballidu, WA; b. Toodyay, WA, 17 Dec 1916. The unit served in three campaigns – Timor 16 July 1941 - 15 December 1942, New Guinea 16 June 1943 - 4 September 1944 and New Britain 10 April - 18 December 1945. However, the combat intensity of their first campaign and the close bond that was developed between the 2/2 men and the Timorese people who supported them meant that it was primary in their postwar memory and commemoration. Timor-Leste was in the news two weeks ago when the Prime Minister visited and signed a new partnership agreement. The PM received a euphoric welcome from the locals and the scenes of him being driven in President Ramos-Horta’s Mini Moke from the Airport to the Presidential Palace with T-L PM Xanana Gusmao standing in the rear exemplify the friendly and informal mateship that is the basis of our two countries relationship. The welcome would have been the same no matter what flavour of politician was representing Australia. Xanana commented later that day: “Our countries enjoy a long history of friendship and solidarity. Our peoples first came together in World War II when courageous Timorese supported the brave Australian commandos operating across our country”. I was pleased to note this action was included in the new partnership agreement: “21. We recognise the enduring bonds between Timorese and Australian veterans, maintained through Timor-Leste’s Council of Combatants of National Liberation. We will continue to strengthen the Anzac Day commemorations in Dili, and foster collaboration on historical and commemorative tourism to honour and preserve our shared history”. As regards Anzac Day in Dili and historical and commemorative tourism and, I’ve had the privilege of leading several such tours now with another in preparation for this year. Two memorable tours were in 2018 and 2019; the former including Geoff Payne and Martin and Deb Morris and the latter having several members of the Harrington family as participants. Paul Harrington, Roma Parker, Doug Parker, Trevor Harrington, Murray Harrington, Gary Harrington, Desley Harrington and Monica Mullikin Both Noel and I are sons of original members of the unit. Most of the men who volunteered from WA in May 1941 and were original members of the unit were training at the nearby Northam Army Camp. At least two men born in Toodyay were amongst those volunteers: Jack Hasson and Roy Wilkerson; Reg Harrington, while not born in the town, had strong connection with it. Tom Bateman who served with the 2/2 Commando Squadron in its final campaign on New Britain was also born and grew up in Toodyay. I would be interested to know of any other 2/2 men who had a Toodyay connection. Journalist Paul Cleary has written the most recent history of the Timor campaign and the Introduction to his book The men who came out of the ground provides a concise and well-informed summation of key events and their significance. IN 1941, the Australian Government dispersed more than 22,000 young men to islands in the Asia–Pacific region with little more than light arms to withstand Japan’s imminent onslaught. [1] Military strategists realised the folly of this plan all too late. The units sent to Singapore and Malaya, Rabaul, and the islands of the Dutch East Indies fell like dominoes when faced with the heavily armed air, sea, and land forces of the Japanese military. Nearly all of the men in the Australian Imperial Force’s 8th Division were taken prisoner or killed, and over a third later died as POWs. All of them, except for one unit known as the No. 2 Australian Independent Company, later better known as the 2/2 Commando Company or Squadron, stationed in Portuguese Timor, which became the only unit within the entire division to face the Japanese in early 1942 and remain an integrated fighting force. Bolstered by the remnants of the main units in shattered Sparrow Force in Dutch Timor, and Portuguese and Timorese partisans, the 400-strong force waged a successful guerilla war throughout 1942, despite being outnumbered at times by more than 10 to one. The scale on the map gives an idea of the compact nature of the Timor battlefield – 100 km north to south and approximately 250 km east to west. The Japanese declared the 2/2 Company men “outlaws” and warned if they did not surrender they “would not be given POW privileges and, if captured, would be executed”. [2] As the 2/2 men hit the Japanese with relentless raids, they appeared and operated like bushrangers of Australia’s wild colonial past. Many of the men grew long beards - razors were unobtainable - and resembled the members of the Kelly gang. As the Oscar-winning filmmaker Damien Parer said after spending 16 days with these forces in November 1942, the men of the 2/2 Company were something special. “These men of Timor are unique in that they remained an organised fighting body all through the lightning Jap successes ... These lads are writing an epic of guerilla warfare”. AUSTRALIAN GUERILLAS IN TIMOR. CPL. J. HAIRE EX SCHOOL TEACHER FROM PERTH. (NEGATIVE BY PARER). The 2/2 Company men were unique. For soldiers who had received several weeks training in guerilla warfare the see-sawing mountains of Portuguese Timor proved to be the perfect setting to apply and develop their skills. Most of these tough, fit, and resourceful men, drawn from the WA goldfields, wheat belt and beyond, were at home in the bush and knew instinctively how to live off the land. Constructing “Winnie the war winner” To survive and fight a campaign of David and Goliath proportions required ingenuity, imagination, and mateship on a mammoth scale. Ingenuity, like rebuilding a radio from spare parts so that the force could contact Australia and tell the army chiefs they were indeed still fighting. AUSTRALIAN GUERILLAS IN TIMOR. NATIVES BRING IN FRESH FRUIT TO THE TROOPS. (NEGATIVE BY PARER). Imagination, like mobilising hundreds of local villagers to move supplies out of the enemy’s reach without having the means to