Edward Willis

Hi Rob:

I visited there quite a few years ago now and thought the attached booklet about the establishment of the memorial would be be of interest.

Ed

spean_bridge_50th_booklet.pdf

This story complements my earlier post: ‘BRIGADIER MICHAEL CALVERT (1913–1998) – Trainer and Long-Term Friend of the Doublereds’.

Learning map reading at training, Foster.  L to R: unknown signaller, Mike Calvert, Freddie Spencer-Chapman

Source: Sparrow Force [memoir of Lieutenant John Albert Rose NX65630]

Both Freddie Spencer-Chapman and Michael Calvert were members of a small British military mission that arrived in Australia in November 1940.  Its task was to establish a covert camp to train Australians as special forces for use behind enemy lines.  The rugged and isolated Wilsons Promontory, a narrow-necked peninsula 230kms south east of Melbourne, was chosen.

Reflecting on the 60 years since the establishment of the No. 2 Independent Company, original member Ray Aitken asserted in 2001 that:

I firmly believe that the success of our Association stems from the oddity in our early history, namely, that spent in training on Wilson's Promontory, our contact with the British Army in the persons notably of Michael Calvert, a Commando demolitions officer, and Freddie Spencer-Chapman an Everest climber, … and again the strangeness of our service on the Island of Timor and hence our bond with the Timorese people.

[Source: Ray Aitken '60 years young' 2/2 Commando Courier Vol. 137, June 2001: 1]

SPENCER-CHAPMAN'S CHARACTER AND CAPABILITIES

Ralph Barker wrote the first full biography of Spencer-Chapman in 1975 and provides the following insights into his character and capabilities based on those who came to know him at Wilson’s Promontory:

[Source: Ralph Barker. -  One man's jungle: a biography of F. Spencer Chapman, DSO. – London: Chatto & Windus, 1975: 178-182.]

"He was asked if he would like to go to Australia, on a mission that was being sent to raise and train similar commando companies of Australians and New Zealanders, and he had no excuse to refuse.  "I am to go abroad in two weeks' time," he told Uncle Sam. "It is sad in that I have just got things going here and am enjoying a really interesting and important job."  But within a few days he was telling Erica Thompson: "I am looking forward to it for various reasons.  Life has been rather too complicated lately. Joss was stationed up Kyle way and I have been seeing a good deal of her, which was very stupid I suppose.  Queer that I don't seem to meet anybody else. Perhaps I shall in Australia .... "  Another incentive was that Australia was the only continent he had not yet visited.

No. 104 Mission, under Lieutenant-Colonel Mawhood, with Captain Mike Calvert* in charge of demolitions and Freddy in charge of fieldcraft, and with two warrant officers in support, left Britain on 6th October 1940 in the S.S. Rimutaka, crossing the North Atlantic and heading south for the Panama Canal.  During the voyage Freddy and Mike Calvert established a relationship which they were always able to pick up again at the same point however long they were apart, based on mutual respect and an acceptance of where their lives and characters overlapped and interlocked and where they didn't.  In fact, they had little in common.  "Michael Calvert boxed and swam for Cambridge and the Army, has no nose left, and a large red good-natured rubber-like face which he can twist into the most ludicrous expressions," Freddy told Uncle Sam. "He is always laughing and cannot see why everybody else is not happy too."  And of Freddy Mike Calvert said later: "He was a strange mixture.  One moment he would be spouting high ideals, the next he would be supporting some perfidious scheme for blowing things up.  He talked like a liberal and acted like an anarchist, and it amused me how swiftly he could change from one to the other."

....

The Mission found the inertia of the Australian Government rather like England before Dunkirk, and with Mawhood absorbed in political and intelligence wrangles and intrigue, it was left to Freddy and Calvert to visit Australian units and recruit the men they needed.  A training area was chosen on Wilson's Promontory, at the extreme southern point of Victoria, running out into the Bass Strait towards Tasmania; this promontory, about 20 miles long and up to eight wide, was virtually uninhabited, and it included every conceivable type of ground.  There were high mountains and rocky crags, culminating in Mount Latrobe at 2,475 feet; eucalyptus forests as dense as any jungle; rolling open grassland and scrub; sand dunes and flats; every kind of swamp; harbours, beaches and islands to practise combined operations; and even a landing field.  It was thus ideally suited for training troops who might have to fight anywhere from the Libyan desert to the jungles of New Guinea.

A distinguished Australian soldier of the First World War, Major Stuart Love, was in overall command, and in Calvert's view he was an important influence in directing Freddy's ideas along practical lines.  Calvert was an ideal foil for Freddy, and the Australians, suspicious at first of Freddy's clipped speech, unusual mode of dress (he was still wearing the kilt of the 5th Seaforths), and aesthetic good looks, were gradually won over.  Yet for them Freddy was bound to remain something of an enigma. "His was not the easy camaraderie that appeals to all," writes ex-trainee Rolf Baldwin.  "He was austere and other-worldly, and these are not the qualities that inspire universal affection."  The other ranks were more amused than impressed by Freddy's stories of Greenland and the Himalayas, which, mimicked in a parody of the English accent, were always good for a laugh behind his back.  And with the Australian's raw sensitivity towards British insularity, they resented such eccentricities as Freddy's choice of "the cry of the British tawny owl" as the rallying cry for a patrol.  "What the bloody hell does he think we are?" they muttered. The inevitable snow bunting drew the same response.  Yet they developed a strong affinity with him, as a pupil does for a master, and his detractors were greatly outnumbered by his admirers.  "He told a good story and told it well," remembers J.H. Wass, "but always managed to turn it into a lesson which fitted into the training schedule.  "Wass speaks of Freddy's magnetism being such that everyone came to almost worship him.

"He had an impressive method of establishing a point in the training programme," writes Lex Fraser, who was second in command of the first of the Anzac independent companies. "For example, a day was to be spent in 'field-sketching' from the top of Mount Latrobe, and several groups were despatched to deal with varying segments of the field.  The exercise could not be completed in the one day and as evening approached, some of the parties returned to base camp.  Other parties completed the assignment and returned the following day.  Freddy dressed the parties who returned down to size, with such effect that all, without direction, started off once again for Mount Latrobe, and some returned as long as three days later, but with the required information.  This sort of training was invaluable to the morale of the independent companies."

Most troops have a sneaking regard for a leader who is different and a little eccentric, even if he infuriates them at times, and the Australians had certainly never met anyone like Freddy before.  He had many of the characteristics of the typical Pommie, with which they enjoyed a love-hate relationship of long standing; and in addition, he could out-walk, out-run, out-climb, out-track and out­ shoot the best of them.  "I recall an incident," writes Lex Fraser, "when, after Freddy had established a time of 2^3/4 hours for climbing Mount Latrobe from our base camp on the Tidal River, an Australian succeeded in lowering this by half an hour. I can still see the determined look on Freddy's face as he left base camp and requested that he be checked on his arrival at the summit.  He completed the limb in 1^3/4  hours and returned to camp at a lope.  'Now see if you can beat that,' he said.  To my knowledge, this remarkable record was never beaten."

Freddy himself described the training as a natural development of the Lochailort course, as practical as they could make it.  While CaIvert taught the art of demolition, he taught how to get a party from A to B and back by day or night in any sort of country and to arrive in a fit state to carry out its appointed task.  "This included all sorts of sidelines - a new conception of fitness, knowledge of the night sky, what to wear, what to take and how to carry it, what to eat and how to cook it, how to live off the country, tracking, memorizing routes, and how to escape if caught by the enemy."  Few were to put these aspects of fieldcraft to better use than Freddy himself; but they were, of course, little more than an extension of the way he had so often lived his life, right back to his schooldays. Writing after the Burma campaign, Mike Calvert called Freddy "the best man at all forms of fieldcraft that I know".

IN MALAYA

On completing their Australian training assignment, Calvert was posted to India and Spencer-Chapman to Malaya.  Commissioned into the Seaforth Highlanders as a lieutenant on 6 June 1939, Chapman's love of the outdoor life and adventure lead to him being chosen for the mission in Australia.  That mission was to train Australian and New Zealand forces in guerrilla warfare and eventually to join what was then Special Training School 101 STS-101 in Singapore.  This school had as one of its main objects the organization of parties to stay behind in areas the Japanese might overrun.

Throughout the war Chapman remained a thorn in the Japanese side, accounting for the loss of no less than seven trains, fifteen bridges and forty motor vehicles and the killing of some hundreds of Japanese troops in a short period of time at the beginning of Japanese occupation.

Source: Brian Moynahan. – Jungle soldier: the true story of Freddy Spencer Chapman. – London: Quercus, 2009: 276.

In early 1942, he ran out of the supplies that had been hidden for stay behind parties such as his team.  Freddie and his team then tried to escape from Malaya but had to hide from the Japanese in the Malayan jungle with the help of the Malayan Chinese Communists who lived in guerrilla camps in the jungle waging war with the Japanese.

Source: Brian Moynahan. – Jungle soldier: the true story of Freddy Spencer Chapman. – London: Quercus, 2009: 209.

However, due to the bad conditions in the jungle and also due to Japanese attacks, he gradually lost all his team members through disease and gunfire and was completely cut off.  For more than one and a half years, he lived in jungle camps with Chinese Communist Guerrillas and travelled long distances through dense and difficult jungles often suffering high fevers, caused by malaria.

In late 1943, he finally re-established contact with the British. Two other Britons joined him from Force 136.  On a search-mission in the jungle for another stay-behind-Briton, Freddie was captured by the Japanese but managed to escape into jungle during the night, despite being surrounded by Japanese soldiers who were asleep as well as several on guard.

Source: Brian Moynahan. – Jungle soldier: the true story of Freddy Spencer Chapman. – London: Quercus, 2009: 276.

Due to continued Japanese attacks, he and the two members of Force 136, were isolated again among the Communist Guerrillas until early 1945.  During that time, they had to fight against diseases of the jungle, namely, malaria, beriberi, dysentery and skin-ulcers from leech bites.  Finally, with the help of the Malayan Chinese Communists, they managed to repair their radio equipment with spare-parts collected by the Communist Guerrillas (the military wing of this being the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army) and could contact their headquarters in Colombo and organize reinforcements and supplies via parachute-drops into the jungle.  Subsequently, they could support liaison of the British with the Malayan Chinese Communist Guerrillas and managed to escape from occupied Malaya in the submarine ‘HMS Statesman’ after a remarkable trek from the mainland jungle to the island Pulau Pangkor off the west coast disguised as Chinese labourers.

Chapman was wounded twice during his time in Malaya, once in the leg by a steel nut from a homemade cartridge and once in the arm.  He was captured both by Japanese troops and by Chinese bandits and escaped from both.  He suffered in the jungle.  Once he was seventeen days unconscious, suffered from tick-typhus, blackwater fever and pneumonia.  Chronic malaria being the worst of it.  He walked bare foot for six days.

Source: Brian Moynahan. – Jungle soldier: the true story of Freddy Spencer Chapman. – London: Quercus, 2009: 354.

However, much he suffered in the Malayan jungle, he attributed his survival to the basic rule that "the jungle is neutral".  By this description he meant that one should view the surroundings as neither good or bad but neutral.  The role of a survivalist is to expect nothing and accept the dangers and bounties of the jungle as of a natural course.  Hence, one's steady state of mind was of the utmost importance to ensure that the physical health of body and the will to live were reinforced on a daily basis.

In the foreword to Chapman's book on his experiences in Japanese occupied Malaya, ‘The Jungle Is Neutral’, Field Marshall Earl Wavell wrote "Colonel Chapman has never received the publicity and fame that were his predecessor's lot [referring to T.E. Lawrence]; but for sheer courage and endurance, physical and mental, the two men stand together as examples of what toughness the body will find, if the spirit within it is tough; …”.

POST WAR

On 21 February 1946 he was appointed to the Distinguished Service Order, backdated to 31 March 1944.  A Bar followed on 7 November 1946.

Like his fiend and training partner, Mike Calvert, Spencer-Chapman never fully settled into civilian life post-war, pursuing a career as a school headmaster and later manager of a university residential college; from time-to-time he suffered severe bouts of depression.  When his health began to fail he took his own life at the age of 64.

 

ADDITIONAL READING

Work by Spencer-Chapman

F. Spencer Chapman. – The jungle is neutral. – London: Chatto & Windus, 1950.

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.14185

Biographies of Spencer-Chapman

Ralph Barker. - One man's jungle: a biography of F. Spencer Chapman, D.S.O.– London: Chatto & Windus, 1975.

Brian Moynahan. – Jungle soldier: the true story of Freddy Spencer Chapman. – London: Quercus, 2009.

Shorter biographical treatments of Spencer-Chapman

Rebecca Kenneison ‘Freddy Spencer Chapman: from John’s to the jungle’ The Eagle 2014 [for members of St John’s College, Cambridge]: 35-42. https://en.calameo.com/read/002738954de73bd808b66

Jack Longland ‘Chapman, Frederick Spencer (1907–1971)’ in Oxford dictionary of national biography online.  http://www.oxforddnb.com.rp.nla.gov.au/view/printable/30919

Alan Ogden. – Tigers burning bright: SOE heroes in the Far East. – London: Bene Factum Publishing Ltd, 2013.  See espec. ‘Lieutenant Colonel Freddy Spencer Chapman, DSO and Bar’: 244-262.

Linda Parker. – Ice, steel and fire: British explorers in peace and war 1921-1945. – Solihull, West Midlands: Helion & Company Limited, 2013. See Chapter 2 ‘Freddie Spencer Chapman’: 85-141.

‘Freddie Spencer Chapman’ Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Spencer_Chapman

Vale

J.H. Wass ‘Spencer Chapman’ 2/2 Commando CourierVol. 25, No. 235 November 1971: 22-23.  https://doublereds.org.au/couriers/1971/Courier%20November%201971.pdf

 

The author [Freddie Spencer Chapman] from a drawing by Peter Scott [1947]

Source: F. Spencer Chapman. – The jungle is neutral. – London: Chatto & Windus, 1950: [ii]

 

 

 

Hi Aaron:

Thanks for your enquiry.  The image is a still I captured from the following video recording:

Independent Company [videorecording] : the Australian 2/2 Independent Company, Timor 1941-42 / produced with assistance from SBS T.V. and Film Victoria. [Victoria] : Media World, c1988.

You can view the video using the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EZWtbFdnfuQgatuSixPC_yMVLIPbmnco/view?usp=sharing

Unfortunately, there is no information with the video indicating the source of the image.  It is of poor quality and I don't think it can be enhanced.

There shouldn't be any problems reproducing the image, but any enquiries should be directed to SBS T.V. or Film Victoria.

Mawhood sounds like an interesting character.

Regards

Ed Willis

 

Hi Rob:

Thanks for the reply and comment.  I should have re-read my own post because at the beginning I say the photo of interest was in the 'Debt of Honour' exhibition where it gets the same publisher copyright acknowledgement as given by Cleary.

Yes Calvert was an amazing man; Spencer-Chapman's story is well worth telling as well and I hope to do a Doublereds post on him too.

Ed

 

 

THE BATTLE OF LILTAI AND THE DEATH OF BOB EWAN

Studio portrait of some members of the 2nd Independent Company.  Second row sixth from left is WX10167 Lance Corporal Robert Ewen Oliver (alias Robert Ewan) of Cue, WA, who was killed in action in Timor on 14 August 1942

Lance Corporal Oliver Robert ‘Bob’ Ewan (WX10167), served with the No.2 Independent Company in Portuguese Timor and was killed in action on the 14th August 1942 in the ‘Battle of Liltai’.  He was one of several men in the unit who, for various reasons, enlisted under a false name – his real name was Robert Ewan Oliver.  Born in Durham, England in 1912 he emigrated with his family to the Lake Macquarie area in NSW in 1925.  With the onset of the Depression and estranged from his father, the teenager made his own way in life as a farm labourer in Queensland and South Australia before stowing away on a cargo ship bound from Port Adelaide to Fremantle.  He worked in various jobs in the north west of WA and was a tool sharpener at the Big Bell Mine in 1941 at the time of his enlistment.  He, along with several other men from the WA Goldfields, volunteered for ‘special service’, was trained on Wilsons Promontory and became one of the No. 2 Independent Company ‘originals’ as a member of 4 Section, B Platoon.

Bob Ewan was no saint – his service record shows he was disciplined and fined for having a venereal disease infection, being absent without leave and disobeying a lawful command given by his superior officer.  Despite these indiscretions, Ewan was recognised for his leadership qualities and was a Lance Corporal at the time he was killed.  The following story written by his compatriot Paddy Kenneally demonstrates Ewan was a brave and compassionate soldier who participated with distinction in several significant actions.  His service was recognised with a posthumous Mention in Despatches cited for:

Exceptional services in the field in the South West Pacific Area during the period 7th December 1941 to 30th September 1943.

Kenneally gives a well-informed account of the critical defensive action against the Japanese at Liltai and writes movingly of his involvement with the party that found and buried Bob Ewan’s body.

Members of the Timor 1942 Commando Campaign group will visit Liltai during their forthcoming tour of Timor in April-May this year.

Photos of Bob Ewan from his enlistment record

The following story written by Paddy Kenneally was originally published in the 2/2 Commando Courier of March 2006, pp.16, 18-20.

L/Cpl. Robert Ewan WX 10167 K.I.A. Liltai, East Timor 14/8/1942

In May 2005, Monica O'Brien, the producer of "A Debt of Honour" sent me a letter from a woman who had seen the program, inquiring if I knew her brother giving his name as Robert Oliver.  I contacted her and told her that I was sure there was no man with that name with the 2/2nd in Timor - then she dropped a bombshell!  She still had the report of his death in 1942 as follows: WX 10167 L/Cpl. Robert Oliver (alias Ewan) killed in action 14/8/1942.  As soon as she said Ewan I knew right away.  He was Bob Ewan 4 Section, 2/2nd Independent Company.  She also gave me some details, here they are - Robert Ewan Oliver was born in Winslot Gateshead, Durham, England in 1912, father James Luke Oliver, mother Margaret Oliver (nee Morrison).  The mother died, the father married again and arrived in Australia in 1925 and settled in Kahibah, in the Lake Macquarie area new Newcastle, N.S.W.