communicate with or compensate the willing workers. It demanded mateship not just among the Australians, but with the local people. The skill and fitness of the 2/2 Company men would have counted for nothing had they not won the hearts of the hardy mountain people of Portuguese Timor. After entering the neutral territory uninvited, and then luring the Japanese there, the Australians pulled off a remarkable feat in bush diplomacy and mass mobilisation, despite having little advance knowledge of the people and their language. Many young Timorese and Portuguese volunteered to serve alongside the Australians. They became the eyes and ears of the soldiers, and by hauling supplies and equipment as well they made the 2/2 Company a vastly more mobile and effective guerilla force. Some actually carried arms and took part in engagements with the enemy. Timorese villagers gave the Australians food and shelter and whatever else they needed, and they refused to inform on them. The result was a rag-tag army of professionals and volunteers that is unrivalled in Australian military history. B Platoon officers and their loyal criados at Hatolia. Lieutenant Tom Nisbet with Rufino and Everisto with Captain Geoff Laidlaw The running of a guerilla operation involving several hundred soldiers was a significant feat for a conventional army. The Australians did not look anything like the people around them; they were unable to follow Mao Zedong’s rule that “a guerilla must move among the people as a fish swims in the sea”. While not being invisible like conventional guerilla fighters, the Australians gained an invisible shield by virtue of popular support. This enabled them to man observation posts within 2 km of the capital, Dili, making the Timor operation part of the “coast watchers” network. The information from these posts informed scores of accurate air strikes dispatched from Darwin on enemy shipping and facilities. The skill and calibre of the individuals in the 2/2 Company and the support of the Timorese explain how this small force was able to kill hundreds of enemy soldiers in dozens of close-quarters actions over a period of 10 months, and suffer an relatively small number of casualties - 26 men killed in action. Overwhelmingly, the support of the Timorese population who protected this force contributed to this outcome. Timor was by no means the main game when it came to turning back the Japanese tide in New Guinea and the Pacific, but it was no mere sideshow either. The 400 Australians in Portuguese Timor - later augmented to about 700 with reinforcements from the 2/4 Company - succeeded in tying up several thousand enemy troops in mid-1942 at a time when the Japanese army was fighting its way down the Kokoda Track and came within striking distance of Australia. The Japanese deployed to Timor seven battalions plus engineer, tank, mountain gun, and search units, pushing troop numbers to around 10,000 in 1942. By the end of the war, Japanese sources put their numbers on Timor at 20,000. [3] Prime Minister John Curtin highlighted the importance of this campaign when he looked back at the long year that was 1942: “Our guerrilla forces in Timor have been doing bold and courageous work. Though the spotlight has been more on New Guinea because of the larger forces engaged, the people of Australia should not overlook the importance of Timor as a base for operations against the north-west of Australia”. FAITA AREA, NEW GUINEA.1944-01-07. VX38890 CAPTAIN D. ST. A. DEXTER OF FOOTSCRAY, VIC, COMMANDING OFFICER OF A TROOP AND OF THE 2/2ND COMMANDO SQUADRON RETURNING FROM AN EIGHT DAY PATROL THROUGH JAPANESE HELD TERRITORY. One important perspective on the 2/2’s guerilla campaign, and how it compared to New Guinea, was provided by David Dexter, a platoon commander with the 2/2 Company who went on to lead offensive actions to recapture New Guinea in the latter years of the war. After the war Dexter wrote Volume VI of the Official History of WWII, The New Guinea Offensives. For this senior army officer, diplomat, war historian, and son of a Boer War and Gallipoli veteran, the Timor campaign could not be compared to anything else he had seen or heard of in Australian military history. “They were a remarkable unit”, he said of the 2/2 Company, “like no other in Australian military history”. The 2/2’s year-long campaign was fought by a “tattered cavalry of Australians and Timorese” in the “real wild hills” of the colony. Remarkable too was the war fought in the air and on sea in this campaign, and yet little is known of how the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and the Naval forces of Australia, the United States, and the Netherlands supported this force garrisoned in an enemy-controlled territory. Despite the many extraordinary facets to this epic in guerilla warfare, it appears as a minor footnote in most histories of WWII, overshadowed by the New Guinea and Pacific campaigns. Indeed, Australia’s official history of WWII includes most of the Timor campaign as an appendix. Few people today are aware that Australian forces fought in Portuguese Timor, and that about 40-50,000 Timorese died as a result of that conflict. New mural on wall of Sparrow Force House (next door to Australian Embassy) commemorating the INTERFET peacekeeping operations While the scale of the loss and destruction suffered by the Timorese was likely not well-appreciated by many Australians, their brave support for the 2/2 men was not forgotten. 