Early Years

Bob and his father did not get on well.  Bob left home about 1928 and wandered up into Queensland.  The depression came.  He worked at whatever he could find, mostly on outback sheep and cattle stations.  He had also changed his name to the Ewan part of his Christian name.  He wandered down through far Western Queensland into South Australia.  His intention was to get to Western Australia.  He knew such a trip by rattler (goods trains) which was the usual mode of transport by men on the track during the thirties, would be impossible.  He and his mate went to the Outer Harbour in Port Adelaide where the overseas ships docked.  There was one of the Bay Line ships either the Hudson, the Esperance, the Jervis Bay loading.  Bob couldn't remember which.

Stowaway to Fremantle

He approached a wharfie, asked a few questions, the wharfie asked a few in return and one was right to the point - "What do you really want to know mate?"  Bob told him, "Stowaway to Fremantle".  "You and your mate go aboard, come back to the hatchman, that's the bloke directing the winch drivers on deck.  By that time, I'll have given him your message."

They did as [they were] told.  The hatchman told them "Hop down into the hold where they are working.  We'll be finished loading pretty soon and she'll sail as soon as we finish.  The blokes down below will look after you and tell you what to do.

They did.  We're finishing now; we'll be putting the hatches on.  You'll feel and hear the engines when she pulls out.  Give her about four hours and starting pounding on the deck hatch.  With a piece of dunnage someone will hear you.  They'll open up, but they won't turn back.  You and your mate are on your way to Fremantle and we'll leave a billy full of water with you.  "Good Luck!"

In WA

That’s how it happened and that's how Bob and his mate arrived in Fremantle, arrested as stowaways.  They got two weeks in Fremantle gaol.  When freed they parted company.  He had a few bob as the ship's crew had taken up a collection for them.  Bob headed for the North West, picking up work on sheep and cattle stations.  He drove a truck out of Carnarvon at one period.  It was an 1100 mile round trip to outback stations.  He was postman, delivery man and passenger transporter.  He had some great stories of characters he had met.

When war broke out he was working as a tool sharpener at the "Big Bell Goldmine".  I also believe somewhere in his travels or jobs he ran into Peter Campbell (later 2 Section 2/2nd).

No. 2 Independent Company Original

Bob joined the AIF then volunteered for the Independent Companies, went to Foster down on Wilson's Promontory for training with the draft from W.A.  By the end of August 1941 their training was finished.  They were now No. 2 Australian Independent Company and the Double Red Diamond was their colour patch.  The Unit was given final leave.  Bob opted to go to Newcastle to his family.  His stepmother and new sisters who had never seen him loved him.  His father hadn't changed.

Little Ann just starting school walked proudly to school every morning holding hands with her big soldier brother.

Leave finished, and No. 2 Independent Company reassembled in Adelaide.  Six weeks of easy living then north to Katherine, no sooner was it finished when No. 2 Independent Company boarded cattle trucks once more for Darwin, boarding the ‘Zealandia’ on December 8th and sailed from there for Koepang Dutch Timor on December 10th as part of Sparrow Force.

In Action - Portuguese Timor

On 17th December 1941 'A' and 'C' Platoon and Coy. H.Q. landed in Dili.  Bob as a member of 'B' Platoon arrived a week or so later on the 'Canopus'.  By this time 86% were down with malaria.  The powers that be decided that the flats around Dili were unhealthy, so the Unit was dispersed to the mountains, 'C' Platoon at Three Spurs on the Ermera road, 'B' Platoon at Malho with No.4 Section at Bazaar-Tete overlooking the North Coast road going west to Dutch Timor.

The Japs landed on the night 19/20th February [and] by 10. a.m. they had captured Dili and Coy. HQ didn't know.

Alan Hollow

On the night of February 28th 4 Section and "B' Platoon HQ ambushed Jap trucks returning from Liquiça, unfortunately by then they had transported about 120 Japs to Liquiça.  On March 2nd those Japs were ambushed by No.4 Section near Bazaar-Tete.  The Japs suffered heavily, and No. 4 Section did not come off unscathed.  Two men were killed and three wounded.  Bob Ewan went to where Alan Hollow was lying, put a field dressing as best he could around Alan's shattered jaw and said, "Come on, we're getting out of here."  If it hadn't been for Bob, Alan would have been left to the mercy of the Japs.

Paddy Meets Bob

What was left of 4 Section finished up at Hatu-Udo near the South Coast and that was where I first met Bob 'Ewan'.  I wasn't in 4 Section at Bazaar-Tete, Arthur 'Slim' Holden and I joined the Section in Hatu-Udo about the end of March 1942.  I was a very, very green untrained Reo.  Bob Ewan taught me how to use and strip a Tommy gun and a Bren gun.

[At the] end of April 4 Section headed for Aileu and Remexio.  We raided Dili on the night of the 16th May 1942. We lost no men in the raid.  Don't think the Japs lost many either and a week later six men of 4 Section ambushed a big party of Japs on the Remexio track.  It was far more successful, and we lost no men.  The rest of the section under Captain Laidlaw and Lieutenant Nisbet were only departing Kikrassi when the ambush started so they had no part in it.

Bob with the rest of 4 Section operated out of Remexio from May until the August Offensive in 1942.

The Battle of Liltai

"B" Platoon was driven back to Liltai.  The Japs stopped on high ground between Remexio [and] Liltai and planned.

Capt. Laidlaw disposed his platoon around Liltai, 5 Section at the track junction, 4 Section on high ground on a track east of 5 Section, 6 Section on the high knoll adjacent to and length of Liltai.  [On] the night of 14th August the Japs made their move, there was a loud boom then silence followed by a lone Jap voice chanting something which in turn was followed by a massive shout from hundreds of voices.  The Japs had arrived.

Lieut. Nisbet sent Bill Holly and Neil Scott down to Liltai to Capt. Laidlaw seeking instructions.  The Japs practically standing on our toes and obviously no plan of action had been agreed on.  Worse was to come.

Capt. Laidlaw told Bill Holly 4 Section was to withdraw to Liltai and he was also to inform 5 Section to withdraw from the track junction.  Bill said to 'the Bull', "5 Section won't withdraw until 4 Section has passed through them."  Laidlaw's answer, "5 Section will withdraw as soon as they receive the order."

Bill Holly gave 5 Section their orders and then came on to Lieut. Nisbet and gave him the order to withdraw.  Mick Morgan led his subsection down the track.  Ray Aitkin's subsection was about to follow when there was a shot.  Mick Morgan and some of his men jumped the track and went bush.  Bob Ewan and three men came back to where we were.  Lieut. Nisbet said, "What's wrong?"  "The Japs are up the track well past the junction" said Bob.  Tom didn't think so; Bob and his men were ordered back down the track.  Bob quietly said to the men with him, "Come on chaps," and led the way.  Shortly another shot and then the hill erupted.  Bullets were coming from everywhere, whistling past our ears, ploughing into the ground near our feet.  The Japs didn't know where we were, but their guessing was good.  We pulled out back up the hill, up there more shooting.  Tom Nisbet, Neil Scott and I sprang to the left. Ray Aitken and the others jumped right.  No. 4 Section was scattered round the mountain and no one knew who was where.  We finally met up.  Next morning over the river and high up on the Remexio-Turuscai track a huge earth tremor nearly shook us off the mountain.  'B' Platoon went east to Fato-Maquerec.

Map showing the Liltai, located south of Remexio from the 'Area study of Portuguese Timor' (1943)

Finding Bob Ewan’s Body

Tex Richards, Noel Buckman and Alfredo da Santos had come in very late on the previous afternoon.  Charlie King and I were guarding the track.  I asked Tex what the score was.  He said, "We were cut off and hid up all day under a well concealed rock."

"What about Bob?" I asked.  "Can’t say for certain but I think he's been killed, we walked straight into the Japs when we were ordered back down the track."  Bill Holly, Alfredo da Santos and I went back from Fato-Maquerec to Liltai.  We thought if Bob was wounded he would hide up somewhere on the mountain between Turuscai and Liltai.  We only saw three Timorese.  They didn't want to come with us, it was Alfredo who persuaded them to come.  If we found Bob wounded, we would need help.  We found Bob, he had been killed instantly.  The bullet hit him at the bottom of the left pectoral muscle.  There was not one empty 45 shell in the vicinity, (Bob had a Tommy Gun.)

You know what the sounds are near a Timor Village, women chattering as they husk corn or rice, kids yelling and shouting as they play and pigs grunting as they forage for food.  There was not a sound anywhere; we were in an empty silent land.  The only noise was made by us as we scraped and gauged with our bayonets in the rock hard ground to dig a grave for our mate's body.  The mournful sound of the wind in the trees the only other sound as if in mourning for the man we were burying.

We buried Bob alongside the track in the mountains far from the outback he knew so well.  I still remember his quiet voice as he said, "Come on chaps," as he walked down the track to the death he knew was inevitable.  All I could do was kneel and say a 'Hail Mary' for one of the finest men it was my good fortune to call friend.

Paddy Kenneally

Final Resting Place

NB: Robert now rests peacefully in the Ambon War Cemetery which is beautifully kept by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  His grave reference is 19C 16.

The Ambon War Cemetery (known locally as the Australian Cemetery) is 5 kilometres North East of Ambon on the main road to Galala.

 

 

 

 

 

OLIVER_ROBERT_EWAN.pdf

PROPOSAL FOR COMPACT TEACHER TRAINING (PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT) FOR CALOHAN-LETEFOHO VILLA PRIMARY SCHOOL, LETEFOHO SUBDISTRICT, MUNICIPALITY OF ERMERA, TIMOR-LESTE

I would like to propose that the Association provides funding to support Compact Teacher Training (Professional Development) for Calohan-Letefoho Villa Primary School, Letefoho Subdistrict, Municipality of Ermera, Timor-Leste.  This follows on the successful completion of a similar training program funded by the Association at Ailelo/Cosbouk and Samara Schools in the Hatolia Subdistrict in July 2017.

The Melville Friends of Hatolia (MFoH) organised that training session but wound itself as an association in late November 2017.  At its final meeting MFoH members agreed to donate the bulk of its remaining funds (approximately $3,800) to the 2/2 Commando Association of Australia to be used to fund professional development training for teachers in Timor-Leste.  This was in recognition of the successful cooperation between the two organisations in completing teacher training and toilet construction projects over the previous three years.

I invited Snr Francisco Jorge dos Santos, Program Manager, Learning Resource Development Center to submit a budget proposal for professional development training at another school and he has just sent me the attached document for our consideration.

The total cost is US$5,315 = AUD$6,432.  I propose that the Association uses the $3,800 donated by MFoH towards the cost of the training and ‘tops up’ the balance from its own funds.

If the Committee supports this project, I will ask the MFoH Treasurer to transfer its donation to the Association’s bank account.

Ed Willis

Microsoft Word - Draft PROPOSED BUDGET CTT_Letefoho.doc copy.pdf

75 YEARS ON

NO. 2 INDEPENDENT COMPANY DEPARTS TIMOR

December 15 1942

Introduction

Following the first tragic failed attempt to evacuate the No. 2 Independent Company (2/2) involving the ships Armidale, Castlemaine and Kuru’ recounted in the previous post in this series, another mission was rapidly organised, this time using the Dutch destroyer ‘Tjerk Hides’.  The 2/2 men had an anxious time moving from their frontline positions to the new evacuation site at the mouth of the Quelan River, in contact with advancing enemy troops; one man was killed in action during a Japanese ambush.  Additional Portuguese civilians were also escorted to the evacuation site.

Cyril Ayris continued his account of the, this time, successful evacuation in Chapter 40 ‘Emotional Farewells’ including the moving goodbyes of the 2/2 men to their creados on the beach.

Most of the locations mentioned in this story (including Same, Betano, Alas and the mouth of the Quelan River) will be visited during the forthcoming ‘Timor 1942 Commando Campaign Tour’ (April 23 – 2 May 2018).  There has been strong interest from the 2/2 fraternity and it’s not too late to register your interest and book for the tour.  Contact Ed Willis if you would like more information about the tour (0438907480, ew988662@bigpond.net.au). 

 

Another Attempted Evacuation

Timor Callinan belatedly received news from Darwin of the attacks on the ships and of the loss of his Dutch reinforcements.  Because he now had to reorganise his defences, he requested a delay of twenty-four hours before another attempted evacuation.

Darwin agreed.

Callinan was told that the ship which would take them off would be the Dutch destroyer Tjerk Hides.

All platoons were notified of the change of plan and were ordered to remain in their areas pending further instructions.

Same, Portuguese Timor, December 1945

D Platoon Ambushed

Preparations for the second evacuation had been progressing fairly well considering the circumstances, when Doig’s D platoon struck trouble.  The platoon, along with the sick, wounded and the remaining Dutch and Portuguese, was to have been taken off in the first stage.  It was in Same when, on the morning of 10 December, its rearguard withdrew from the saddle above the town in readiness for the long march to the Quelan River.  Also in the town was a pack train loaded with weapons and supplies for a small group of 2/4th men which was training and arming the Timorese.

Same, Timor-Leste, May 2014

The pack train’s escort had just finished breakfast with the 2/2nd rearguard and was about to move off when Japanese troops opened fire on them from concealed positions, killing Spr L.C. Moule.

The horses bolted with the weapons and supplies on their backs, leaving the rest of the rear party and the escorts to fight their way out of the town.  Spr D. A. Sagar was wounded in the withdrawal.

This surprise attack was a tragedy for the Australians who had now lost a man the day before he was to be evacuated, not to mention an entire pack train of valuable weapons and supplies.  Code books had also gone, forcing the Australians to adopt an emergency code.

Map showing Betano and the Quelan River mouth

Evacuation Point Moved to the Mouth of the Quelan River

Realising the enemy was now dangerously close to Betano, Callinan moved his evacuation point five kilometres east, to the mouth of the Quelan River.  C Platoon meanwhile had O-pipped Maubisse and reported few Japanese there.  However, No. 9 Section was attacked by about forty Timorese, some of whom were killed.

The Travails of Sgt Hopper in Same

Later in the day the Japanese occupied Same.  They had not been there long when Sgt Hopper (2/4th Signals) lived up to his name – and proved in the process that the reputation established by the 2/2nd was in good hands.

Hopper and his new creado had ridden into Same on a pony, quite unaware that the town had new tenants.  When he was confronted by a Japanese soldier he yanked his pony around and was at full stretch when the soldier opened fire on him from less than ten metres.  Hopper leaped from his alarmed steed and ran for his life, his creado at his heels and bullets whistling past his head.  Signaller and creado made it to some scrub where they remained in hiding for the rest of the day.

The Night of 11 December 1942

On the night of 11 December 1942, at the mouth of the Quelan River, the darkness was briefly punctuated by two winking pinpoints of light, the first from the beach, the second from the sea.  A ripple of suppressed excitement passed through those on the beach.  Among them were Doig’s D Platoon, the sick, the wounded and some Dutch and Portuguese women and children, all deep in their own thoughts.  For some there was the promise of medical attention, for others there was the fear that even at this late stage the evacuation would be called off, or that the Japanese would arrive.  For the Australians, there was the knowledge that they had survived and that they were going home.  They could almost smell the wattle.

Almost.  They were not out of the woods yet – every man on the beach knew that.  The Japanese were only a few kilometres away and even if the evacuees reached the ship, there was still the voyage across the Timor sea where enemy planes and submarines could send them to the bottom.

Doig later described the evacuation:

The signal fires were lit and when the ship was in sight and acknowledged the flares, the operation began.  The first sign the waiting troops had was the sound of the vessel’s motorboats chugging towards them, towing flat-bottom boats manned by one sailor.  These came ashore after being set adrift from the motorboats.  Personnel immediately scrambled aboard them.  When fully loaded they were picked up by the motorboats and taken rapidly to the destroyer which had scrambling nets over the side.  We climbed the nets and were assisted aboard by the crew.  Several trips were required to pick up the intending passengers.  Within seconds the anchor came up and we were on our way.  There was no music we would more gladly have heard than the grinding of those anchor chains as they found their way onboard.

Phase Two of the Evacuation

Back on Timor preparations for phase two of the evacuation were being hampered by the enemy’s occupation of Same, which was uncomfortably close to the Quelan River.  The remaining platoons took up positions around the town from where they could keep an eye on Japanese movements and, if possible, lead them away from the river mouth.

As expected the Japanese moved east to Alas, arriving on the morning of 15 December 1942.  The second evacuation was planned for that night.  There now began a game of cat and mouse, though who filled which role is arguable.

The Bull’s platoon at Fatu-Cuac, only ten kilometres from Alas, was warned of the Japanese move as was Nisbet’s platoon between Fatu-Berliu and Alas.

The 2/2nd had no idea where the enemy would go from Alas and, as they were supposed to be pulling out that night, there was little they could do anyway.  With the rest of the 2/2nd (apart from Turton’s platoon) centred around Betano and Fatu-Cuac it was decided to draw the enemy towards Betano until it was dark, then make a headlong dash for the Quelan River five kilometres to the east.  With a bit of luck, they would be on their ship and away before the Japanese caught up with them.

Laidlaw’s headquarters opened fire on the Japanese as they approached Fatu-Cuac inflicting some casualties.  The Australians withdrew the moment the enemy deployed for action.

Callinan said later:

The Japanese were not very happy about their position; they seemed to sense the continuous observation and presence of our troops.  They pushed into Fatu-Cuac then hurried northwards again to Same.  Dexter, on a reconnaissance along the Same – Fatu-Cuac track, heard approaching footsteps and concealed himself in a clump of bamboo alongside the track.  From there he counted two hundred Japanese march past.  He could have reached out and touched some of them.  The danger had passed but it was a narrow escape.