57 years later, much of the public sentiment in favour of Australia’s armed forces peacekeeping intervention in East Timor between 1999 and 2012 was framed by the acknowledgment of a debt to the Timorese. The Timor campaign was brought to public attention again in 2012 by the WA Museum’s comprehensive Debt of Honour exhibition that was curated by James Dexter, son of David Dexter. The Exhibition’s display panels can still be accessed on the Museum’s website ; I’ll refer to some of the panels to highlight relevant post-war developments. Post WWII In the immediate post-WWII period, members of the 2/2 re-adjusted to civilian life, establishing careers and raising families. To remain in contact with each other they formed the 2/2 Commando Association of Australia in 1946. The 2/2 veterans had a strong and enduring interest in the wellbeing of the Timorese people as result of the invaluable support they received from them during their campaign against the Japanese between February-December 1942; repaying what they perceived as their “debt of honour” as reflected in the Exhibition title. 2/2 veterans at the opening of the Dare Memorial and Resting Place, April 1969 The 2/2 Commando Association decided to build a memorial to honour the wartime assistance. A fundraising campaign raised $4,000 which was matched by the Federal Government. The Association built a large resting place and wading pool at Dare, in the hills overlooking Dili for Timorese travelling to and from the city markets. It was opened in April 1969. Individual members and their families continued to directly support Timorese friends and families. The Association continued to sponsor shipments of medical equipment, school and office furniture and vegetable seeds. By 2006 an Independent Trust Fund had raised over $60,000 and overseen the collection and distribution of goods valued at over $300,000. In April 2000 six members of the 2/2 returned to Timor to re-dedicate the refurbished Timor Memorial at Dare, in honour of East Timorese wartime assistance. The memorial was later rebuilt in 2009 by the Australian 1st Combat Engineer Regiment to include a café, museum and a school built on the site of the old wading pool. The Keith Hayes Building, St Anthony’s International School With the passing of the veterans, the old Association was wound up in 2014 and new Association established. The current Committee is mostly made up of family members of the unit veterans who maintain a strong commitment to helping the people of Timor-Leste. To this end, over $150,000 has been donated to support the construction and maintenance of school classrooms and toilets, teacher professional development training, water supply and purification and girls sanitary products. In addition, the Association had been working on a project to survey and record information about sites connected with WWII in East Timor. The main objective of the project was to economically assist Timor-Leste by encouraging tourists with a connection to the 2/2, 2/4 or Z Special, INTERFET veterans or those with a more general interest in WWII history and heritage, to visit the country and thereby foster awareness and better commemorate the service of our soldiers and the invaluable support that they received from the Timorese people. It released a publication “WWII in East Timor: an Australian Army site and travel guide” documenting the outcomes of the project in August 2024. Units wartime achievements not adequately recognised – they alone did not surrender in 1942 – longest front line service. Unsuccessfully lobbied successive federal governments seeking award of unit citation – regulations under relevant act place 20 year bar on making retrospective awards – though the minister has discretion to direct the Awards Tribunal to investigate claims in special circumstances – discretion exercised on several occasions – most notably awarding VC to Teddy Sheean for his heroic action defending HMAS Armidale – recall this was part of the Timor campaign – Armidale was part of a three ship group tasked with, amongst other things, evacuating the 2AIC in early December 1942 - interestingly a previous Tribunal panel had rejected the claim 18 months earlier – so, if there is a political will to make a retrospective award there is a way. Not being awarded a Unit Citation by the Australian government was somewhat compensated by the Association’s efforts to assist the Timorese people being recognised by the Timor-Leste government awarding it the prestigious Order of Timor-Leste in November 2024. Royce Wilkerson flagpole and memorial, St Saviour’s Anglican Church, Katrine To conclude on a local note, as some of you may know, Toodyay born 2/2 soldier Royce Wilkerson is commemorated by a memorial flag and plaque at St Saviour’s Anglican Church at Katrine on the old road to Northam. He was an original member of the unit and also served in New Guinea and New Britain. This flag pole is dedicated to Royce Barrows Wilkerson and the brave men of the 2nd/2nd Independent Company who fought in Timor 1941 - 1942 Never surrendered Never forgotten Lest We Forget An appropriate summation for the individual veteran and the unit in which he served. Ed Willis Vice President 2/2 Commando Association of Australia 14 February 2025

HANDOVER OF JAPANESE FLAG TO SAS HISTORICAL FOUNDATION COLLECTION - Campbell Barracks - Monday 5 January 2026 Further to our post of December 8, 2025 the Japanese flag was handed over in a simple ceremony at Campbell Barracks last Monday in the presence of Bourke family members, 2/2 and a small group of 2/2 Commando Association of Australia committee members and supporters. Edmund Bourke’s widow Dorothy very kindly donated the flag to the Association. It has been professionally restored and mounted for display. Greg Mawkes, Chair of the SAS Historical Foundation advised: “… we were gifted the [an]other captured Japanese flag signed by members of 2/2 Commando Squadron in 1945. The second flag would be a welcome addition to our collection as we can display it in the SASR HQ where members of the Regiment can see and appreciate the benchmark for physical and mental toughness, adaptability, flexibility, resilience, and courage that was set by men on whose shoulders we stand”. 2/2 President, Noel Strickland thanked Greg for accepting the flag into the Foundation’s collection and the hospitality provided to those attending on the day, including morning tea and a guided tour.

Distinguished guests, veterans, family members and friends. It is an honour and privilege to be with you today to pay tribute to my father, Edmund Bourke, a proud Australian soldier who served with the 2/2nd commandos in New Britain. I would like to begin by thanking those of you who have served and who are currently serving our great country. The freedoms we enjoy so easily today, are thanks to your commitment and dedication and the sacrifices you make for us. I would also like to acknowledge the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation, on whose land we gather today. Thank you for inviting me to speak about dad’s wartime history and the infamous flag which many of you may have seen and for welcoming mum and I here today. A brief timeline of dad’s service – In Jan 1942 he answered the call for volunteers and joined the militia; he was first posted to Infantry Unit 2 Brigade. Before he could be posted, he was claimed by his brother Matthew and transferred to his unit, 4th Division Signals where he was trained as a signalman. After the bombing of Darwin, in April 1942 he was transferred to Geraldton, crossing the Nullarbor by cattle train, to assist in the defence of Western Australia. He served both as a signalman and as a driver in the Transport division. Then in February 1943, he was posted to Fortress Signals on Rottnest Island to help in the installation of the large guns capable of protecting Fremantle from shelling by Japanese ships. In April 1943 he joined the 2nd AIF and was posted to Townsville as a linesman. Once again across the Nullarbor on a cattle train. In his notes he writes that it was on that train journey that he first came across the 2/2nd unit. Wanting to see action and having had several requests for transfers denied, he was finally given his wish and transferred to the 2/2nd unit and headed to New Britain. After the Japanese surrender, he served in Rabaul guarding the Japanese POW’s. [2] Like so many of his era, he did not believe war should be glorified and for many years he struggled with the concept of participating in any events on Anzac Day. It was only after he reconnected through this group, that he and mum began attending the safaris and other events. They created many fond memories from travels with his comrades, many of which are your relatives. Bluey Bone, and Jack Carey to name a couple. Whilst not glorifying his days in action, he got a glint in his eye every so often when he recounted a mischievous story, usually involving some disciplinary action. They range from rolling a truck, because he was unlicenced and had fibbed about his age, to riding bareback across the great rivers of northern Queensland to patrol the telegraph lines, crossing croc infested waters. IJN Kashima 1940 at Shanghai [3] The best of the stories is his version of ‘acquiring’ the Japanese flag. Dad told us that at the end of the war, when his unit were guarding the Japanese prisoners of war on their ships in Rabaul, he was dared by his mates, to sneak onto their cruiser, the Kashima, and procure the ship’s flag from atop the flagpole. He took up the challenge, which he claimed couldn’t be any harder than the coconut picking he had been doing. When he had shimmied to the top of the flagpole, in the process of releasing the flag, he was spotted by a Japanese soldier, and the alarm was raised. To escape, he dived from the pole into the waters below, with said flag tucked into his shorts. It was reported that the ship’s commander was irate and demanded a beheading over the incident. The Australian army replied that they had investigated, and no culprit could be found. Lucky for me! Japanese flag signed by 2/2 Commando Squadron members, Rabaul, late 1945 For many years we believed this to be the flag you now have in your charge, signed by members of the unit. However, the silk flag you have, was not typical of the flags used on ships and there is another flag which probably fits this story more. This raises the question, where did this signed flag come from? And how did it end up in dad’s possession. Sadly, the true story is lost forever but we can only assume that he was given it for safe keeping by the unit. For more than 40 years it remained in a glass, Ponds, make-up jar in the back of his wardrobe. When he brought it out to show us, we had it framed for him for his 70th birthday. It has hung in dad’s office for more than 30 years, until mum chose to donate it to you last year. So, whilst there is some confusion about the origin of the flag that you now have in your trust, it tells the story of the many men who courageously fought alongside each other in true Aussie mateship. [4] In dad’s notes that he wrote not long before he died, after much coercion by mum, he writes - “the 6 months spent with the 2/2 commandos, was the highlight of my army experience. It gave me the satisfaction of doing what I wanted, it was a very hard experience though”. He went to New Britian as a signalman, found the American flag flying at half-mast for the death of President Roosevelt, told his CO that he had “had signals” and he arranged his transfer to the 2/2 which came with a pay cut of 2 shillings/day. He speaks of ‘bouncing around like a cork’ in a flat bottom barge as they moved up the east coast of New Britain to a new camp near Rabaul. Map of Lt. Fox Patrol [5] He was sent to C troop who were manning the centre point on the neck of the Peninsula. It was from here that he embarked on what he claimed to be the toughest and most rewarding experience of his life. They set out on a five-day patrol to check on the enemy, which turned out to be 24 days of torture. It rained incessantly; they couldn’t wear socks of undies and had to carry one of their own backs on a makeshift stretcher. He notes that “he climbed hand over hand, up a perpendicular mountain for a whole morning”, and on another day, “walking through knee deep water so they couldn’t be tracked”. They had turned yellow due to the anti-malarial’s, and he was sick for several days from exhaustion and starvation, when they returned to camp. [6] No one had ever been able to engage dad in any conversation about the war. It was off limits and out of respect, only being able to imagine what he experienced, it was never pursued. When I was in my early 30s and dad his early 80s, I had the honour of accompanying him to Gallipoli on an RSL tour. That trip changed my understanding of what dad went through during his service and deepened my respect and love for him. I spent two weeks listening to dad recount stories with other veterans on the trip. The most memorable was from an 85-year-old veteran, Fred, who told a good yarn, the best of which was about him surviving the sinking of the HMAS Perth and then being the only survivor of a Japanese firing squad. He and nine others had successfully escaped from their prisoner of war camp, only to be dobbed in by locals and recaptured. They were all put before a firing squad and as the commander counted down from ten, he stopped at one and pulled Fred out of the lineup because he had radio skills that they needed. It's hard to put into words my gratitude to dad and his fellow soldiers; for his courage and loyalty; for his sacrifice and our freedom. A man of outstanding integrity, respect, humility, honesty and sincerity. A young man whose youth was stolen by war; a lucky man to have returned home to a supportive family and community. Thank you, dad, for showing me what true loyalty and love look like; you were not only brave in war, but brave in life. We remember you with gratitude, respect and love. Thank you once again for inviting me to speak today. REFERENCES [1] ”Edmund Meskill BOURKE” https://doublereds.org.au/history/men-of-the-22/vx/edmund-meskill-bourke-r323/ [2] For Edmund Bourke’s service record, see “BOURKE EDMUND MESKILL : Service Number - VX134084 : Date of birth - 08 Feb 1922 : Place of birth - STH MELBOURNE VIC : Place of enlistment - NAVAL BASE WA : Next of Kin - BOURKE E” NAA: B883, VX134084 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=6669689&isAv=N [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IJN_Kashima_1940_at_Shanghai.jpg [4] Col Doig describes one potential origin for the flag - “The boys had a good look around the area of the gardens the Japs had set out and where the main body of the Japs were now encamped. Some of the shrewd heads knew there was a big cave full of Jap gear such as swords, binoculars and many other things. Blokes who had seen it said it looked like an Aladdin's Cave, such was the gear there. It was guarded by Aussie M.P.s. The shrewdies used to bribe the M.P.s and get in for an hour or so, and grab all they could, especially swords, revolvers and binoculars which they could carry out and still walk. These of course were flogged back in Australia later and the shrewdies made a lot of money. Lt. Fullarton told us that he and Major Baldwin went in one day and came out with enough binoculars to outfit his whole gang” in C.D. Doig. - A history of the 2nd Independent Company and 2/2 Commando Squadron / compiled by C.D. Doig. - Carlisle, W.A. : Hesperian Press, 2009. [First published: 1986]: 244. [5] Doig: 234. [6] On this patrol, see also Doig: 241 and Cyril Ayris. - All the Bull's men : No. 2 Australian Independent Company (2/2nd Commando Squadron). - [Perth, W.A.] : 2/2nd Commando Association, 2006: 480-481.