Doc Wheatley Recalls

Doc Wheatley recalled his evacuation: “I remember when word came through that we were to go home and that we were to make our way to Betano as unobtrusively as possible.  We tried to keep it secret but the Japs came out in force to stop us.

“It took a couple of days to move in close to the beach then we heard that the Japs were already there.  We were told to circle around them and come out on the beach about three miles further on.  There were a couple of skirmishes behind us but we didn’t get involved.  We hadn’t eaten that day.  Somebody arrived with a pot of rice and put a spoonful in our hands; it was gratefully received.

Doc Wheatley

“When we arrived at the river we could hear the Sigs talking to the ship.  We were told to pile our weapons on the beach.  I was reluctant to do that as I had developed a real affection for my sniper’s rifle.  Then the boats arrived to take us off.

“Saying goodbye to Montelo (his creado) was awful, I couldn’t find any words to say to him.  In the end, I just gave him a hug and ruffled his hair and said, ‘Thanks, kid.’  When the boats pulled away I felt like crying.  He was just standing there, watching us going out of his life.  We had told all our creados that the 2/4th troops would be glad to have them.  I hope that was what happened to them.”

Harry Sproxton Remembers

Harry Sproxton said that his No. 9 Section had set out for the beach after dark on 14 December.  Light rain was falling making the track slippery and dangerous.

“We walked until just after daylight then had a spell, knowing we still had more than half way to go,” he said.  “We stopped for a bite to eat at Alas, still with six hours’ walking ahead of us.”

At one stage the platoon had to cross a raging river which threatened death to anybody venturing into its rock-strewn course.  The platoon halted, totally dismayed at the seemingly impossible crossing.  Some struggled across but others knew it was beyond them.  Even Ron Dook, a top-grade swimmer, declared the river almost impassable.  It seemed that the remainder of the platoon was doomed to miss the ship.  The day was saved by Pte Tom Crouch who waded out as far as possible, grabbed a protruding rock and, bracing his feet, held out his rifle to the first in line.  He pulled him towards the rock then pushed him to the other side. In that way, he got the rest of the men safely to the other side.

Sproxton: “It was dark when we finally reached the beach. Everyone was in a state of complete exhaustion.  I’m sure it was only the thought of going home that had kept us going.

“I can still see Munlalo’s (his creado) sad eyes as I gave him all my belongings except my Tommy gun.

“When we reached the ship, burly sailors reached over and dragged us onto the deck, then others ushered us below.  There was standing room only.  We were seeing faces we hadn’t seen for months, it was an emotional time we will all remember.”

Ray Parry’s No. 5 Section

Ray Parry’s No. 5 Section was fortunate to have made the river mouth rendezvous.  About a week earlier Parry had led a two-man reconnaissance patrol to a village near the north coastal town of Manatuto, to check out forty armed pro-Japanese Chinese who were said to be in the area.  They reached the village after a long trek across mountains and through steep-sided gorges, only to find it ominously quiet.  The Australians were creeping up on an administration building when they were confronted by about forty Chinese-Japanese, all carrying weapons.  It was a tense moment which was relieved only when the two Australians turned about and returned to their section.

A few days later the eighteen-man No. 5 Section led by Ted Loud had returned to the village, this time as a fighting patrol equipped to do business.  They were carrying Tommy guns, rifles, bayonets and hand grenades.  The section positioned itself along a ridge behind the administration building and settled in for the night.  Loud’s plan was to hit the village just before dawn.

At 11.30 p.m. the section came to alert – somebody was moving towards their position.  The No. 5 men silently merged into the shadows as the footsteps drew cautiously closer.  It was not until the figure was almost on them that they recognised it to be that of a soldier from their platoon.  He had been sent to find them and to suggest that they call off the attack as the company was to be evacuated.

“I can’t remember who brought the message but he did a magnificent job in finding us,” said Parry.  “Ted Loud addressed the section telling them they were to vote on whether they wanted to continue with the planned attack.  The vote was unanimous – WE GO HOME.

“When we got back to Alas we moved to a deserted village several hundred metres above the trail linking Same, Alas and Viqueque.  We had not been there long when a big party of Japanese arrived.  We took cover while they had a good look around and settled in for a rest and a cigarette.  They eventually headed out towards Same.  They were doubtless heading for Betano where they believed we would be carrying out the evacuation.  We made no attempt to engage them; we didn’t want to draw attention to the Alas area.”

The Civilian Refugees

When the civilian refugees eventually reached the south, they were “accommodated” in a make-shift camp near Fatu Cuac which had been organised by Eric Smyth.  “Accommodated” is something of an over-statement given that there were no oomahs or facilities, just low scrub to protect them from the sun and observation from the air.

“They came in from everywhere,” said Smyth.  “We took only the women and children, escorting them to the beach with their little bundles of possessions.”

Parry said the trek from the main track to Viqueque and along the coast was a nightmare journey across crocodile-infested waterways.  “There were no villages – nobody lived there,” he said.

The platoon rendezvoused with two elderly Portuguese nuns from a mission in the interior who were to be evacuated with their unit.  Teams of mission boys had carried them along the coast in beautifully woven chairs fitted with bamboo poles through the arms.  There were four boys to each chair with several more in reserve.  With them were another eight nuns, twelve sisters, eleven priests and a small group of Timorese teachers.

Sgt Tomasetti, who had been responsible for the party, said: “Some of the Order members were riding ponies.  Most wore white hats and habits which they stubbornly, though politely, refused to discard or conceal.  This strange party formed a long and cumbersome line as it moved on foot or on pony and palanquin, to the embarkation point.

“Shortly after moving off a Japanese plane flew low over the line but the pilot failed to see us, despite all the white clothing.”

It was only then that the nuns and priests agreed to “dirty-up” their garments with some Timorese soil.  In the resulting confusion several palanquin bearers, deciding that there were more rewarding ways of spending their time than carrying nuns across Timor, took to the bush and were not seen again.  Two Timorese teachers were asked to take their place but haughtily declined, saying that such duty was beneath their calling.  The by-now short-tempered Australians convinced them otherwise, but as the teachers reluctantly bent to their task the nuns climbed from their chairs, declaring that they would rather walk than be the cause of disharmony.  The Australians again turned threatening.  The nuns resumed their seats ...... the teachers took their positions on the poles ...... and the party wobbled away to its promised salvation.

The cavalcade picked its way between the rocks and crocodiles arriving in plenty of time for the evacuation, though Parry said he was never able to discover how the ship’s crew managed to haul the nuns up the vessel’s side from the assault craft.  “They were large ladies,” he said.

Saying Goodbye to the Creados

Parry spoke fondly of Berracauly, his creado whom he had to leave behind.  “Saying goodbye to Berracauly was one of the hardest moments of my life,” he said.  “My nine-year-old friend and teacher of his language and customs – I have always remembered his friendship and courage.”

All the Australians found this abandonment of their creados on the beach at Quelan, nothing short of gut wrenching.

Fred Growns said: “As we prepared to leave, I told Berimou what we were doing.  I wrote out an ownership receipt for the horse I had been using, a surat for his help and I gave him everything I had – gear, money, everything except a small haversack with personal papers.  I said goodbye to him and swam out in the darkness to the waiting boats.”

Eric Smyth, who was still responsible for the nuns and refugees, had to carry one of the nuns to a waiting boat.  “It was very dicey,” he said.  “A stiff on-shore breeze was whipping up what was quite a heavy sea for that part of the world.  I don’t know how we managed to get her into the boat.  We had to hurry.  The ship was leaving at a certain time and anybody who was not onboard was to be left behind.”

(When Smyth returned to Timor with his wife twenty-five years later they accidentally met up with the nun he had carried to the boat; she could remember every minute of it.)

The Evacuation Ship Tjerk Hides

The evacuation ship Tjerk Hides, which was based at Fremantle, was practically a new ship with a Dutch crew and a British liaison officer on board.  The Australians would remember the crew’s hospitality long after the war, mainly it appears because of the bread and jam which the sailors placed before them.  It was the first time they had tasted bread since leaving Australia.

The destroyer arrived off the Quelan River on time and after another exchange of signals, the last of the 2/2nd were ferried out to climb the scramble nets to the deck.  They were on their way back to Australia within two hours of the ship’s arrival.

One of the last to board the ship was Ken Monk who stood outpost duty with a Bren gun until everybody had left the beach.

Stan Sadler said: “It was a wonderful feeling to know we were going home after so many months of strain and anxiety.  Many of us had thought we would not see home again.”

Fremantle, WA 1942.  Port Side Aerial View of the Dutch Destroyer ‘Tjerk Hides’

A naval officer who was in charge of a landing party, whose name has been lost in the passage of time, wrote a wonderful descriptive account of the evacuation:

The engines stop.  There is an eerie silence save for the sound of the surf.  Spicy scents drift out from the shore.  Then all is bustle as the big assault boat is slid into the water over the stern, and weapons, ammunition, food, medicines, and kerosene tins full of two shilling pieces are hurriedly loaded into it.  We climb down the scrambling net over the side and into the boat.  Four sailors are at the oars and there is a long sweep oar for steering.  We grab it and give the order to shove off.  The sailors are mostly bearded.  They are armed with knives or revolvers and wear heavy boots in case they have to take to the hills.  They look like extras for The Pirates of Penzance, but none is singing.

The small ship looks large as we pull away from her in the darkness.  The first surge lifts the boat, carries her forward, slips from under her bow and breaks inshore.  The surf is low, but it still needs care to keep the boat running straight.  In a few minutes, there is broken water all around and about a dozen large, wild-looking figures, some naked, rush into the water, grab the sides of the boat and haul her up onto the sand.  There are handshakes and low-voiced greetings.  The cargo is quickly unloaded and then there is an astonishing sight.  Men with knives and bayonets are hacking open some of the tins of meat and wolfing it down like half-starved dogs.

Ponies appear on the beach and are loaded.  Figures emerge from the dark and crowd into the boat. These are the Portuguese men, women and children we have come to rescue.  Some are weak and ill and have to be half carried.  They push around the boat – there are too many for safety – and more keep climbing in, despite our efforts to control them.  The boat is low in the water, not room for another body.  At last she is off, pushed into the deep by the commandos.  It is hard to row out to the ship, where the human cargo climbs the scrambling nets or is lifted onboard.

The turn-around of the boats seems to take ages.  At last the anchor is in and after midnight, with the engines roaring at full power and consuming ninety gallons every hour, we fly along at seventeen knots (31 km/h), the heavy assault boat bouncing on a bar-taut line in our wake.

Daylight reveals a sad sight on deck.  Some of the Portuguese lying around the guns are in a very bad way.  Having left all that they held dear on the island, it seems that some are soon to leave life itself.  They are violently seasick and are lying in their filth.  We wipe their faces and give them tea in our chipped mugs.

A Tall, Old Man in a White Suit and a White Panama Hat

The writer described a meeting with a Portuguese which has haunted him over the years:

Things were tense on the beach that night and the Japanese believed to be close by.  I was standing up to my waist in the low surf beside the boat, trying to control it and keep its head into the waves.  We were about to push off when I glanced back at the beach.  There, standing alone in the shallows, was a tall, old man in a white suit and a white panama hat.  I cannot forget him; after all these years, I can still see him standing there motionless, dignified, authoritative.  He was not calling out to me, or beckoning, or making any effort to save himself and come to me.  He was just standing there, looking at the boat and his departing people – just watching us go.

I could not leave him. I waded quickly back and grabbed him.  He was very frail and thin; his hair was white.  He just looked at me. Neither of us spoke, there was nothing to say.  Hampered by my weapons and our soaking, clinging clothes, I dragged him through the surf to the boat, pushed him over the side into the stern sheets by my sweep oar, jumped in and ordered the sailors to pull hard as the commandos shoved us forward.

Once we were safely through the surf I saw the old man turn and look back for a long time at the island in the starlight.  Then he took something from his hand, gave it to me and spoke for the first time – in elegant English. “If you go to Portugal, show this,” he said.

It was a handsome silver ring with a rampant golden lion on a field of jade green, perhaps the armorial bearings of some ancient Portuguese family with centuries of services in the East.  Nothing now for him but memories.  Everything he had owned on the island he had lost, except for that ring and he gave that to me.  I did not ask his name and I have never been to Portugal, but I still treasure that memory and his ring.

Heading to Darwin

When morning broke some of the men went on deck.  The Tjerk Hides was powering through a flat calm sea with every ounce of speed her engines were capable of delivering.  White water curled majestically from her raked bows, a creamy wake briefly marked her passage.  Later in the morning two Beaufighters began circling the ship in case enemy bombers and fighters launched a last desperate attack from Dili.  They did not appear – in fact the only excitement was when the ship’s gunners opened fire on a mine towards the end of the voyage.  They failed to detonate it.

The men watched in silence when later in the day, a thin brown line appeared on the horizon, indistinct in the tropical haze.  Slowly it took shape.  Low hills could be seen.  The soldiers could smell the land of their birth.

“I cannot describe our feelings,” said Ray Parry.  “After what we had endured it was a beautiful and welcome sight.”

Arrival in Darwin

A crewman from HMAS Arunta watched their arrival.  He said: “They looked like figures in an atrocity propaganda film – starved, gaunt and as overgrown as a brushwood patch.  Haggard and emaciated they stood there, clad in anything the sailors had been able to give them.

“An order cracked out.  As one man, the lines snapped to attention, heads held erect.  In their eyes was a light that brought a lump to your throat.

“Their officer stepped aft and saluted the captain.

“‘Carry on, Sir?’

“‘Yes please.’

“Only when the officer came back, was his limp evident.

“The lines turned and filed over the gangway.  One grizzled old sergeant spoke to the coxswain: ‘If only we could have saved our gear and marched ashore as a company, instead of like a crowd of bloody scarecrows.’”  Ray Parry said: “Men and women of the three services were present when our destroyer entered the harbour and tied up at the wharf. Exhausted, bearded men with the mud of Timor still on their bodies, moved off the ship in single file, watched from the rails by Dutch crewmen.  I think the people waiting to meet us were in a state of awe or shock at seeing Australian troops in such a state, wearing tattered uniforms, many without hats or steel helmets.  There was not a sound from them.  It was so quiet.”

Perhaps the sight of Darwin’s half-destroyed wharf and bomb-shattered buildings had sobered their elation.

Conclusion

In another time, there would have been a groundswell of remorse over the twenty-six young men who had not come back.  But this was wartime – the 2/2nd had killed hundreds of Japanese.  As a result, national remorse gave way to a sense of profound pride for what they had achieved.

In November 1942, a month before the withdrawal of the 2/2nd, Sparrow Force was renamed Lancer Force and given the task of continuing to tie down the Japanese, denying them a base for any operations in the Pacific.  However, the relief 2/4th Independent Coy was evacuated from Portuguese Timor only three weeks after the 2/2nd.  Callinan explained that twenty thousand Japanese had squeezed him to the point where he had only thirty-five kilometres of south coastal country open to him.  He said the air was becoming a little stuffy.

 

 

 

75 YEARS ON

THE ARMIDALE TRAGEDY AND HEROIC TEDDY SHEEAN

On 1 December commemoration services will be held in several locations around Australia to recognise the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the corvette Armidale by Japanese aircraft and the heroic efforts of Able Seaman Teddy Sheean to defend his shipmates as the ship went down. [1] The sinking of the Armidale, the tragic loss of lives that followed and other dramatic associated events involving the little ship Kuru and the sister corvette Castlemaine were brought about by the first attempt to evacuate the No. 2 Independent Company from Portuguese Timor.

Cyril Ayris recounted the story of what happened in his history of the 2/2, All the Bull’s men [2]:

40 EMOTIONAL FAREWELL

[During November 1942] it was decided in Australia to evacuate the 2/2nd, Dutch and some Portuguese from Timor, leaving the 2/4th to take over.  The 2/2nd had been there more than eleven months and was utterly exhausted.

Callinan’s orders were that the evacuation was to be in two phases: First the Dutch and Portuguese, then the Australians.  The timing for the departure of the Dutch and Portuguese appears to have been left to his discretion, as was the pick-up point and all other arrangements.

…

Three ships would take them off – the little Kuru and the corvettes HMAS Castlemaine and HMAS Armidale.  The corvettes would also be landing a new Dutch detachment to replace those being evacuated with the Australians.

The Australian Navy’s contribution to supplying and later evacuating the men in Timor culminated in one of the great naval dramas of the war in that part of the world.

HMAS Armidale at sea.  Note the location of the aft Oerlikon gun situated behind the mainmast [3]

The story started when the Castlemaine and Armidale left Darwin on 1 December 1942 to start the evacuation.  Kuru had left earlier with orders to rendezvous at Betano.  Lt-Cdr P.J. Sullivan, who was commanding Castlemaine, was the senior officer.  Lt-Cdr D. H. Richards was in command of Armidale.

It was hoped that the ships would complete the evacuation without being discovered, though the odds were slim given the enemy’s air and naval superiority.

The morning after the two corvettes sailed, nightmare turned to reality when both ships were spotted by an enemy reconnaissance plane when they were still two hundred kilometres from their destination.  The aircraft dropped several bombs, all of them missing, before heading back to Dili.

Knowing the planes would be back, the corvettes changed course but were soon picked up by two formations of enemy aircraft, which immediately launched bombing and strafing attacks.  Sullivan radioed for help and when several Beaufighters arrived from Darwin the enemy planes flew back to Dili.  Neither ship had been damaged.  These actions delayed the corvettes’ arrival in Betano.

Kuru arrived at Betano and was boarded by about seventy Portuguese and Dutch evacuees, mainly women and children.  Baffled by the non-appearance of the corvettes, however, Lt J.A. Grant – Kuru’s Commander – notified Darwin and left at 2 a.m.  He was ordered to stay in the general area and to complete the evacuation the following night when the corvettes arrived.  Kalgoorlie was sent from Darwin to lend support.