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.

Many thanks to the Association for giving me the opportunity to speak to you this afternoon. I’m told that an address like this one is intended to give one person the chance to speak about his or her personal circumstances, in a way that is relevant to the men of the 2/2, and the East Timorese. I am a 25-year-old recently graduated teacher. Compared to most of the men of the 2/2 and all the East Timorese who helped them, I come from a life of real privilege. I have not served in the military. I want to speak about my family’s history as it relates to two things: First: The idea of selflessly doing things for someone else’s benefit; and Second: Following a calling or profession that serves the greater good, without its main focus being the making of money. Where do I fit into this? As some of you will know, my dad, Rob Crossing is in the 2/2 Commando Association, because his dad, his uncle and his Legatee, Archie Campbell, were all in the unit. However, an important historical aspect of all of this starts with my great grandfather, Walter Crossing. Walter Crossing was an amazing Australian war hero. World War I began when he was 18 and studying to become a teacher. He immediately put his studies on hold and joined the army. On the ship on the way to Gallipoli, Walter, being a fairly strong-willed young man, argued with a sergeant about the withholding of food. He was promptly court-martialled and found guilty. Whereas a guilty person would ordinarily have been put in the stocks, those in command simply decided that this young trouble-maker would instead be put ashore at Gallipoli with the others. Walter Crossing Walter did indeed fight at Gallipoli, and was wounded, and he was fortunate to have been evacuated to a British hospital ship, which took him to Malta and then to Britain. Before long, he had recovered, and he was very keen to once again serve King and country. An opportunity arose for him to fight in an armoured car unit that became known as The Czar’s British Squadron, which was actually part of the Royal Navy. He fought in Persia before the unit was sent to Russia, to help the king’s old mate, the Czar, in the Russian Revolution. Long story short, he was a very gallant soldier and several promotions, and many medals came his way. By the time he returned to Australia, the young troublemaker had been promoted to the rank of Captain, and he had received a long list of medals from the Brits and the Russians. Most of you will know that John Burridge deals in military antiques, including medals. As I list Walter Crossing’s medals, you will probably hear John salivating. Walter was awarded a very impressive list of military honours: Distinguished Service Order Distinguished Service Cross 1914/15 Star General Service Medal North Persian Metal Victory Medal Order of St George Order of St Vladimir Order of St Anne (2nd Class) Order of St Stanislas (2nd Class) Order of St Anne (3rd Class) Order of St Stanislas (3rd Class) Mentioned in Dispatches He received his DSO and DSC from King George V at Buckingham Palace on 15 May 1919. Map of the Czar’s British Squadron campaign I’m told that the Russian medals are all pretty special, and to receive so many of them is very rare. One of them apparently came with a hereditary honour, but the Russian revolution put an end to that. So, my still-young great grandfather, the one who was court-martialled on the way there, returns from the war as an officer and a big-time decorated hero. I’m told he was a very humble man who spoke little of his military achievements. Although I suspect that he had the smarts and character to be a big-wig, like a captain of industry or some kind of VIP, he finished his teaching qualifications and became a schoolmaster in a variety of rural posts in WA. Not long after returning to Australia, he married Mabel, a nurse, and they had five children. Walter began his teaching career as the sole teacher in a string of country schools. The growing family moved from Carnarvon to Nanga Brook to Northampton, before moving to Armadale, which was still a country town at that time. Therefore, my grandfather, Warwick, and his brother, Dick, had a mostly rural upbringing in a family that was loving but was never flush with funds. Warwick was raised in a home in which the importance of fighting for King and country was made clear. He was never keen on school and, at the end of grade 7, was allowed to move to Darkan to work in a shop run by an aunt. From all reports, young Warwick lacked self-esteem. When the opportunity arose to join the 2/2, he lied about his age when he was only 16 and took on the role of a sniper in a commando squadron at the age of 17. This was a chance to prove himself. Warwick Crossing His older brother, Dick, had joined the Navy. It probably sounds like I’m making this up, but when Dick’s submarine stopped at East Timor in 1942, Dick deserted from the navy to find his brother, Warwick, which he did. Dick was allowed to unofficially fight with the 2/2, and he stayed with them until they left Timor. At the end of the war, he received an honourable discharge from both the Australian Army and Navy, the first time that had ever been done. I certainly don’t want to gloss over the efforts and the sacrifices of the men of the 2/2, or the East Timorese who helped them. We are here to pay tribute to all that they did, and I honour and respect every one of them. However, I’m limited by time, and by the fact that I’m focussing on my family. Going back to Walter Crossing, father of Warwick and Dick, by the time World War II came along, he was the headmaster of Como Primary School. He decided that it wasn’t enough to have fought for Australia in the army and the navy (you will remember that the armoured cars were part of the Royal Navy), getting court-martialled and wounded along the way, so he … joined the Royal Air Force. Of course he did! In June 1941, he signed up as a reserve officer, was sent to Malaya and appointed Adjutant of Air Force Squadron at Lashio in Burma, with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. Towards the end of the Burma campaign in 1942, he was not well. Having lost some 22 kg in weight, he wasn’t permitted to return to the front, and was appointed Command Welfare Officer for the South East Command and was based in Calcutta with a rank of Squadron Leader. His work was administrative and aimed at maintaining the good morale of our force throughout India and Calcutta. He set up canteens at bases, mobile canteens for bomber and fighter stations, leave and rest centres and cinemas, and he arranged concert tours and radio programs. For this work, Squadron Leader Crossing was Mentioned in Dispatches in 1945. His health continued to deteriorate, and he returned to Australia in late 1944 and was discharged. Dick (L) and Warwick Crossing Resuming his career with the Education Department, first back at Como Primary, and then at Cannington, Walter Crossing was an outstanding principal. In those days every teacher (including principals) was annually assessed and given a teaching mark out of 90. For the last ten years of his career until his retirement in 1958, Walter Crossing enjoyed a mark of 89, which was the highest one could receive. It might not sound like much, but nobody ever received 90, and to receive such a mark over this lengthy period was virtually unheard of. Walter Crossing died in 1961, a few months after my dad was born. My great grandfather was clearly a very clever man, a brave man, and a very talented man, and he devoted so much of his life to doing selfless things. Another very selfless man, who was very relevant to my family, was Lt Archie Campbell, of the 2/2. An A-Grade cricketer and WAFL footballer before the war, he was the Lieutenant in charge of 7 Section, and was devastated that almost all of his section was wiped out in the war crime that we call “the ration truck massacre”. Archie Campbell Archie played a very important role in my family in that, after my grandfather Warwick Crossing committed suicide in 1964, leaving his widow and five children, Archie stepped up to provide vital support, through Legacy. When Warwick’s wife, Rona, died of leukaemia a few years later, my dad and his siblings went to live in Legacy’s orphanage in South Perth, Craig House. With the families of Dad’s parents somewhat fractured by Warwick’s suicide, Archie became a constant male figure in the lives of the little Crossing children. When Craig House was closed when my dad was about to enter grade 7, Archie arranged for the Crossings to go to boarding schools, Christ Church and St Mary’s, so that the kids didn’t become wards of the state. He arranged with the schools for them to reduce their fees by a third, the kids’ pensions would pay a third, and Archie would pay the remaining third. My dad went to Christ Church as a boarder for six years. Things could have been so much worse for him had it not been for Archie. Archie worked in administration at Ampol and he continued his involvement in sport, by being a commentator at the Commonwealth Games in 1962. He was the Legatee of several other families as well, providing vital support to the families of deceased service personnel, over many years. Moving away now from specific people, I want to conclude with some more general thoughts about selflessness. We, as a society, tend to value high-profile, wealthy or famous people rather a lot. You don’t have to be a doctor, a lawyer, a politician, a rock star, or a billionaire to make an important contribution to this world. I’m not saying that the higher-profile types are bad, but I say we should value military personnel, teachers, nurses, police officers, fire-fighters, charity workers, childcare workers etc. much more highly than we do. That was not intended to be an exhaustive list - you get what I mean. America has copped quite a lot of flak in recent times. No, I’m not going down that path. One thing that Americans do better than we do is the habit of thanking military personnel. I would like Australians to adopt the habit of saying, “I thank you for your service”, not just on ANZAC Day, but whenever the opportunity arises. Going back to nurses, I tip my hat to my mother, Chris Longwill. In addition to putting up with my father all these years and being a wonderful mother, she recently retired from a 41-year career as a nurse. Huge thanks. I want to conclude with a quote that’s usually attributed to John Templeton: “It’s nice to be important … but it’s more important to be nice”. Thank you.

Committee members, Association members and supporters will be saddened to learn of the unexpected passing of Erica Smyth AC, daughter of 2/2 veteran Lt Eric William Smyth WX12124, who gave the above address at the 2022 Annual Commemoration Ceremony. See the following Vale: https://minexcrc.com.au/news/vale-erica-smyth-ac/Vale: Erica Smyth AC - MinEx CRC.pdf

Portrait of Damien Parer in the early 1940s [picture] / Max Dupain [1] Public knowledge of Sparrow Force’s almost year-long guerrilla campaign against the occupying Japanese on Portuguese Timor only emerged in early January 1943 with the release of Damien Parer’s film ‘Men of Timor’ and ABC reporter Bill Marien’s series of articles that were widely printed in city and regional newspapers and radio broadcasts. A KEY MESSAGE from the film and newspaper articles was that the ‘Men of Timor’ ALONE DID NOT SURRENDER during the dark days of late 1941 and early 1942 when the Japanese rapidly overwhelmed allied armed forces throughout Southeast Asia. The other defining story they conveyed related to how signallers of Sparrow Force built a radio (nick named ‘Winnie the war winner’) that allowed them to re-establish contact with Australia on April 19 after a long hiatus following the Japanese landing on February 20. Parer, Marien gathered the material for their stories during a 13 day journey to Portuguese Timor between 7 – 20 December 1942; they were accompanied by the grossly overweight British journalist Dickson Brown. Parer’s film and photos are available from the Australian War Memorial website and provide an invaluable visual record of that period of WWII on East Timor and are complemented by Marien’s lengthy newspaper articles and radio broadcast transcripts (accessible via the National Library of Australia’s Trove online database). The story of Parer, Marien and Brown’s Timor journey including an itinerary and map plus Parer’s account of the event follows. Map showing probable route taken and locations visited on Portuguese Timor by Parer, Marien and Dixon-Brown, 7 – 20 November 1942 Embarkation roll HMAS ‘Kuru’ 18 November 1942 – names of Paper, Marien and Dickson Brown highlighted – Sparrow Force war