Armidale sinking reference, Royal Australian Navy memorial globe, HMAS Shropshire Naval Memorial Park, Ulverstone, Tasmania

Sullivan sailed into Betano Bay at 3.30 a.m. with Castlemaine and Armidale.  When he saw that Kuru had left he turned the two ships about and headed south at full speed.  By daybreak they were 120 kilometres off Timor – where they rendezvoused with Kuru.  Castlemaine took aboard the refugees and headed for Darwin leaving Kuru and Armidale to return to Timor to pick up the rest of the refugees.

The Japanese meanwhile had spent the night preparing their attack against the three ships.  Every available aircraft was loaded with bombs and two cruisers were sent racing to the area.  Armidale and Kuru split up but by midday both ships had been spotted by searching aircraft.

Armidale opened fire with every gun she had as enemy planes dived on her, releasing bombs and torpedoes and strafing her with machine gun fire.  Her gunners shot down a bomber and fighter but she received direct hits from two torpedoes.  Armidale rolled over and sank with Ordinary Seaman E. Sheean strapped to his Oerlikon gun, still firing at diving planes.  Sheean, who had shot down the bomber, was posthumously Mentioned in Dispatches. [4]

Left: Ordinary Seaman Edward 'Teddy' Sheean.  Right: Painting depicting Teddy Sheean strapped to Armidale's aft Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun firing at Japanese bombers. [5]

Among those on board were the crew of eighty-three, three AIF men, two Dutch army officers and sixty-one of their Indonesian soldiers.  The engineer officer, nine ratings and thirty-seven Dutch East Indies troops went down with the ship.  The ship’s lifeboat was freed but those who reached it were machine gunned by the Japanese aircraft.  Only a handful survived; they were left in the water clinging to whatever they could find.

In Timor, nobody knew of the attacks on the corvettes.  The major concern for the Australians was that the Dutch reinforcements had not arrived, meaning that their front line had some serious gaps.  The remaining Dutch and Portuguese who were to be evacuated were still in Betano though this was not seen as a serious problem – they could always be taken off with the 2/2nd in phase two of the evacuation.

The various 2/2nd platoons began moving towards the beach head, without their packs, while the 2/4th settled in to the areas they were to defend.

Kuru meanwhile had become the centre of attention for other enemy aircraft which were harassing her mercilessly.  Grant, the commander, evaded the attacks by lying on his back on the deck from where he could see the diving aircraft, and shouting “hard port” or “hard starboard” to the helmsman.  Kuru zigzagged first one way then the other making it impossible for the pilots to get a bead on her.  Bombs, torpedoes and bullets boiled the sea but Kuru evaded all of them, twisting, turning and circling like a gazelle with a lion on its tail.

Armidale track [6]

The attack lasted seven hours, in which time forty-four aircraft dropped two hundred bombs, every one of them missing their mark.  When night fell, Kuru was ordered to return to Australia.  The little ship metaphorically shook herself, turned about, and majestically headed south.

This pocket compass was used by Lieutenant Lloyd Palmer to navigate ‘Armidale's’ whaler toward the Australian coast. [7]

The Armidale survivors spent the next twenty-four hours in the water, helping the wounded and cobbling together a raft out of two floats and pieces of wreckage.  Nearby was the ship’s submerged whaler.  When the raft was finished, some scrambled onto it.  Lt-Cdr Richards crammed twenty men into a disabled, five-metre lifeboat and set a course for Darwin, 450 kilometres away.  They were picked up four days later by Kalgoorlie.  Two men had died on the voyage and another two perished before reaching port.

Meanwhile, those who took to the raft soon found themselves being circled by sharks.  They kept themselves alive with one sip of water a day and a teaspoon of bully beef.  On the third day, they managed to work the raft under the stern of the submerged whaler, lifting it high enough from the water for it to be baled with tin hats.  It was then partially repaired by stuffing canvas into holes in the vessel’s sides.

With the situation becoming more desperate by the hour, a gunnery officer decided to make an attempt to reach Darwin in the whaler, taking twenty-five ratings and three Australian soldiers.  His reasoning was that the closer they could get to the coast, the better the chance of being spotted from the air by an Australian aircraft.  The twenty-eight were selected and the overloaded whaler slowly pulled away, leaving twenty-eight of the ship’s company and twenty-one Dutch native troops clinging to the raft under the command of Sub-Lt J.R. Buckland RANVR.

Those in the whaler had five dinghy oars, one whaler oar and a boat hook stave.  There was no rudder, no sails and their only navigation aid was a pocket compass.  They rowed in four watches, half an hour rowing and one- and-a-half hours resting.

On their second day, the twenty-nine men shared a 340-gram tin of bully beef.  The rainstorms which usually lashed the area at that time of the year did not appear, leaving them without water.  Some of the men became delirious.

One week after their ship was sunk they ate the last of their bully beef.  Later in the day a rain squall appeared enabling them to catch a little water.  Hours later they were found by a Catalina that circled low and dropped a note, saying that the raft had been found and that they had dropped them all their food.  A ship would be sent to rescue those on the raft and in the whaler.

Next day the whaler was found by Kalgoorlie.  The men had rowed 230 kilometres in three days.

HMAS Vigilant, under Sub-Lt Bennett, was sent out to find the raft party.  By this time the area was being patrolled by enemy cruisers, submarines and aircraft.  Nevertheless, Vigilant spent five days searching until the ship developed engine trouble and had to return.  Neither the raft nor the fifty survivors were seen again.  A total of ninety-eight of the 149 men on Armidale had died.

A Catalina flying boat was despatched from Cairns to pick up these survivors.  She reached the area on the afternoon of 8 December 1942.  One of the Catalina aircrew took this picture however, the aircraft was unable to land because of the rough sea state.  Despite exhaustive air and sea searches and the rescuing of other survivors, these pictured survivors were never seen again after the Catalina departed from the area. [8]

 

REFERENCES

[1]	See for example, ‘Last Post Ceremony: 75th anniversary of the sinking of the HMAS Armidale’ | The Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/events/lpc-armidale
[2]	Cyril Ayris. - All the Bull's men: no. 2 Australian Independent Company (2/2nd Commando Squadron). – Perth: 2/2nd Commando Association, c2006: Chapter 40 ‘Emotional farewell’ pp.366-370.
[3]	HMAS Armidale (I) http://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-armidale-i
[4]	There is an ongoing campaign to get Teddy Sheean awarded a posthumous VC; see, for example, Tom Lewis. - Honour denied Teddy Sheean, a Tasmanian Hero ... and other brave warriors of the Royal Australian Navy. – Kent Town, SA: Avonmore Books, 2016.
[5]	AWM ART28160 by Dale Marsh https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C172710?image=1
[6]	HMAS Armidale (I) http://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-armidale-i
[7]	AWM REL/04501 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C110553

 

75 YEARS ON

2/40 – THE ‘DOOMED BATTALION’ – MEN FROM THE 2/40 WHO FOUGHT ON WITH THE DOUBLEREDS IN PORTUGUESE TIMOR

As recounted in an earlier post ‘SPARROW FORCE DEPARTS FROM DARWIN FOR KOEPANG, DUTCH TIMOR – 10 DECEMBER 1941’, the No. 2 Independent Company accompanied the 2/40 Battalion on this voyage.

2/40 Battalion colour patch

The two units parted company in mid-December 1941 when the No. 2 Independent Company was despatched to occupy Dili in Portuguese Timor (see post ‘THE AUSTRALIAN AND DUTCH LANDINGS AT DILI - 17-20 DECEMBER 1941’).

Fate of the 2/40 Battalion

The men of the No. 2 Independent Company were re-united with some of their 2/40 compatriots and men from other Sparrow Force units a few months later when they made their way from Dutch Timor to Portuguese Timor following the surrender of the rest of the Battalion contingent to the Japanese on 23 February 1942 after a heroic defensive battle against the invaders.

With an authorised strength of around 900 personnel, mostly drawn from the state of Tasmania.  The men who were taken as prisoners in Dutch Timor spent the rest of the war in captivity in camps throughout Southeast Asia including Java, Burma, Thailand, Japan, Singapore and Sumatra and did not return to Australia until September 1945.  The battalion had 271 men killed in action or died while prisoners of war, while a further 79 were wounded.

Peter Henning, the historian of the 2/40, coined the term ‘doomed battalion’ to encapsulate the overwhelming difficulties the unit faced in attempting to effectively defend Dutch Timor and the trials and tribulations of those men who became prisoners of war. [1]

Escape to Portuguese Timor

About 200 Sparrow Force men escaped to Portuguese Timor.  Most of these men were trades and specialist staff such as cooks and clerks and unsuited for a combat role and were later evacuated to Australia; a few 2/40 men, however, were taken on as No. 2 Independent Company members, retrained and formed into a new platoon (D Platoon) under the command of Lt Don Turton, and served with distinction throughout the remainder of the Timor campaign before being evacuated back to Australia in December 1942.  These personnel were then dispersed to other units, with some being transferred eventually to the 2/12th Battalion; the 2/40th Battalion was never reformed. [2]

Battle honours

The battalion was awarded two battle honours for its service: "South-West Pacific 1942" and "Koepang".  Koepang is unique to the 2/40th, with no other unit in the Australian Army holding this battle honour.  In 1961–62, these honours were entrusted to the Royal Tasmania Regiment, and they are maintained by the 12th/40th Battalion, Royal Tasmania Regiment that is based at Derwent Barracks, Kissing Point near Hobart. [3]

Reminiscences of 2/40 Battalion Men Who Joined the No.2 Independent Company

The Doublereds archives includes the reminiscences of three men from the 2/40 Battalion who escaped from Dutch Timor and became members of No. 2 Independent Company; these are TX4174 Sergeant Berwin Francis (Denny) Dennis (1918-1997), TX2781 Private Herbert William (Bert) Price (1920-2010) and NX41795 Corporal Reginald Clarence (Reg) Griffiths (1907-2000).  Reading their stories reveals that they were no ‘shrinking violets’ and were well and truly integrated with the Independent Company men and participated in patrols, the manning of observation posts and ambushes.

Denny Dennis

Denny was a Payroll Sergeant with the 2/40 Battalion and because of his background assumed a Quarter Mastering role at Beco and Mape once in Portuguese Timor.  This anecdote is included in his recollections:

‘On 24 May 42 it was organised for a Catalina to take our wounded back to Australia.  I guess you could say they stayed at Denny's Guest House at Beco for a night, quite a party.  CAPT Dunkley looking after the wounded Gerry Maley, Alan Hollow, PTE Craghill, old Jack Sansom.  I think Alan Luby was part of the party, and of course stretcher bearers.  I was part of the organising party, organising rations - rice, pumpkins, coffee.  I recall that a river to be crossed was in flood and impassable for some hours.  I was on the Betano side of the river, I think Fred Bryant was with me.  We had clay pots with rice, pumpkins and coffee ready when Dr Dunkley and party were able to cross.  I thought the Doctor was going to kiss me for the provisions supplied. … BRIG Veale and a Dutch officer also took off on this Catalina’.

Bert Price

Bert was a Private with 11 Platoon of the 2/40 Battalion.  Following the Japanese assault on Osepa Bazar, he recalled: ‘Off to East Timor - Portuguese Timor and caught up with some 2/2nd I.C.  I think at Tilomar and then went on to Mape or Memo - where we were assessed by 2/2 officers’.

Bert also remembered:

‘We were soon sent out to Platoons - think I was awhile at Maliana with Col Doig.  But then went to Atsabe under Don Turton and sent to a place think Roti between Atsabe and Lete Foho - under Jerry Green - and at one stage was with a small sub section under Alby Martin at a small village with a name that sounded like Nun Berry Nun - we did extensive patrolling from this area and at night one of our Sigs would report to Atsabe from Roti by Adis lamp don't know his name but he was a great bloke and sig - a good signaler.  On one patrol, myself with Roy Hefferman to Lete Foho we arrived soon after the Hudson Bombers had been over and bombed the town and almost sealed the Chefe De Posto in his air raid shelter, he was amazed that the bombers were after him - we were always on the go.  Don Turton was not one to sit idle - he wanted action.  One vivid memory is being able to write home on 12th June to my parents and small notes to my mates who were prisoners of war to their parents - these notes are still in existence and one was recently printed in our local paper …’.

Reg Griffiths

Reg enlisted in the Army in 1941 as a baker with the Australian Army Service Corps (AASC) and was assigned to Sparrow Force and went with it to Koepang.  He recalled ‘When the Japanese landed, the bakery was closed and I baked no more bread from then on’.

He was not captured following the Japanese attack and made his way with other AASC members to Portuguese Timor and joined the No. 2 Independent Company.

Though a baker, he was soon recognised as having fighting capabilities:

‘I had grown up in the bush, had used guns and rifles for many years, and knew how to survive in primitive conditions.  On one occasion, I was asked when I was with my section in D Platoon where I had learned jungle fighting. My response

"Going around my rabbit traps, Mate, I think it was very good training!"’

After his commando training he became a member of Lt Cam Rodd’s Section and served with him for the remainder of the campaign.

Memorials

Tasmanians are justifiably proud of the achievements of their ‘doomed battalion’ that is commemorated in a number of dedicated memorials around the state, including Hobart, Launceston and Green’s Beach.

2/40 Battalion Memorial, Green's Beach, Tasmania

Hobart Safari 2000

The men of No.2 Independent Company’s long-standing camaraderie with the Tasmanian 2/40th men who served with them was demonstrated during the 2/2 Commando Association of Australia Hobart Safari of 2000.  Bert Price was an active participant in the organised activities of this Safari. [4]

Bert Price (centre) at Commemorative Service, Koepang Wall, Derwent Barracks, Hobart, 10 March 2000

REFERENCES

[1] Peter Henning. - Doomed battalion: mateship and leadership in war and captivity: the Australian 2/40 Battalion 1940-45. - Revised and enlarged edition. - [Exeter, Tasmania] Peter Henning, 2014.

[2] A list of ‘2/2nd men who joined from Dutch Timor’ can be found in Cyril Ayris. – All the Bull’s men: no. 2 Australian Independent Company (2/2nd Commando Squadron). - [Perth, W.A.] : 2/2nd Commando Association, c2006: 498-500.  Copies of this book can be purchased from the Doublereds Store.

[3] https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U56077

[4] ‘Tasmanian Safari March 2000’ 2/2 Commando Courier No. 134, June 2000: 6-10.  https://doublereds.org.au/couriers/2000/Courier June 2000.pdf

 

Enlistment photo.tiff

75 YEARS ON

THE ARRIVAL OF THE NO. 4 INDEPENDENT COMPANY AND THE WRECK OF THE VOYAGER

23 September 1942

In early September 1942, it had been decided in Australia to reinforce the 2nd Independent Company with the No. 4 Independent Company, a new unit which had also trained at Wilsons Promontory and in the Northern Territory.  The decision would trigger some of the most dramatic episodes in the Timor campaign.

This account of what happened is provided by Cyril Ayris in All the Bull’s men with additional photos and images from other sources. [1]

CHAOS ON THE BEACH

It had been decided in Australia to reinforce the 2nd Independent Company with the No. 4 Independent Company, a new unit which had also trained at Wilsons Promontory and in the Northern Territory.  The decision would trigger some of the most dramatic episodes in the Timor campaign.

No. 4 Independent Company Advance Party

A No. 4 Independent Company advance party had arrived in Timor on HMAS Kalgoorlie on 16 September 1942 under the command of Major Walker and accompanied by the commander, one other officer and some NCOs from each of the company’s platoons. [2] It was planned to merge the companies platoon by platoon according to their letters so that A Platoon of the 2nd would be joined by A Platoon of No. 4 and so on.

Major Mac Walker and Captain Geoff Laidlaw (2nd Ind Coy) at Force Headquarters, with Timorese supporters [3]

The men of the 2nd Independent Company presented a strange sight to the new arrivals. Cpl Ken Piesse, who was among them, wrote in Commando – From Tidal River to Tarakan:

'As we hit the beach we were soon surrounded by gaunt, bearded Australians from the 2nd Company and literally hundreds of natives who seemed very excited about the new arrivals.  The 2nd Company lads were eager for news – and the bread and butter we had brought with us off the Kalgoorlie.  It was strange to see how they ate the bread.  How they wolfed it!' [4]

The newly-arrived officers were guided to their respective platoon areas to familiarise themselves with the terrain and its problems.  Extra food supplies were collected in each area with more being brought in by the advance parties.

Baldwin Organises the Logistics of the Landing

Baldwin was given the vital, near-impossible job of rounding up hundreds of carriers and ponies from the platoon areas, and leading them to the beachhead in time for the main 4th landing at Betano, without being seen by the enemy. [5] He would then be responsible for loading the stores and supplies onto the backs of the carriers and ponies and getting them away from the beach to the respective platoon areas.  While all this was happening, the 250 men of the No. 4 Independent Company would disembark and melt away into the Timorese interior.  It was, by any stretch of the imagination, an extraordinarily difficult and dangerous operation, particularly as it had been decided to risk using the destroyer HMAS Voyager to bring in the reinforcements. [6]

Nautical chart showing Timor Sea between Darwin and Betano [7]

The time for the landing was set for late afternoon on 22 September 1942.  It was imperative that the troops, supplies and equipment were unloaded in time for Voyager to be well clear of Betano and on her way back to Darwin before the enemy’s first aerial patrol flew over at dawn.

Incredibly, in plenty of time, the hundreds of carriers and ponies were safely hidden along the Betano beach to await Voyager’s arrival.  Unbelievably, the Voyager was delayed – she would be arriving the following day, the 2nd Independent Company was told.

No. 4 Independent Company in transit from Darwin [8]

The Voyager Arrives at Betano Bay

The destroyer finally left Darwin in the early hours of 22 September 1942 under the command of Lt Commander R. C. Robison.  She was carrying fifteen tonnes of stores, eight barges, a five-metre motorboat, £3500 ($7000) in silver coins and two hundred and fifty men.  She arrived off Betano late in the afternoon of 23 September.

Timor bound – HMAS Voyager, September 1942 [9]

Betano Bay is wide, open and shallow and offers little or no protection for ships at anchor.  The only possible anchorage is in a channel between two reefs in the middle of the bay.  There were no reliable charts of the area – Robison had only a rough sketch and the advice of his pilot Sub- Lt Bennett, who had previously commanded Kuru and Vigilant. [10]

The ship entered the bay on an ebb tide giving the new troops their first sight of Timor.