diary “AUSTRALIAN ‘DEVILS’ IN TIMOR: ‘LOST’ COMMANDO FORCE IS STILL HARASSING THE JAPS” By DAMIEN PARER, Cinematographer of the Department of Information, who recently visited Portuguese Timor [5] JUNGLE COMMANDO! THE SPIRIT OF NO SURRENDER is typified in this striking picture of G. Merritt, one of the gallant band of AIF commandos which, for the best part of a year, has, against odds of 100 to 1, denied the Japanese conquest of Portuguese Timor, 450 miles from Australia's north-west coast, and possible invasion springboard. Portion of the epic story of these bearded, haggard fighters who, from the time the Japs landed on the island on February 19, until April 19, when communication with Darwin was established by means of a home-made radio, were regarded as a “lost force” has now been told. It is a story of gallantry of men who have been living close to death, holding vastly superior enemy forces at bay while they, themselves, over a long period lost but 27 comrades. In succeeding pages, an attempt is made, by means of pictures and information brought back to Australia by an official war correspondent and photographer who recently visited the island, to give some idea of the hardships borne and courage shown by these Australians, to whom the Japanese have paid the tribute “You alone do not surrender to us.” My film of the Australians in Timor is dedicated to the commandos who are fighting for us on all the worlds battle-fronts, but particularly to those young men of Portuguese Timor. [The men of Timor] [6] THE day is coming, and the Japan ese realise it, when all the hardships, all the gallantry and courage of these men will be rewarded; the day when they form the spearhead of a great offensive that will drive the enemy back to his own country. Even, now, while the Australians on Timor are a relatively small and lightly equipped band, they have filled the enemy with a restless nervousness, so much so that the Japanese call them "diavl"-devils. And devils they are, coming suddenly from nowhere, killing and destroying, and disappearing as suddenly again. When the Japanese first descended upon Timor, scoring a chain of lightning successes, it was generally thought that the small Australian force on the island had been annihilated; indeed, the Japanese boasted that it had been eliminated … but this lie was soon erased. As the enemy swept into Timor, occupying all the larger towns and bases, our men retired to the hills and formed themselves into a mobile force. They lived like natives and learned to speak the native language. They had no organised lines of communication and no visible means of support, but they soon began to strike fear into the hearts of the Japanese, who put a price on each man's head and encouraged the natives to round them up and bring them in. But those of the natives who were in contact with the Australians learned to respect them and became their allies against the enemy and the pro-Japanese blacks. HQ MAINTAINS RADIO communication with forward units. Original wireless message to Darwin from the "lost" force was transmitted on makeshift set ingeniously built from scrap materials. (Dept of Information) Strain Began to Tell For a little while the band was able to maintain itself fairly well, but before long the strain began to tell. There were no supplies and no contact with Australia. Their boots wore out; they got tropical ulcers; 90% of them went down with malaria - and there was no quinine. They had no money or barter goods to trade with the natives for food or labour and transport animals. And so things gradually got worse until young Joe Loveless, of Hobart, began to build a radio transmitter. For 6 weeks while he worked the eyes of the whole force were hopefully turned on him, although to many in seemed a forlorn hope. He had very little to work on - an old radio set, a few simple tools, and some kerosene tins. He melted solder from the old set to use on the new one, running it into a small piece of bamboo. Eventually it was finished, and the moment came for its trial. Would it give a signal strong enough to break into the ears of the mainland listeners who would have no knowledge of the call sign or of the transmission frequency? For several hours the signalmen on Timor kept trying to attract the attention of the mainland. They prefixed the repetition of their call sign with the signal "emergency operations," the highest priority on the air. Then suddenly they heard a mainland operator warning all other senders off the air, telling them to stand by to receive signals from the mystery callers. AMONG THIS GROUP OF AUSTRALIAN COMMANDOS in Timor is Pte Merv ("Doc") Wheatley, of Perth (second from right in front), former West Australian kangaroo shooter, who is credited with having killed 47 Japs with his sniper's rifle. (Dept of Information) They sent out more signals and got a reply, establishing contact with the headquarters of the Northern Territory force ... it seemed like a miracle. But the people at the other end were taking no chances … they suspected a Japanese trick. So a message came through to the men in Timor saying: “Prove your identity by sending the name of Capt Blank's wife.” "Her Name is Joan … !" On a wild hill on Timor the Aussies clustered round the radio; all looked at each other and grinned. The reply went out: "His wife's name is Joan" … and Timor is in touch with Australia again. Then followed the news that filled the High Command with amazement and jubilation. “The Timor force is intact and still lighting. Badly needs boots, quinine, money, and tommy gun ammunition.” And so opened another chapter in the history of Australia at war. Soon supplies began to come to the Timor force. They were able to buy ponies and to hire native labour; to doctor themselves and supplement the native food with a small amount of army rations; but perhaps more heartening than all of this they began to get an occasional mail from home. Portuguese Timor is mountainous and extremely steep, except for a narrow coastal belt, but it is not thickly covered with vegetation, as, for instances, are the rain forests of New Guinea. Gum trees grow in profusion, but the main growth is of bamboo, which is used for all buildings and for making domestic utensils. There is very little variation in the diet, rice being the staple food of the troops, although on the coastal strip where it