Robison approached cautiously only too well aware of the danger of running aground.  The anchor was lowering when the vessel was no more than three hundred metres off the shore, her port side parallel to the beach.

Voyager Runs Aground

Soldiers jumped into landing craft at the ship’s stern, close to the port propeller.  At the same time Voyager began drifting towards the shore.

Diagrammatic representation of the grounding of the Voyager [11]

The ship was still afloat and could have been saved if the Captain had ordered 'astern' on the port propeller and 'ahead' on the starboard one, with the wheel hard-a-port.  The stern would then have swung away from the beach and the ship could have been moved stern-first into deep water.

Betano Anchorage, Timor [12]

But if he had done that, the landing craft would have been sucked into the propeller and up to fifty soldiers would almost certainly have been killed.

Robison’s second, less attractive option, was to go astern on the starboard engine, drawing the stern in towards the beach.  Once the bow was clear of the reefs he might be able to steer into deep water.  This would save the lives of the men in the landing craft, but there would be much greater risk of running aground.

Robison had just seconds to make up his mind.  Would he risk losing his ship or would he play safe and suck fifty soldiers into the destroyer’s screws?  He barely hesitated.  He ordered astern on the starboard engine – and watched helplessly from the bridge as Voyager ran aground.

It is difficult to imagine a more chaotic situation.  The beachhead was crammed with soldiers, Timorese, packing cases and ponies.  More troops and supplies were pouring ashore, ponies were being loaded, it was getting dark, the Voyager was stuck fast – and the first enemy air patrol was due overhead in twelve hours.

Voyager to be Scuttled

Every effort was made to free the ship.  Torpedoes were fired and depth charges and anything heavy was jettisoned.  Attempts were made to pull the ship free, using ropes around an anchor.  But everything conspired against them.  The tide ebbed, the ship’s propellers became embedded in the sand.  When a south-east wind sprang up forcing her further towards the beach, Voyager’s fate was sealed.

Sept. 24, 1942 HMAS Voyager - dawn reveals a sad scene in Betano Bay, Timor [13]

The reinforcement of Sparrow Force now took a new turn.  Voyager would certainly be found by the Japanese in the morning which meant that the ship’s gunners had to be ready to greet them with anti-aircraft fire.  All other personnel on board had to be taken ashore to wait for another ship to take them back to Darwin.  Voyager had to be scuttled and anything of value to the enemy, destroyed.  Unloading had to continue and all the soldiers, carriers, ponies, stores and ammunition had to be carried away from the fateful beach before strong Japanese patrols arrived overland.  Metal cans brimming with two shilling pieces were loaded onto horses [Timor ponies] which almost collapsed under the weight.

Timor ponies – their ancestors provided the transport for the Australians from the Betano beachhead

Robison offered Callinan anything on the ship he wanted, including an anti-aircraft gun.  The offer was declined – the piece weighed two tonnes.  However, he did accept some Vickers heavy machine guns.

The Beachhead

Work on the beach continued at a frantic pace.  Alan Downer, who was one of the new No. 4 Independent Company arrivals and who would later become a journalist, wrote:

'Major Walker was a very concerned man and urged everyone to clear the beach as quickly as possible, return to the scrub and wait the order to move.  When we set out at 0200 hours all men were carrying haversacks, weapons, 150 rounds of .303 or 200 of .45 ammunition, two grenades and rations.  Others of us carried in addition, binoculars, pistols, and map satchels.  We had not progressed far before realising that we were overburdened in such mountainous country'.

Those ponies and Timorese who had not got away during the night were hidden under trees where, with luck, they would not be seen from the air.  A skeleton force of 2nd Independent Company men was left to guard the beach, while the stranded sailors were allocated positions from where they would be able to give a good account of themselves, should they come under attack from Japanese soldiers.

Sept. 24, 1942 - HMAS Voyager aground in Betano Bay, Timor [14]

Dawn Attack

Seldom has the arrival of dawn been so poorly appreciated as on Betano beach on 24 September 1942.  Amazingly most of the men and Baldwin’s caravans of Timorese ponies had reached the interior, the ponies and carriers to distribute the tonnes of stores, the soldiers to meet the enemy who would surely come swarming from the north when they heard about the stranded Voyager.

The new day dawned pink over the mountains, throwing the peaks in sharp, purple silhouette.  The birds had barely begun to chatter when there was the familiar drone of approaching aircraft.

A Zero over-flew the beach; some of the Australians reckoned they could see the pilot’s double-take when he spotted the grounded ship.  The aeroplane banked away and headed towards Dili.  The cat was out of the bag.

In the next few hours the Japanese launched successive bombing attacks on the stricken ship, dropping high explosive, incendiary and anti-personnel bombs.  Voyager’s gunners shot down one aircraft with Ack-Ack.  Ironically, Robison also set about destroying Voyager – charges were exploded in the engine room, breaking the ship’s back and blowing holes in her hull.

Sept. 24, 1942 - Removing stores from the grounded HMAS VOYAGER , Betano Bay, Timor [15]

And so, Voyager, a veteran of two years’ service in the Mediterranean and eleven runs into Tobruk, met her Waterloo on a little-known beach in Portuguese Timor.  Her hulk is there to this day. [16]

Recent photo of the remaining Voyager wreckage

Warrnambool and Kalgoorlie to the Rescue

When news of the disaster reached Darwin two corvettes, HMAS Warrnambool and Kalgoorlie, were ordered to Betano to take off the officers and crew of Voyager and the 2nd Independent Company sick and wounded, including Wadey, the airman who had been rescued earlier.  The two ships arrived about midnight on 25 September 1942, anchoring well out in the bay in seventeen fathoms of water.  Their motorboats slipped ashore to meet the Voyager’s barges filled with seamen and soldiers, and towed them back to the ships.  In little more than an hour the transfers were complete and the two corvettes were heading back to Darwin.

Betano, Portuguese Timor. 1942-09. The wreck of HMAS Voyager [17]

The Timorese Retell the Story

The Australians on Timor were concerned that the Betano debacle would be interpreted by the many Timorese who were there as a major defeat for the Australians.  Scores of carriers from all over Portuguese Timor had been involved, ensuring that news of the disaster would spread throughout the colony in next to no time.  But they had underestimated the loyalty of the Timorese who, having seen the soldiers and sailors hold steady, assumed that everything had gone to plan.  The way they saw it, Voyager had been deliberately grounded – the ship had done its job and it had been abandoned on the beach.  This casual disregard for a vessel of such undoubted value was told and re-told in oomahs everywhere.

Captain Rolf Baldwin (left), Lieut. E. Hayward and Major Bernie Callinan Dec. 1942 [18]

Inevitably, some of the lines of ponies heading towards the interior were seen from the air and came under strafing and bombing attack.  Each time the Timorese carriers and two Australian escorts urged the animals off the tracks into whatever cover was available.  A few ponies were killed yet, astonishingly, every line of carriers and animals reached its destination.

Baldwin’s Memories of the Beachhead Operation

Baldwin’s memories of the beachhead operation he organised are worth recording.  He wrote:

'My job of commanding the beach landing operations was extremely complicated.  The troops coming ashore would have no transport for their stores and they would have no idea how to find their way to the positions they were to occupy.

Recent aerial view of Betano Bay showing the location of the Voyager wreck

I therefore arranged for every section of the 2nd Independent Company to provide two guides and a number of ponies which were to be on the beach at a designated time.  This was not easy as it involved moving something like four hundred ponies from several directions, without arousing the enemy’s suspicions. When they arrived at the beach, the animals had to be fed and watered.

The beach assembly area was a large tract of flat ground about two-thirds of which supported scrub, not unlike tea-tree, which provided good cover from the air.  The rest of the area was scattered with kunai grass.

Voyager crew members await rescue in the jungle, keeping hidden from the Japanese [19]

The all-important factor was that a Japanese reconnaissance plane came along regularly every morning soon after sunrise.  The Voyager would arrive in the evening and be away before first light.

When the ship was delayed twenty-four hours we had to find feed and water for the ponies, which wasn’t easy but we managed.

Voyager arrived punctually the next day and the disembarkation went smoothly from my point of view.  As each 4th section came ashore it was met by 2nd Independent Company representatives.  The two groups carried their stores to their respective ponies and went on their way.

I was well occupied keeping my eye on all this activity but I noticed that the ship was coming pretty close inshore.  Then, when the last of the troops were ashore, I went aboard to speak to the commander.  That was when I received the devastating news that the ship was aground and unable to be moved.

On our feet, we concocted the plan to leave enough men on board to man the Ack-Ack guns against the certain air attack in the morning.  The rest of the sailors, who were unarmed, would occupy the hiding places that had been used by the horses.  We hoped against hope that there would be no land attack.

I think it was daylight by the time the sailors were hidden.  Not long afterwards the 'chaffcutter' as we used to call the plane, flew over and headed straight back to Dili.

The stranded ship was an easy target for the bombers which arrived later, yet they scored only a couple of direct hits.  In the afternoon, the ship’s commander had the vessel’s engines destroyed and the poor old ship was fired.  The red-hot rivets flying from her plates were a sight to remember.

When the sailors left on the corvettes a couple of days later I had the eerie task of returning to the ship to look for a signals book which it was thought might have been left behind'.

Conclusion

And so, the transfer was completed.  It must rate as one of the most remarkable of the war.  An entire company of men had been landed on an enemy-occupied island, under the very noses of the Japanese, and spirited away with tonnes of ammunition and supplies without losing a man.

Voyager insignia, Scrap Iron Flotilla Memorial, H.M.A.S. Shropshire Memorial Park, Ulverstone, Tasmania

REFERENCES

[1]

Cyril Ayris. – All the Bull’s men: no. 2 Australian Independent Company (2/2nd Commando Squadron). - [Perth, W.A.] : 2/2nd Commando Association, c2006: 336-341.  Copies of this book can be purchased from the Doublereds Store - see link at the bottom of the post.

[2]

Major (later Lieutenant-Colonel) Edward McDonald ‘Mac’ Walker VX53941; see Commando – from Tidal River to Tarakan: the story of No. 4 Independent Company, AIF … / compiled by G.E. Lambert. - Melbourne: 2nd/4th Commando Association, 1994, p. xxiv.

[3]

Commando – from Tidal River to Tarakan: the story of No. 4 Independent Company, AIF … , p.93.

[4]

Commando – from Tidal River to Tarakan: the story of No. 4 Independent Company, AIF … , p.90-91.

[5]

Captain (later Major) Rolf Redmond Baldwin VX50054; see Lana Capon ‘Rolf’s war service’ Investigator (Geelong Historical Society) No. 201, December 2015: 163-165.

[6]

See ‘HMAS Voyager (I)’ http://www.navy.gov.au/HMAS_Voyager_(I).

[7]

Henry Burrell ‘The loss of the first Voyager’ Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Vol. 7, No. 2 May 1981, p.10.

[8]

Ralph Dymond. - The History of H.M.A.S. Voyager 1. - Lucaston, Tas.: Southern Holdings, 1992, p.181.

[9]

Commando – from Tidal River to Tarakan: the story of No. 4 Independent Company, AIF … , p.94.

[10]

See previous post ‘The Timor ferry service’  https://doublereds.org.au/forums/topic/109-75-years-on-the-timor-ferry-service/

[11]

Henry Burrell ‘The loss of the first Voyager’ … , p.11.

[12]

Commando – from Tidal River to Tarakan: the story of No. 4 Independent Company, AIF … , p.86.

[13]

Ralph Dymond. - The History of H.M.A.S. Voyager 1 … , p.185.

[14]

Ralph Dymond. - The History of H.M.A.S. Voyager 1 …, p.187.

[15]

Ralph Dymond. - The History of H.M.A.S. Voyager 1 … p.187.

[16]

J. W. Ellis ‘Betano Bay today’ United Service Vol. 65 No. 1 March 2014: 26-27.  A team of Australian Navy divers cleared the last live ammunition from the wreck in 2000; see ‘The deep end – Navy divers in Dili’.  Sydney: XYZ Networks, 2000.  Video, 50 mins.

[17]

Australian War Memorial collection, ID number 157242.

[18]

Commando – from Tidal River to Tarakan: the story of No. 4 Independent Company, AIF … , p.172.

[19]

Ralph Dymond. - The History of H.M.A.S. Voyager 1 … , p.187.

 

 

Thanks for the feedback Helen; I've added a link to the May 1969 Courier that includes the text of the speeches to the story.

The National Archives of Australia (NAA) is a marvellous resource for family historians including members and supporters of the Doublereds seeking service and other official records for their research.  For example, a recent search of the NAA database retrieved a set of 17 photos taken at the opening of the Dare Memorial Pool and Resting Place on 13 April 1969.  One of the photos showing the group of 2/2 veterans who made the journey to the then Portuguese Timor for the opening is well known and has been reproduced in several publications, including Cyril Ayris’ ‘All the Bull’s men’ (p.490-491) but all the other photos may not have been seen for some time, if at all.  The photos are high quality and very sharp and show the Portuguese and Australian dignitaries involved in the opening ceremony, Timorese drummers and dancers, local villagers looking on and the memorial plaque.

The photos can be well complemented by reading Col Doig’s account of the opening ceremony given in his history of the 2/2 Commando Association ‘A great fraternity’ (pp.87-89).  The full text of his account follows in this post:

Now to return to the events of Sunday the 13th.  We were warned to be ready to leave our hotels. by 10 a.m. to go to the venue of our Memorial and prepare for the ceremony.  We boarded a variety of vehicles, all four-wheel drive as this is the only type which can climb to the mountain on which the Resting Place is situated.  A brief stop at the Australian Consulate then on to the winding mountain road with drivers belting along in a cloud of dust, blowing horns practically continuously.  This writer formed the impression that it was OK to knock down anybody legally if you blew the horn first.

As we neared the Memorial site we found the roadside was a bower of arches on either side and became a living guard of honour of Timorese spearmen.  The sight was unbelievable.  Then on to the actual spot for the ceremony, overlooking the Memorial.

“There is a newly finished road immediately above the Memorial and it is at this point the plaques telling of the Memorial are placed”.

Above this road is the main road to Aileu and above this the remainder of the mountain side.  The whole of this area from the Memorial to the top of the mountain was covered with colourful and teeming humanity.  Such vivid colour I have never previously seen.

 

“A guard of honour of Australian Naval personnel and a guard of Portuguese Army personnel were formed up for the salute”.

The whole scene was something that will probably never be witnessed in this world again.  The greeting we received was spontaneous and magnificent.  We had returned home!  All this and we had not yet dismounted from our vehicles [and] had not seen the Memorial.

We dismounted from our cars and shook hands with Mr Roger Dean, Administrator of the Northern Territory who was representing the Australian Commonwealth Government and his entourage which comprised the Naval Commander Northern Territory, Capt Cleary, Army Commander, Lt Col P.J. Norton, Air Commander, Group Capt Mather and ADC Lt Brian Bell.  Mr Dean was accompanied by his wife and the President of Darwin RSL, Mr J.P. Tiernan.

Then we turned around to view the scene.  What utter grandeur!  What true magnificence!  Timor's topography is probably absolutely unique in the world and this site one of the greatest possible.

“Then to look down on the glory which is our Resting Place.  Never in my life have I witnessed such a beautiful site”.

The colour and majesty is indescribable.  The translucent blue water of the pool, the rugged strength of the Resting Place, the colourful terrazzo flooring, the power and strength of the free stone retaining walls, the huge trees and colourful shrubbery all added to a scene that was truly breath taking.  A quick catch in the throat was the first reaction.  Was this our gift to these wonderful people?  Surely this was fairyland.  We were dreaming.  No, it was all real.  So much more than we expected in our wildest dream.  Thank you, I Thank you!  You wonderful architects, engineers and workmen, that was my silent prayer.

All this happened in the space of seconds while we awaited the arrival of the Governor.  The guards gave a Royal Salute as His Excellency arrived and they were inspected and on to the ceremony of hand over and dedication.  It was with bated breath we who were involved awaited the start.

“The Australian Consul introduced the speakers and we were away”.

“The first to address the assembly was your President, Bill Epps, who found the occasion as much as he could bear and was so overcome with emotion that he broke down only to come back and finish the task in a manner only to be described as heroic and magnificent”.

Col Doig followed and he too found the occasion overwhelming and was shaking like an aspen leaf.

“Col. Scapinakis spoke for the Portuguese”.

Nicolau Goncalves (Norm Thornton and Ray Aitken' s creado) spoke for the Timorese.  The Bishop of Dili blessed the Resting Place, Mr Roger Dean read the inscription on the plaque in English and the Governor read the plaque in Portuguese.  Mr Dean then spoke for the Australian Government and the Governor replied from the Portuguese Government.  This took a considerable time as all speeches had to be translated into Portuguese or English after they had been delivered.

NOTE: The full text of all the speeches delivered at the opening ceremony can be found in the Courier May 1969

 

“As the plaques were unveiled the guards gave a Royal Salute and a bugle band played the Retreat”.

A most moving and amazing ceremony, colourful in the extreme and never to be repeated in this world again.  Those who were fortunate enough to take part will have memories forever of this magnificent day.

With the ceremony over it was now time for the contingent to meet up with their ex-creados who had been assembled for just this occasion.  Many and touching were the reunions as we once again met these faithful friends.  Over 100 of these people had assembled and many were vouched for as being the ones who had helped us so much.  A small token of our esteem was handed to these people now quite aging and we so remembered them as boys and youths.  Once again, the lumps were in the throats and many an eye was brushed to remove a tear.

“All the while a dancing group performed near the pool of the Memorial”.

The women accompanying the party were all awe struck by the occasion.