cannot be obtained maize is used instead. Rice and water and buffalo meat have been the standard food of the force for almost a year, but very often a wild pig or some other kind of game finds its way into the cooking pot. All Day Without Food Quotations from the diary of one of the men give some idea of the general conditions of Timor, for instance: “We moved all day without food, finally relieving our stomachs with ground maize flour. Maize meal and wild honey go well, like nectar of the gods. … Daily becoming more like natives, sharing common spoon and common plate.” Another extract reads: "Rode for hours over the most difficult tracks imaginable. Narrow rocky gulches, steep descents, and almost impossible ascents, long continuous climbing, slippery clay and boggy clay ... it was a revelation of the ability of these Timor ponies.” And again: “There is so little diversion, so much sameness, sameness of work, sameness of food; it is small wonder that we long for a change.” The relations of our force with the natives embrace the two extremes. On the one hand there are the natives who are employed by the Japanese, in many cases armed with rifles and encouraged to hunt down our men and to intimidate the natives who are friendly to the Australians. On the other hand we would hardly have been able to exist without the help and kindness of the mountain natives, who are loyal to the Portuguese Administration and who have formed a strong attachment to the Australians. The Japanese pay great attention to the native question, striving by all means to set them against the Australians and against the still constitutional Portuguese Administration. They supply them with arms and encourage them to undertake forays against the mountain natives who are friendly toward the Australians. Jap Losses 100 to 1 Invasion is a possibility that considerably worries the Japanese. Furthermore, they have lost so many of their own men in their attempts to round up our commandos that they are now using natives for this job, directing them behind the lines. It has been reliably estimated that we have killed about 100 Japanese for every one of our own men killed in action in this cunning, stealthy warfare of the mountains. In spite of all the hardships, the extreme danger, and the Isolation, our troops are maintaining a magnificently high morale. There is no despair and little complaining, only a firm resolve to keep an Australian foothold on the island and to kill as many Japanese as possible. When it was known at headquarters that I wanted to go out and photograph the men in action a signal was sent to the leader of a forward patrol. It read: “Newsreel cameraman leaving for your HQ in search of action pictures. If possible hold off burning of Z (Japanese base) and offensive moves towards Moabisse until his arrival.” The reply shows the spirit of the Timor commandos: “Observation post reports about 200 boongs (pro-Jap natives) approaching our area. X and Y in action positions. No details of contact yet. Will delay burning of Z if possible. Now bring on your cameraman.” TIMOR, THE PART-PORTUGUESE, PART-DUTCH ISLAND, lies only 450 miles across the Arafura Sea from Australia's northern coastline, and, in certain circumstances, would form an excellent springboard for an invasion of this continent. Japanese troops occupied Koepang, in Dutch Timor, and Dilli, in Portuguese Timor, during their rapid advance south early last year, but in Portuguese Timor they reckoned without an intrepid band of Australian commandos who had established themselves there before the Japanese arrived. Retiring to the hills, the Australians have kept up a continuous kill-and-run campaign ever since. They have been reinforced, and are now being supplied from Australia. This map shows the contours of the island, which is 300 miles long, and has a mean width of 60 miles. The mountains inland are very steep, and rise to a height of 9,600ft. Much of the vegetation is very similar to Australia and there are many eucalypts. The Portuguese settled there in the sixteenth century, and the Dutch drove them out of the western portion in the seventeenth century, and then established a colony of their own. REFERENCES [1] https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/704266. [2] Commando, from Tidal River to Tarakan : the story of the No. 4 Australian Independent Company AIF later known as 2/4th Australian Commando Squadron AIF, 1941-45 / [compiled by] Lambert, G.E. - - Loftus, N.S.W. : Australian Military History Publications, 1997: 154 [3] Gill, G. Hermon. - Royal Australian Navy, 1942-1945. – Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1968. (Australia in the war of 1939-1945, Series 2 (Navy); v.2): 214 [4] Gill. - Royal Australian Navy, 1942-1945: 214. [5] Damien Parer “Australian ‘devils’ In Timor: ‘lost’ commando force is still harassing the Japs” The AustralasianSaturday 9 January 1943: 6. [6] ‘The Men of Timor’ OZ movies [website] https://www.ozmovies.com.au/movie/men-of-timor#details. ADDITIONAL READING Paul Cleary. - The men who came out of the ground : a gripping account of Australia's first commando campaign : Timor 1942. - Sydney : Hachette Australia, 2010. Ch. 19 ‘Shooting the extras’: 251-264. Tony Hall. – Voices from the air: ABC war correspondents of the Second World War. - Sydney South, NSW : Harper Collins Publishers Australia, 2016. See Ch. 7 ‘Back from the unknown – Timor’: 92-96. Neil McDonald. - Kokoda front line. – Sydney: Hachette Australia, 2012. See Ch. 18 – ‘All but you have surrendered’: Japanese to 2/2nd Independent Company, Timor, November—December 1942: 246-255.

Dear Sarah: In response to your enquiry, please see the entry for Frank “Curley” O’Neill in “Soldiers of the 2/2” on Doublereds - https://doublereds.org.au/history/men-of-the-22/nx/francis-vincent-terence-oneill-r521/. To apply for replacement medals, see: https://www.defence.gov.au/adf-members-families/honours-awards/guidelines/replacement-medals https://www.defence.gov.au/adf-members-families/honours-awards/application-process Ed Willis, Committee Member, 2/2 Commando Association of Australia

Max Bird (Kwinana Rotary) rang and notified me that installation of the Water Treatment Plant funded by the Association at Escola Tecnica Los Palos had been successfully completed. Max has provided the attached report and images of the installation. 2-2 Foundation.pdf