 

OTHER PHOTOS OF THE CEREMONY IN THE NAA COLLECTION

 

 

DAVID ROSS (1902-1984)  – DIPLOMAT AND SPY

Col Doig paid the following tribute to David Ross in the ‘Courier’ when he passed away in August 1984:

Vale - Dave Ross

This man will be known to many of the Unit boys, particularly those who were in the Timor Campaign.

He was, when we occupied Portuguese Timor, although an Australian, the British Consul.  His contribution to our cause was one of high order.  He helped us to settle into Dili and was a great diplomat in his dealings with the Portuguese, Dutch and our own hierarchy.  His advice on the Timorese and the way to get on side with them was invaluable, the terrain, the weather patterns, the hazards we would encounter in our patrolling, all were spot on.

Dave was virtually under house surveillance once the Japanese landed and we next saw him when he was sent by the Japanese to Hatu-Lia with a 'Surrender Notice', via the Japanese Consul, but the message was from the Japanese Commander.  Bernie Callinan's 'Independent Company' describes it perfectly.

On the 17th March 1942 Dave was on his way back to Dili with a 'No Surrender' message for the Japanese.  It was a traumatic occasion for him, likewise us, to see him go was really emotional as no one knew what would happen to him.

Dave was to make another trip for the Japanese [on June 25], again carrying a 'Surrender Notice' to Ainaro, this time in poor health after close confinement and meagre rations.  Before departure he told the Japanese that the Australians would not surrender, they, the Japanese, would have to go out and fight them in the hills, but even then, they did not have enough troops to capture the Australians.  He was a brave man who did not hide behind his post as Consul.

Out he came in June and reached Ainaro an exhausted man.  He had made no promise to return so Force H.Q asked permission for this loyal man to be repatriated to Australia.  It was not immediately forthcoming, but ultimately Dave Ross left Beco [on July 8] heading for Australia on the little 'Kuru' piloted by Lt. Bennett [see previous post in this series, ‘The Timor ferry service].  His job well and truly done he deserved it, an Aussie to the enth degree.

We mourn the loss of this old friend, gentleman, diplomat, courageous.  When the 2/2nd Commando Association was formed he became a member and was a regular guest at our Annual Dinner and other functions.

He remained a friend of the 2/2nd to the very last and we honour him for his excellent contribution to our cause, to contain the Japanese and to 'Not Surrender'.  Both were done and Dave Ross played a big part Indirectly in both these happenings.

Vale, Dave Ross, you fought a good fight. Rest content in the Vale of Valhalla, where the only surrender will be, to God himself.

Christopher C.H. Wray in his book ‘Timor 1942: Australian commandos at war with the Japanese’ (pp.111-113) provided the following narrative of David Ross’s final mission on Portuguese Timor and his subsequent return to Australia:

Japan Tries to Persuade the Australians to Surrender Again

In June, the Japanese made further efforts to persuade the Australians to surrender.  On 9 June a cablegram from Mr Clement Attlee, the British Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs to the Commonwealth Government, reported on a Portuguese proposal that if the Australians gave up and submitted to internment in Dutch Timor, the Japanese would withdraw altogether from the Portuguese part of the island.  This solution would satisfy the Portuguese Government as the Japanese were requisitioning the already inadequate food resources of Portuguese Timor and generally acting in an intolerable manner.  The proposals were repeated two days later.  On 18 June, the Commonwealth Government replied to Attlee, explaining that the Australian forces on Timor were well organised, sufficiently supplied and conducting guerilla warfare against the Japanese.  The Portuguese proposal had been discussed with General MacArthur and the Australian Chiefs of Staff.  The Commonwealth Government pointed out that Australian troops were carrying out a valuable task on Timor, and the Government was not prepared to negotiate their surrender. Attlee was asked to inform the Portuguese Government accordingly.

David Ross Meets with the Japanese Consul

Not long after this exchange David Ross, the British Consul-General in Dili, was called before the Japanese Consul.  Since the Japanese invasion Ross had been kept a prisoner in his house, save for the occasion [in March] when he had been sent out to make contact with the commandos.  During his period of house arrest he had suffered acute boredom, being allowed no visitors, and for three months had half-starved owing to the lack of food for sale in Dili and the refusal of the Japanese to allow his servants to search for food in the surrounding country.  The Japanese Consul was a cultured man who was a Roman Catholic and who had been educated in Spain.  The Consul informed Ross that the Commander of the Japanese forces wanted Ross to carry a surrender offer to the Australians.  Ross indicated that while he was willing to do this, he did not think the Australians would surrender as those who had been captured in February had been killed.  The next day Ross was interviewed by the Japanese Commander, an elderly man of soldierly demeanour.  The Commander was indignant at the insinuations made about the behaviour of Japanese soldiers towards their prisoners.  He stated that neither he nor soldiers under his command had ever killed prisoners, and he personally accepted the surrender of the Australians on Ambon.  As a token of sincerity, the following statement was prepared in English, signed and sealed by both the Commander and the Consul:

In the name of the Imperial Japanese Government we here-by guarantee that all Australian soldiers under your command, who surrender to the Japanese Force now in Portuguese Timor, will receive proper treatment as prisoners of war in accordance with International Law.

The Commander also asked Ross to convey to the Australian Commander his admiration for the fight which the Australians had put up.  But, he said, if they were real soldiers they would come into Dili and fight to the last man.  Ross commented that there were not sufficient Japanese in Dili to round up the Australians.  To his surprise the Commander agreed, saying that from his readings on the South African War and his own experience in Manchuria it required ten regular soldiers to kill each guerilla, but he said, 'I will get what is required'.

Ross Departs

A few days later Ross was escorted a short distance out from Dili and told to make his way towards Ainaro which the Japanese believed contained the Australian Headquarters.  Weakened by lack of food and his months of close confinement Ross was soon exhausted, but with the help of friendly Portuguese he reached Ainaro where he was found by Major Callinan and taken to Force Headquarters at Mape.

The Australians were quite uninterested in the surrender proposals, which they gave scant attention.  Ross had not promised to return to Dili, and so it was proposed that he be returned to Australia.  At first the Australian authorities were reluctant to agree, believing Ross could carry out some role in Dili.  However, permission was granted after it was pointed out that he had been kept prisoner and had been unable to achieve anything.  On 8 July Ross returned to Australia on the ‘Kuru’.  Also on board were the Dutch Consul, Herr Brauer, and his wife who had escaped from Dili at about the time of Ross's departure with the surrender proposal.

Group Captain David Ross during wartime service with the RAAF

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT DAVID ROSS

[1] David Ross (1902-?)

http://www.airwaysmuseum.com/David Ross biog.htm

Brief biography.

[2] Steven Farram. - A short-lived enthusiasm: the Australian Consulate in Portuguese Timor. - Darwin, N.T.: Charles Darwin University Press, 2010, pp.4-6 ‘The British Consulate’.

Valuable history of Australia’s pre-war and early war involvement with Portuguese Timor including the work of David Ross.

[3] Wayne Gobert. - The origins of Australian diplomatic intelligence in Asia, 1933-1941. - Canberra: Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1992, esp. pp.43-45, 47, 60-63 and 77.

http://bellschool.anu.edu.au/experts-publications/publications/3166/origins-australian-diplomatic-intelligence-asia-1933-1941

Comprehensive coverage of David Ross’s diplomatic intelligence role in Portuguese Timor.

[4] ‘Assignment Asia: Wayne Gobert uncovers the surprising truth of Australia's intelligence work before and during World War II’ The Canberra Times (ACT: 1926 - 1995) Saturday 3 Mar 1990, p.17.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/120881983/12972094

Journalistic summary of Gobert’s monograph including content regarding David Ross.

[5] Backroom briefings: John Curtin's war / edited by Clem Lloyd & Richard Hall; from original notes compiled by Frederick T. Smith. - Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1997, esp. pp.57-58, 61-64.

http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/ebooks/pdf/Backroom Briefings.pdf

Informative notes from David Ross’s press briefings given immediately after his return to Australia from Portuguese Timor in mid-July 1942.

[6] ‘Dave Ross Memoirs’ 2/2 Commando Courier vol. 138, March 2002, pp.9-11.

https://doublereds.org.au/couriers/2002/Courier March 2002.pdf

Extract from an interview with David Ross covering his experiences in Portuguese Timor.

 

 

75 YEARS ON

 

The current 2/2 Commando Association of Australia inherited an archive of papers from the original Association.  Amongst these papers are photocopies of newspaper and magazine articles about the 2nd Independent Company’s campaign on Portuguese Timor during 1942.  One article I noticed in this archive was titled ‘The Timor ferry service’ and was written by journalist and author, John Leggoe (1909-2003). [1]

After Sparrow Force made contact with Australia using the improvised radio named ‘Winnie the war winner’ (see previous post [2]) Army General Headquarters agreed that the campaign should be supported and, after initial air drops of food and supplies, the RAN was tasked with providing 40 tonnes of supplies per month across the beaches on the south coast of East (Portuguese) Timor and with being prepared to evacuate the entire force at one week’s notice.  Kuru initiated the resupply service in May and was joined by Vigilant in July.  The corvette Kalgoorlie joined the program in September.  All these voyages escaped Japanese interception.  Leggoe’s article told the story of this hazardous operation.

John Leggoe authored a fuller account of the Timor Ferry Service in his book ‘Trying to be sailors’ an extract from which is included in this post.  It is a fast-paced eyewitness account of the Timor Ferry Service that begins with Kuru’s initial re-supply voyage that departed from Darwin harbour on the 25th May 1942. [3] [4]

Front cover of 'Trying to be sailors'

Additional information about another vessel involved in the Timor Ferry Service, Vigilant is also provided.

The master of the Kuru and later the Vigilant was Captain Alan Bennett and when he died in July 1987 his Vale in the 2/2 Commando Courier paid him fulsome praise and opened with the statement ‘He was one of us’. [5]

EXTRACT FROM JOHN LEGGOE, 'TRYING TO BE SAILORS' ON THE 'TIMOR FERRY SERVICE'

 

Origins of the Timor Ferry Service

From time to time as Vigilant, Kuru and the corvettes secured alongside Platypus between operations the buzz spread through the ship about what was going on over on the Timor coast.  Their officers, sworn to secrecy, were tight-lipped when they visited our wardroom, but we all had a pretty good idea what was going on.  This was Darwin's own amphibious war - the supplying and subsequent evacuation of the gallant little Sparrow Force of Australian commandos on Timor.

The Timor Ferry Service, as it came to be known, began late in May 1942.  This was well into the dry season - weather which, with maximum visibility, was ideal for the Japanese reccos flying their daily routine over the Timor Sea.  It was a will-o'-the-wisp campaign which went on under the very noses of the Japanese.  The strength of the forces available to NOICD (Naval Officer-In-Charge Darwin) could only be described as puny and the success of the operations so far had been due largely to the audacity with which they had been carried out.  All three services were involved and most of the participants were Australian.

Now the campaign was entering its final phase, to be played out over the 400 miles of the Timor Sea between Darwin and Timor.  It was to cost the navy two ships, the original HMAS Voyager, a destroyer which had earlier won fame in the Mediterranean as a unit of the Scrap Iron Flotilla, and the corvette Armidale, in which there was heavy loss of life.  It was a period that produced bravery, ingenuity and endurance and one of the greatest survival epics in the history of the war at sea. [6]

Radio Contact Established with Sparrow Force

When the Japanese invaded Timor on 20 February 1942 a curtain of silence descended on the pitifully inadequate Australian Sparrow Force, which had gone to Koepang in the old transport Zealandia in early December.  Under the command of Colonel W. Leggatt DSO, the force consisted of the 2/40th Battalion AIF and a commando unit, the 2/2nd Independent Company.  The commandos subsequently went on to Dilli in Portuguese Timor. [7]

The Navy's part in the campaign began on 20 April 1942, when a bored watch-keeping telegraphist in Darwin was startled by a faint signal: 'Force intact; still fighting ... '.

This signal purported to come from the missing Australians.  At first the operations officers in Darwin suspected a Japanese trap, but the message was authenticated by personal details supplied by the men in Timor.  They asked for ammunition, equipment and medical supplies. [8]

The Challenge of Supporting Sparrow Force

First attempts to supply the commandos were made by dropping from Darwin-based RAAF Hudsons from 2 and 13 Squadrons, but with the Japanese in control of the skies over Timor, this proved too hazardous.  Late in May an attempt was made to make contact with the force using a Catalina flying boat and, although the operation was successful in taking off sick and wounded and two high-ranking officers, the flight proved too hair-raising to repeat and the navy was asked to take over.

At this stage, General MacArthur's headquarters took a hand and ordered that instead of being evacuated the small Australian force should remain on Timor to harass the Japanese, provide intelligence and cover possible airfield sites which could be used in any future forward move by Allied forces.  NOICD was told, therefore, that the Darwin Naval forces would have to provide a sea link between Australia and Timor, to make regular supply runs, obtain information about landing sites along the enemy coast and be prepared to land or evacuate AIF forces at short notice.

The catch was that NOICD had no suitable ships.

Obviously, therefore, it was not possible to undertake the landing or evacuation of any sizable force, but it was possible with the limited Darwin resources to make contact, obtain intelligence, deliver medicines and other urgent supplies and bring off sick and wounded.

Kuru and Vigilant Selected to Provide the Ferry Service

Only two units of the Royal Darwin Navy - Kuru and Vigilant - had the speed to get in to a Timor landing in darkness with reasonable safety and be far enough away on the return journey before daylight to have a sporting chance of escaping detection by Japanese reconnaissance aircraft.

The three or four corvettes in the area were fully occupied escorting supply ships between Darwin and Thursday Island.  They had to be retained on convoy escort as they were the only ships equipped with Asdic.  Fairmiles, the fast wooden reconnaissance boats then being built in Australia would have been ideal for the job, but the few that had been commissioned were still in southern ports.

Commodore Pope, with years of service in big ships of the RN and RAN, looked out over his nondescript little fleet of cockleshells with a wry smile.  It would have to be either Kuru or Vigilant and as Kuru with Lieut. J. Joel in command, was the senior ship, he decided on her.  When told of the mission he was to undertake Joel was wise enough and honest enough to realise that his lack of navigation experience could jeopardise the whole operation.  He asked therefore, to be supplied with a competent navigator and nominated Alan Bennett as navigator and First Lieutenant.  To this Pope readily agreed - perhaps with some relief.

The Mission Defined

Joel and Bennett were left in no doubt as to the hazardous nature of the operation to which they had been assigned.  Called to Naval Headquarters, they sat down to a conference with Pope, his Chief Staff Officer and key members of the operation staff.

'Because you will be hopelessly outclassed by any enemy force you might encounter,' Pope began, 'this operation depends for its success entirely on secrecy and stealth, accuracy of navigation and perfect timing.  You will be on your own from the time you pass the boom until you return.  There will be no air cover because the risk of giving away your position is considered greater than the risk of attack on you.  You understand, of course, that It is even more important that the enemy should get no inkling of what is going on.

'For some time now,' Pope went on, ‘we have been in radio contact with Australian commandos in Timor and it is now proposed to make contact with them by sea to supply them with stores, ammunition and medicines and bring off sick and wounded.

Betano Set as the Landing Location

'They will be waiting for you at a place called Betano, about midway along the south-east coast of Timor.  You will take on ammunition, stores and Army personnel at the Boom Wharf on 25 May and be ready to sail at dusk.  To avoid detection, you will have to make the greatest use of the hours of darkness and it is planned for you to arrive off Betano at dusk on the 27th, get in and unload as rapidly as possible and then sail so as to be as far as possible out into the Timor Sea by daylight.

Pope turned to a chart of the Timor Sea which the CSO had spread out on the table and stabbed his finger on a shallow bay about half way along the south-east coast of Timor.

'This is Betano,' he said.  'There is deep water close in to the beach but there is not a great deal of shelter, particularly from the south-east.  The land is thickly wooded with dense jungle backed by a range of mountains.  Recognition signals will be flashed to seaward during the hours of darkness and once recognition has been established three fires will be lit along the beach.'

Aerial Reconnaissance of Betano

Bennett said, 'It would help, sir, if we could get some idea of the coastline in the vicinity of Betano - any prominent peaks or other features that could be recognised from seaward.  As Betano is merely a name on the chart and not a port there are no sketches on the chart and no Admiralty sailing directions to give us any guidance.  Even if our navigation is spot on and we hit it on the nose, one part of the coastline is going to look much the same as another.'

'We thought of that,' the CSO said, 'and have arranged to fly Joel and Bennett over the landing beach tomorrow to fix in their minds the salient features of the coastline'.

Next day Joel and Bennett were airborne in a Hudson heading out over the Timor Sea on a north-westerly course.  They had already discussed with the pilot and navigator the purpose of the flight while revealing as little as possible of the forthcoming operation.  Bennett had asked that the coast be approached at zero altitude so that he could get a silhouette of the coastline as he would see it when approaching in Kuru.  After about an hour's flying the pale blue peaks of Timor showed up on the horizon and the pilot began to descend.  Twenty miles off the coast the Hudson was down to 200 feet and as it swept in towards Betano Bennett, sitting in the co-pilot's seat with a chart spread out on his knees, hastily sketched the silhouette of the coastline and any navigational features which would assist him in guiding Kuru in.

AWM item no. 300927 - Kuru careened in Francis Bay, Darwin, for maintenance and hull cleaning

The First Mission Gets Underway – 25 May 1942

Kuru, a former Northern Territory patrol craft, was seventy-six feet long and displacing fifty-five tons.  Her diesel engines gave her a speed of nine knots and her armament consisted of an Oerlikon gun on the forecastle, twin point-five machine-gun amidships and two .303 machine guns and depth charges aft.  She carried a complement of two officers and twelve ratings. [9]

Kuru left Darwin at sundown on 25 May and two days later after an uneventful crossing of the Timor Sea, she was approaching the Timor coast a black saw-toothed frieze against the setting sun.  During the crossing, conditions for sun and star sights had been good, and, with his sketches of the land to aid him, Bennett was pretty sure that they were on target.  During the afternoon Joel had slowed Kuru so as to leave as little wake as possible and now with darkness falling, he ordered an increase in speed.  The night was calm with a low swell.

The Landing at Betano

Not long after dark there came a call from the lookout on top of the wheelhouse: ‘Flashing light ahead sir, making letter B’.

Joel, turning to the signalman, ordered: ‘Hop up there with your Aldis and reply with five K’s’.

As soon as the recognition signals had been exchanged three fires blazed along the beach against the velvet blackness of the jungle and speed was reduced as Kuru felt her way cautiously towards the beach.  So far everything had gone according to plan but all were edgy until there floated out on the still night air two unmistakable Australian voices.

‘Is it them?’

‘Buggered if I know.’

Joel called a greeting and the tension was broken.

Betano – surf landing, September-October 1942 [10]

The men in Kuru made out the shape of a raft being paddled out by half a dozen bearded completely naked men.  The raft bumped alongside and five months’ tension of jungle fighting was forgotten for a moment as eager greetings and handshakes were exchanged.

Hastily Kuru’s dinghy was launched and with urgent efficiency the work of discharging began.

Cookie Bray Shows the Way

As Bennett was supervising the launching of the dinghy Cook Bray appeared beside him and said, ‘I’ll take her in if you like’.

Bennett looked at him curiously.  Though a cook, Bray, a powerfully built man, had already shown himself to be a competent seaman and several times on the way over had taken a trick at the wheel.

‘Well, O.K., Cookie, if you think you can manage her.’

‘I’m used to boats, sir,’ said Bray quietly.

That proved a monumental understatement.  As soon as he took over the oars it was evident Bray was a superb boatman.  Driven by the rippling muscles of his back and arms, the dinghy flew across the water, made a perfect landing on the beach and was soon back alongside for another load.  For hours Bray manned the oars without relief throughout the whole operation, landing passengers and supplies and bringing off from the beach sick and wounded commandos, several high-ranking Dutch and Portuguese officials and Army mails and dispatches.

The Navy had brought the commandos their first letters from home for six months as well as copies of the Darwin Army News and old copies of other Australian periodicals.  They were eagerly seized by men starving for news of their homeland and the outside world.

Mission Completed

By midnight the work of unloading and loading had been completed and Kuru was at full speed on her way back to Darwin.  When dawn broke she was out of sight of the Timor peaks.

With the coming of daylight speed was reduced to eliminate the tell-tale wake which was such a give-away to enemy reccos and as Kuru wallowed along in steadily rising heat Bray wandered into the wheelhouse where Bennett had the watch.

‘Great job you did last night, Cookie', said Bennett.

'Well, sir, I was just as anxious as you were to get away from that place.'

Asked where he had learnt to handle a boat like that, Bray told how he had been brought up in and spent his life in wheat schooners, trading in and out of the gulf ports in South Australia.

Kuru arrived back m Darwin without incident on 29 May.  Soon after returning from Timor Joel received a draft south and Bennett took command of Kuru on her continuing Timor sorties.

Suai as an Alternative Landing Location

Not altogether happy with Betano as a landing beach, the army decided to try Suai, forty-five miles south-west, and it was to Suai that Kuru was directed on her next trip.  Her sailing orders opened with the customary preface: 'Being in all respects ready for sea and to engage the enemy … '  The thought of Kuru, or for that matter any unit of the Royal Darwin Navy, getting stuck into an enemy destroyer was always good for a laugh.

Map of south coast of Portuguese showing landing locations used by the Timor Ferry Service

Again, the mission was accomplished without detection and by the beginning of September Kuru had made six successful trips to Timor.  She carried some strange passengers and stranger cargoes.

Land Mines and Silver as Cargo

On several occasions, she took across land mines.  The commandos used them to booby trap jungle trails which they knew the Japanese would be using.  The detonators for the mines held an unstable explosive which had to be treated with the greatest respect.  They were carefully packed in a small wooden box which Bennett would stow under his bunk during the crossing.  So it would not receive a sudden jolt in being landed by boat, the box was always wrapped in waterproof sheeting and swam ashore by the commandos.

Often large quantities of silver were taken across to pay the Portuguese and the natives for goods and services.  It was carried in heavy heavy linen bags and Bennett insisted on delivering it ashore himself.  One night when going ashore with two heavy bags of silver Bennett was tipped out of the boat in the surf and went straight to the bottom.  He walked along the bottom up the steeply sloping beach and emerged like a dripping Neptune still clutching a bag of silver in each hand.

Vigilant Joins the Ferry Service

Bennett was now given command of Vigilant, a larger and faster vessel than Kuru and she went on to the Darwin-Timor run.  Lieut. J.A. Grant took command of Kuru.  Sub-Lieut. R.B. Helliar, a young West Australian yacht master officer, joined Vigilant as First Lieutenant and a tall bearded young RANR(S) Sub-Lieutenant named Coupe sailed as First Lieutenant with Grant.  As promotion to Lieutenant was automatic after three months with yacht master officers it was not long before Helliar was promoted and became senior to his Commanding Officer.  However, they were firm friends and Helliar had a great respect for his young captain's ability, courage and mature judgment, so the question of rank never arose.

HMAS Vigilant ship plan [11]

Bennett's youth and junior rank were a perpetual source of embarrassment to the top brass in Darwin as invariably it was found that he was taking command over or offering advice to officers’ senior to him.  Ultimately the Navy Board overcame it by giving him accelerated promotion to Lieutenant and finally to Lieut.-Commander.

His association with Vigilant was a love affair for Bennett which had dated back to pre-war days.  As a young apprentice, he had stood on the wharf at Cairns and drunk in the beauty of her lines, gleaming white and newly commissioned in the Customs service.  He dreamed the impossible dream that one day he would command this miniature destroyer.  Now, years later, the dream had miraculously come true - but in very different circumstances.

Vigilant’s Armament Upgraded

Bennett was not happy with Vigilant's armament.  So far, his luck had held on his numerous trips to Timor, but he knew that if and when he did strike trouble it would be from the air.  Vigilant's antiquated anti-aircraft armament offered little protection.  The Navy in Darwin was hopelessly short of offensive ironmongery so Bennett went to the Americans and found a U.S. Army Air Force unit only too willing to help.

He was given a magnificent set of twin point-five Browning machine guns with ammunition and mountings.  The Americans took them to Vigilant, mounted them and drilled a crew in use maintenance.  Still not satisfied, Bennett pleaded with the Naval ordnance people for an Oerlikon to replace the ancient twelve pounder mounted forward.  Finally, they consented and at last Vigilant was in a position to give·a good account of herself against aircraft.

Close Call for Vigilant

Both Vigilant and Kuru continued regular runs to Timor and still their luck held.  On one occasion, however, Vigilant came close to disaster.  A Japanese landing force, consisting of three troop transports and a cruiser, steamed into the bay at Suai only twelve hours after Vigilant had left to return to Darwin.

As the Japanese came in on the same bearing as that on which Vigilant had departed, Sparrow Force observers could not see how she would have escaped and signalled Darwin that Vigilant had probably been destroyed.  Immediately Pope sent an aircraft to investigate and Vigilant was found unharmed steaming unconcernedly for Darwin.

An RAAF strike force was sent from Darwin and inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese force, which obviously had landed to attack the Australian commandos in the rear.  Two weeks later when Vigilant returned again to Suai the beach was littered with the bodies of Japanese soldiers and there was evidence that the remnants of the landing force were only a few miles down the beach.  Helliar had been detailed to go ashore and he entered the boat with a service revolver in a holster strapped around his waist.

'Number One, you look like the Lone Star Ranger,’ said Bennett.

'It's all very well for you,' said Helliar, you’ve got a charmed life on this coast, but I’m not taking any chances’.

Getting ashore, Helliar was dumped in the surf as the boat was cart-wheeled by a roller.  He returned aboard dripping, much to the merriment of Bennett, who said, 'Now you’d better turn to and get that gun thoroughly cleaned and oiled’.

Kuru’s 150 HP starboard engine on display in the Darwin Military Museum 

Kuru’s Fate

On 27 January 1943 Kuru proceeded to the Wessel Islands to pick up the survivors of HMAS Patricia Cam.  The remainder of her service was on patrol and boom defence work in and around Darwin.

Kuru paid off on 22 October 1943 when she sank alongside the floating dock during a heavy storm.  She was recovered the same day but was so badly damaged that she never recommissioned.  During 1945 she was blown ashore during another heavy storm and became the home of a hermit.

REFERENCES

[1] The photocopy of the article is of poor quality and I haven’t been able to determine where it was originally published.
[2] https://doublereds.org.au/forums/topic/106-75-years-on-winnie-the-war-winner-–-mape-portuguese-timor-april-20-1942/
[3] John Leggoe, Trying to be sailors. – Perth: St. George’s Books, 1983, especially Chapter 4 ‘The Timor Ferry Service’, pp.35-44.
[4] The following biographical details about John Leggoe are derived from the end paper of his book: Born in 1909 at the historic farming town of York, Western Australia, John Leggoe grew up as a typical farmer’s son.  Most of his boyhood was spent in the Great Southern district, where his father was developing a large tract of land.
He was educated at country State schools, through correspondence classes, and finally at Hale School in Perth.  He left school to join his father in farming – a plan rudely shattered by the Great Depression of the thirties.  Wool prices collapsed, and John Leggoe quit the land penniless.
Undaunted, he frequented newspaper offices in the city, and eked out a living as a casual reporter.  He was then appointed to the staff of ‘The West Australian’.
During the World War, he entered the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve, this period provides material for this book.  After the war came another stint of journalism, before he resumed sheep farming.  Now retired, he lives in the Perth suburb of Cottesloe within sight of the sea.
[5] ‘Vale – Alan Bennett’ 2/2 Commando Courier June 1987, p.8 https://doublereds.org.au/couriers/1987/Courier June 1987.pdf.
Lt-Cdr H.A. (Alan) Bennett; RANR.  Command HMAS's Kuru and Vigilant 1942-43; HMAS Swan1944; command HMAS Warrnambool 1945-46.  Of Claremont, WA; b. Claremont, 3 May 1919.
[6] Later posts will be devoted to the stories of the Voyager and the Armidale.
[7] See the earlier post in this series https://doublereds.org.au/forums/topic/86-75-years-on-sparrow-force-departs-from-darwin-for-koepang-dutch-timor-–-10-december-1941/
[8] See the previous post in this series https://doublereds.org.au/forums/topic/106-75-years-on-winnie-the-war-winner-–-mape-portuguese-timor-april-20-1942/
[9] For more information about Kuru, see ‘HMAS Kuru’ http://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-kuru
[10] Area study of Portuguese Timor / Allied Geographical Section, South West Pacific Area. [Brisbane]: The Section, 1943, photo 20.
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Vigilant

 

ADDITIONAL READING

Ian Pfennigwerth ‘The Territory Remembers - The Little Ships’ www.territoryremembers.nt.gov.au
Colin Jones ‘The night bird’ Wartime Magazine (Australian War Memorial) Issue 39, July 2007, pp.40-41.

 

 

 

75 YEARS ON

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL COLLECTION RELATED TO THE CAMPAIGN IN PORTUGUESE TIMOR – CHARLES BUSH AND KEITH DAVIS

A major part of the art and photographs in the Australian War Memorial collection related to the 2nd Independent Company campaign in Portuguese Timor were created by two men who were members of the Australian Military History Section mission that went there in late 1945 and early 1946, namely war artist Charles Bush and photographer Keith Davis.  The artistic and photographic contributions of these two men significantly add to the historical archive of the campaign not only by providing visual records of the places where the Doublereds lived and fought but also of some of the Timorese criados and Portuguese deportados who provided such essential support.  The mission was guided by Sergeant George Milsom, originally of the 2/40 Battalion, who joined the 2nd Independent Company after escaping from Dutch Timor.

THE AUSTRALIAN MILITARY HISTORY SECTION TIMOR MISSION

Historian William Bradley Horton has recorded the background to the origin of much of the art and photographs in the Australian War Memorial collection related to the 2nd Independent Company campaign in Portuguese Timor.  These invaluable resources were created by two men who were members of the Military History Section who went there in late 1945, namely war artist Charles Bush and photographer Keith Davis [1]:

 

 

CHARLES BUSH – THE ARTIST

The Australian War Memorial provides this biography of Charles Bush [2]

 

 

CASE STUDY OF CHARLES BUSH’S TIMOR ART WORK - HMAS Voyager wrecked and burning at Betano Bay

Professional artist, Michael Grant, prepared the following case study of one of Charles Bush’s Timor art works that usefully demonstrates his approach and technique [3]:

VALUE OF THE BUSH TIMOR ART WORKS AND DAVIS PHOTOGRAPHS

Emily Wubben, in a recent blog post on the AWM website tilted Art of Nation: Insightful 'then and now' comparisons made the following opening statement:

‘The Memorial’s online, interactive exhibition Art of Nation will enable users to compare field sketches by Australia’s First World War official war artists with contemporary digital imagery of the same locations in Google street view.  Comparing ‘then and now’ images encourages a ‘spot the difference’ method of analysis, reminiscent of puzzle books in which images are replicated with minor changes to be discovered.  These comparisons invite us to delve beyond surface level visual analysis and consider the history of these places’. [4]

For the descendants of 2nd Independent Company veterans like myself, the history of the places in Timor depicted by Bush and photographed by Davis is put in a more personal context, in that they portray locations that were familiar to the men of the unit and mentioned in historical accounts.  The paintings, drawings and photographs also help present day visitors to Timor-Leste to find and relate to these locations, including particular buildings (where they still exist).  Photographic comparisons can be made to assess how much they have changed over 75 years.

Bush depicted and Davis photographed a number of these locations including Dili, Same, Hatu-Udo, Fatu-Bessi, Ossu, Mape, Taibessi, Maubisse and Bobonaro.

There are 66 art works by Charles Bush in the AWM collection related to the Timor campaign.  A small number of them have been digitised and are available for download from the AWM website.  None of his paintings are on public display in the Timor component of the Second World War galleries.  Access to works of art not on display in the galleries is available by appointment.

REFERENCES

[1] William Bradley Horton ‘Through the eyes of Australians: the Timor Area in the early postwar period’ Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies (Waseda University) No. 12 (March 2009), pp.268-269. https://waseda.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common...
[2] https://www.awm.gov.au/people/P65029/; See also David Keys ‘Bush, Charles William (1919–1989)’ Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 17, (MUP), 2007 http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bush-charles-william-12272
[3] https://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2016/02/05/hmas-voyager-wrecked-and-burning-betano-bay/; http://www.michaelgrant.com.au/index.html.
[4] https://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2017/02/23/art-nation-insightful-then-and-now-comparisons/

 

 

WINNIE THE WAR WINNER – MAPE, PORTUGUESE TIMOR

APRIL 20, 1942

After resistance by the main part of Sparrow Force had ceased in Dutch Timor on the 23rd February 1942, the forces commander began to reorganise and redeploy his troops in the southern half of Portuguese Timor about the middle of March.

Fighting as guerrillas against overwhelming odds, deficient in supplies and out of touch with Australia, it was imperative for the small force to re-establish communications with the mainland.  It was for this purpose that men of the 2nd Independent Company, the fortress signals section on the island, and members of Signals, 8th Division, pooled their resources to build a set capable of raising Darwin.  The most expert and tireless of these was Signalman ‘Joe’ Loveless.  His technical ingenuity and skill was assisted by the professional electrical engineering expertise of Captain G.E. Parker from Dutch Timor.

After many trials and much revision, Australia was contacted on the April 20 1942, and Darwin was made aware that the Australians in Timor were alive and well.

The set was affectionately named "Winnie the War Winner".

Constructing “Winnie the War Winner”.  Source: Signals – the story of the Australian Corps of Signals, 1949    

The story of ‘Winnie the war winner’ has been told many times.  The most recent and authoritative recounting is by Paul Cleary in his book ‘The men who came out of the ground’ which is included in the following extract:

‘[It was] the most important single happening in the life of this fighting force on Timor, as continued resistance would have been impossible for any length of time without it.’

Filmmaker Damien Parer on the remarkable ‘Joe’ Loveless and his building a radio out of ‘odds and ends’ to contact Australia

THE 2/2 COMPANY’S enormous logistical reorganisation in March and April had given it a fighting chance.  Vital supplies were safely stashed in mountain hideouts, the Timorese were supplying food on credit and some semblance of order prevailed for a company stretched out along mountain tops over a front of more than 100 km.  Yet the company’s life expectancy was clearly limited without resupply from Australia, and this would not be forthcoming without radio contact.

The company had never had its own radio link with Australia and Sparrow Force’s last radio had been smashed to pieces under orders from Brigadier Veale.  Back in Australia, no-one thought to send a search plane to discover the fate of the 270 men who had been left behind in Portuguese Timor.  In the chaotic months that followed the fall of Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, most likely no-one gave the 2/2 Company a second thought, let alone bothered to send supplies.

While ammunition reserves were significant, they would run out with prolonged fighting, and medical stores were in even shorter supply; ‘supplies are being depleted rapidly despite rigid economy,’ reported the senior officers in the war diary on 28 March.  But what inhibited the company’s offensive action more than anything else was not the limited supply of ammunition or the short rations of food or even medical supplies.  It was boots.  The craggy surface of Portuguese Timor was quickly taking its toll on the leather-soled boots issued by the Australian Army.  The company reported in its diary on 27 March: ‘The boot position is fast becoming critical.’  But by the end of April, the situation was extreme.  A pair of leather-soled boots had a life of about one month when soldiers were patrolling in the forward positions, while those in the rear could expect a little more wear, about two months.  Without supplies of new boots the company would lack mobility and would soon be rendered an ineffective fighting force.  The company introduced a routine of taking off boots at times when an attack was unlikely so that the men’s feet would harden, preparing them for a time when they had no boots whatsoever.  Senior officers considered the local manufacture of clogs, but this was not found to be feasible.

Money was also going to be very important if the 2/2 was to be able to continue to buy supplies of food and to pay for services like the pony trains.  The value given by the Timorese to their surats was certain to wane over time if they could not be paid with currency that had an intrinsic value.  They could not live on credit forever.

TX4745, Signaller M. L. Loveless of Tasmania, photo from 1943 after his return to Australia

As the company reorganised in March, the senior command turned their attention to re-establishing radio contact with Australia.  On 7 March, Major Spence gave responsibility for directing this task to a senior signals officer from Sparrow Force, Captain George Parker, 37, an electrical engineer from the Sydney suburb of Earlwood who had survived the Japanese landing in Dutch Timor before arriving at the Sparrow Force HQ in early March.  While Parker had overall responsibility, one of the lowly ranked privates, Signaller Max Loveless, already had the task in hand.

Max Lyndon Loveless, 37, a radio technician from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Hobart radio station, was an edgy man who suffered from anxiety and lacked the physical prowess of the bushmen in the 2/2 Company.  Had selection been based on his physique alone, Loveless would never have got a guernsey, but he was selected because the skills of a radio technician were in high demand at the time.  In Timor, Loveless would face a challenge that he could never have imagined, and he would be called on to contribute more than anyone else to the survival of the company.  Loveless, who was known to most people as ‘Joe’, was starting from way behind because the 2/2 Company was badly equipped when it came to radio communication.  They had been sent to Timor with unwieldy ‘109’ sets which were used by the platoons to contact Company HQ.  When platoons got, their radios working again, each was assigned a time on the quarter hour to contact Company HQ, but the ‘109’ sets used by the platoons weren’t effective beyond a range of about 30 km.  The radio set in Dili that had been previously used to contact Kupang was now in enemy hands.

Immediately after Captain Parker gained his new assignment, he set about acquiring as much radio equipment as he could lay his hands on.  One of the first targets was a Japanese-owned SAPT plantation at Fatu-Besi, in the mountains south-west of Dili, which was believed to have a powerful radio.  A party from C Platoon crossed swollen streams to reach the plantation where they seized the radio and interrogated the owner, Jaime Carvhalo, for suspected ‘pro-Japanese activities’.  They piled the radio into the owner’s car, a late 1920s Chevrolet Tourer with running boards and a canvas top, and then drove it to Hato-Lia, before the set was eventually sent to Mapé.  The set was only a receiver, not a transmitter, but even so Parker’s team kept it for spare parts.  The plantation owner was later released. [1]

On 20 March, Parker dispatched Corporal Alan Donovan to lead a three-man patrol to Atambua to recover parts from the set that had been destroyed by Brigadier Veale, but all that he could find were some crystals from the smashed set.  Donovan, who had also joined the 2/2 from Dutch Timor and worked on the radio project, was sent on a second mission into Dutch Timor where he obtained a power pack from a Dutch transmitter, two aerial tuning condensers and 20 metres of heavy aerial wire.  Parker also recovered a ‘109’ radio set that had been buried by Signaller Don Murray after leaving the Three Spurs camp shortly after the invasion.  Murray went back to retrieve the set and while struggling to move it he came upon two Timorese boys who offered to help.  The boys, one named Roberto, helped Murray carry the set all the way to Mapé, on the other side of the island, and then they stayed by Murray’s side for the rest of his time on Timor.  Loveless used the set for spare parts.

The probable route taken by Sig Don Murray and the Timorese boys between Three Spurs and Mapé through Taco Lulic, Lete-Foho, Atsabe and Bobonaro can be traced on this road and tracks map.  Source: Area study of Portuguese Timor (1943)

On 1 April, Loveless and his team were given premises in which to work—a small windowless shed that had been used to store rice at the local school in Mapé, a sparsely populated and very marginal town in the south-west corner of Portuguese Timor.  The signallers worked day and night, burning pig fat to provide illumination.  Loveless was supported by a fellow signaller Keith Richards, who proved adept at recycling solder from the spare parts.  With the crystals from the Atambua transmitter Loveless constructed an oscillator, which produced a frequency, and he extracted two valves from the Portuguese receiver.  Parts from the Portuguese receiver were also used to construct a power supply for the unit.  By early April, Loveless had started work on the amplifier using valves from Murray’s ‘109’ set.  Ten days later he completed work on the amplifier, and then he turned his attention to the power supply, which was produced with spare parts.  All the bits and pieces were housed in the two halves of a kerosene tin.  Loveless was almost ready to go, except that he had to devise a system for charging batteries.

The hut at Mapé, Portuguese Timor, used by the Signals Section, Force Headquarters, 2/2 Independent Company.  It was here that the famous transmitter Winnie the war-winner, a masterpiece of improvisation, the wireless set was constructed by TX4745Signalman Max Lyndon Loveless.

Using a 6-volt generator donated by plantation owner and former army officer Tenente Lopes, they constructed what Parker called a ‘boong charger’.  Occupying a room of about 3 square metres, the generator was driven by a rope that went around a wheel of 45 cm in diameter, and then attached to this was the much larger wheel which had handles on it so that it could be turned by manpower.  Four Timorese were enlisted to turn this wheel as fast as they could to charge the batteries.  After going to these great lengths, the ‘boong charger’ was a dismal failure.  Parker then dispatched a patrol led by Lieutenant Harold Garnett, which brought back a 6-volt, and 100-watt battery charger salvaged from a car near Dili.  But there was no petrol to run it; this also had to be obtained by another 2/2 patrol.  Petrol was in short supply in the colony so patrols brought back kerosene and diesel, which was mixed together to produce a substitute fuel for the petrol engine.

‘Winnie the war winner’ on display at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, in the Second World War Galleries

By 15 April, Loveless had charged his batteries and could listen into the radio traffic in Darwin.  This feat alone bore great significance; Sparrow Force learned for the first time that Australia had not been invaded, contrary to the propaganda leaflets distributed by the Japanese.  By 17 April, Loveless had the radio set ready for signalling to Australia.  The signallers identified themselves as YCF, the calling sign for Sparrow Force, without knowing that it had been made redundant by the Japanese invasion of Timor, and without knowing that the faint signal could be barely heard in Darwin.  Again, on the night of 18 April, they signalled ‘LOA—LOF— LOW from YCF’.  In Darwin, a senior signals officer, Captain Joseph Honeysett, was on duty that night when the weak and outdated signal came through.  The next evening Honeysett ordered that all radio communication in the region be shut down so that the signal could be heard clearly.  Honeysett thought that the signal could have come from the enemy, given that YCF was no longer in use.  One of the signallers in Darwin knew that Signaller Jack Sargeant was with Sparrow Force in Timor, and he asked if he was with them.  Indeed, he was.  Jack Sargeant was one of the men crouched beside the radio praying like hell that it would reach Australia.  The Darwin signaller asked: ‘What is the Christian name of Jack Sergeant’s wife?’  Sergeant answered that it was Kath.  Then the Darwin signaller asked a second question—what was Sargeant’s street address.  Sergeant gave the details, followed by a stunning message that said: ‘Force intact and still fighting.  Stop.  Badly need boots, quinine, money, and Tommy gun ammunition.’ [2]

The message proved conclusively that Sparrow Force was still a fighting unit.  The news that the 2/2 was still waging guerrilla warfare against the Japanese was simply stunning for Australia, as it arrived at the country’s darkest hour.  With the capture of more than 22,000 men in Asia from Japanese victories in the Malayan Peninsula, the Philippines, Rabaul, and in the Dutch East Indies, the news that one band of men was still fighting proved to be tremendously valuable both in strategic terms and in terms of morale.  After this successful transmission, Loveless’s men named the set after Winston Churchill. They called it ‘Winnie the War Winner’.

The chief of the Australian Army, General Sir Thomas Blamey, failed to grasp the significance of this news and he proposed withdrawing the company or using it as part of a much bigger operation to recapture the island.  Blamey outlined these options in a letter to General Douglas MacArthur.  But MacArthur could see the value of keeping things just as they were, and in his reply to Blamey on 11 June 1942 he stated firmly that ‘these forces should not be withdrawn’.  The company should simply continue its campaign of ‘harassment and sabotage’ against the Japanese, as MacArthur put it.  While knowing very little about what the company was doing, MacArthur seemed to perfectly grasp their role.

While Captain Parker had overall responsibility for re-establishing radio contact, he gave full credit to Loveless for showing the ‘greatest initiative’ which ‘undoubtedly led to our success’.  Other men in the unit thought that Loveless’s radio was the work of a genius, or, as his fellow signaller Don Murray put it, ‘pure arse’.  ….  The stress and strain of working day and night on the assignment took its toll on Loveless, who appeared to have suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent back to Australia a few months later after completing the assignment of a lifetime.  His illness continued after returning to Australia and he was discharged from the army in November 1943.

Joe Loveless was rewarded for his work on ‘Winnie the war winner’ with a ‘Mention in Despatches’

 

NOTES

[1] ‘Report on activities of Special W/T section 2 March–19 April 1942’, Captain George Parker, AWM PR00249.  Parker’s account is by far the most authoritative of what took place in rebuilding the radio, though other details have been taken from the accounts by Callinan and Doig.  One major factual error in other accounts is the claim that a Qantas radio was used by Parker and Loveless to build the radio.  This was not brought to Mapé until 29 April, after radio contact had been established.  The company’s war diary for that day says, ‘Several Portuguese cooperated in bringing from Dili an AS Transmitter, property of Qantas airways.  This they handed to Lieutenant Garnett, who has been operating in the Remexio area.  He arranged for it to be delivered to Force signals.  It proved suitable for their work.’

[2] Some accounts say it was Parker whose details were checked, but this could not have been the case.  Parker was not married at the time.  The reconstruction of the events in November that year by Damien Parer put Sargeant as the person whose family details and address were checked.  There are several versions of the ‘force intact’ message.  This one is taken from D. Parer, ‘Dope Sheet’, AWM FO1814.

ADDITIONAL READING

Cyril Ayris. - All the Bull's men: no. 2 Australian Independent Company (2/2nd Commando Squadron). – Perth: 2/2nd Commando Association, c2006: 223-230.  [Available for purchase from

Bernard Callinan. - Independent Company: the Australian Army in Portuguese Timor 1941-43. – Melbourne: Heinemann, 1953 (repr. 1994): 121.

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: 105-110.

J. D. Honeysett ‘Chance takes a hand’ Signalman vol. 1, no. 2 1978: 7-8.  [Informative article by then Brigadier J.D. Honeysett who relates the fortunate set of circumstances in which he was directly involved that allowed the first signals from ‘Winnie’ to be intercepted, responded to and verified]
http://www.signaller.com.au/past-editions/Signalman Vol 1 No2 1978/Signalman Vol 1 No2 1978.pdf

Karl James ‘Winnie the war winner’ in Australian War Memorial: treasures from a century of collecting / [edited by] Nola Anderson. – Millers Point, N.S.W.: Murdoch Books Australia for the Australian War Memorial, 2012: 394-397.

Peter R. Jensen. – Wireless at war: developments in military and clandestine radio 1895-2012. – Kenthurst, N.S.W.: Rosenberg Publishing, 2013.  [See ‘Sparrow Force and Winnie the war winner’: 189-193 for a technical assessment of the radio and its construction]

Signals – the story of the Australian Corps of Signals / written and prepared by members of the Australian Corps of Signals. – Sydney: Halstead Press, 1949: 128-132.

Susan Turner ‘An interview with the inventor of “Winnie the War Winner”’ Signalman vol. 29 1995: 36-37.  [Interview with Captain – later Lieutenant Colonel - George Parker]
http://www.signaller.com.au/past-editions/Signalman Vol 29 1995/Signalman Vol 29 1995.pdf

‘[Vale Max Lyndon (Joe) Loveless]’ 2/2nd Commando Courier vol. 25, no. 231 June 1971: 4-5.
https://doublereds.org.au/couriers/1971/Courier June 1971.pdf

‘Winnie's role in war effort remembered’ Commando Courier vol. 60 April 1986: 3.
[Opening of the Max Loveless Pioneer Memorial Collection attended by Sir Bernard Callinan]
https://doublereds.org.au/couriers/1986/Courier April 1986.pdf

Christopher C.H. Wray. - Timor 1942: Australian commandos at war with the Japanese. – Hawthorn, Vic.: Hutchison Australia, 1987: 96-99.

Close up view of 'Winnie the war Winner' at the Australian War Memorial

 

 

 

75 YEARS ON

 

 

THE THREE SPURS CAMP AND THE AMMUNITION DUMP EXPLOSION

FEBRUARY 25, 1942

One of the great experiences when travelling to Timor-Leste is to locate and visit sites directly connected with the 2nd Independent Company’s (2nd IC) campaign in 1942 especially when there are older local people who remember the Australian soldiers and there is tangible evidence of their presence.

During my last visit, there in April 2014 as part of a tour group lead by Paul Cleary, author of ‘The men who came out of the ground’.  Paul has lived and worked in Timor-Leste for several years and is fluent in Tetum, the local vernacular language.  In researching the book and by undertaking on-the-ground reconnaissance in preparation for the tour, Paul had located several key sites where the 2nd IC based themselves or where significant events occurred.
On 24 April 2014, we headed west from Dili into the hills above Tibar to the old 2nd IC camp at Three Spurs; there a very old lady told us about the Australians she knew as a young child, even giving some specific names.  One of her younger relatives then told us the location of the nearby unit ammunition dump that was blown up in the face of the approaching Japanese.  The water-filled holes certainly indicated strong evidence of massive explosions.

THREE SPURS CAMP
 

Harry Wray provides the best description of the location of the Three Spurs and the reason for establishing a camp there:

One day the C.O. [Major Spence] suddenly appeared on the scene with some stores for us, and after asking what we thought of the location, he said that he had decided to make the H.Q. at a spot later to be known as Three Spurs.  This spot was about half way up the road leading to Masuto [Nasuto].  The C.O. said that he thought it would be free from malaria, and was a good central position.  He said that he proposed using it at first as a convalescent camp for the worst of the malaria cases, and said that out of the three hundred men in the Company he only had about sixty who were all enough to do anything.

Map from the Area Study of Portuguese Timor (1943) showing the location of Three Spurs and Nasuta

Wray also says ‘... the camp at Three Spurs was only about 12 miles from Dili, and alongside a good motor road …’ and that ‘… a large palm thatch shed was built as a hospital and first aid post, and alongside the road that was down a steep slope below the camp, a large mess hut was built’. [1] Bernard Callinan ‘… found Three Spurs a very pleasant spot.  The tents were pitched on top of the spurs amidst eucalypts; the earth was of shale, so the trees were open, allowing in plenty of light, and the cool breezes kept everything clean and wholesome.  It was a joy to go down and stand under a spout of cool clean water just below the camp and have a shower.  The presence of the eucalypts was most pleasing; I did not think the familiar gums meant so much to me until I saw them on our first expedition in the truck out from Dili.  Immediately I felt at home, and months later it seemed that their friendly presence was in our favour against the Japanese'. [2]

‘… a large palm thatch shed’ – Three Spurs, April 2014

THE AMMUNITION DUMP

Paul Cleary in ‘The men who came out of the ground’ gives the background to the ammunition dump that was located near Three Spurs, 105-106:

In the days after the Japanese landing, the 2/2 Company faced an immediate threat to its existence.  More than 150,000 rounds of ammunition and tonnes of explosives were sitting at the camps at Three Spurs and Railaco, less than a half-hour's drive from the Japanese headquarters in Dili.  A truckload of Japanese soldiers could have captured the essential supplies and knocked the Australians out of action in a single blow.

In the ration truck massacre on 20 February, the unit had lost its logistical brain, Staff Sergeant Walker, and its last remaining vehicle, thereby making the movement of those supplies a formidable challenge to the unit.  The only vehicle at the disposal of the company was a decrepit Chevrolet table top truck owned by an Indian trader whom the men called Indian Joe.  As the men from C Platoon were moving ammunition from the Three Spurs camp up the mountain to the posto of Hato [Hatu]-Lia, the fuel pump in the old truck gave way.  Private Ron Teague, 21, improvised by removing the petrol tank from the vehicle and then asking soldiers to sit on the bonnet and hold the tank, which in turn had a hose connected directly to the carburettor.  This innovation worked for only a short time.  C Platoon could move its most valuable stores, mainly ammunition, while leaving behind at Three Spurs a mountain of explosives.  Some porters, ponies, and a buffalo cart were also used for the initial move.

About 25 tonnes of explosives were left behind at Three Spurs, including all the gadgetry that the engineers were itching to use on the enemy.  There were sticky tank mines for throwing onto tanks and limpet mines for sticking onto the sides of ships, among other things.  The 2/2's senior officers did not want these explosives to fall into the enemy's hands.  When they realised that they could not be moved, the officers ordered that they be destroyed.  On 25 February, five days after the landing, the explosives at Three Spurs went up in an enormous blast, while some other stores were destroyed at Railaco.  The engineers in the company were furious at this waste of the tools of their trade.  They believed that the senior officers panicked. [3]

Christopher Wray described the ammunition dump explosion as follows:

At Three Spurs a large dump of explosives, including gelignite, signal grenades, smoke bombs and time incendiary devices, had to be blown up.  Time detonators were set and the camp was abandoned.  Perversely, Percy the magpie, which had been brought to Timor with the troops as a mascot, refused to go with the men as they left Three Spurs and was last seen perched nonchalantly atop the dump of explosives.

Shortly after Baldwin's platoon reached the Nasuta Saddle the explosives dump at Three Spurs went up.  The force of the explosion could be felt by the troops and as they watched a great mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke and fumes formed.  Smoke grenades blown to a great height before falling back to earth left trails marking their passage through the still, tropical air.  The Australians were not the only ones interested in the explosion. It was heard by the Japanese in Dili and soon enemy aircraft could be seen buzzing curiously around Three Spurs. [4]

Spr Williamson, who had arrived in Three Spurs earlier after his flight from the aerodrome, helped with laying the charges.  ‘I used a time pencil to set off the explosion’, he said. [5]

 

Spr Robert McKillop (Bob) Williamson - SX 12657

 

Locating the Ammunition Dump Site

Paul’s facility with Tetum came into its own when he gleaned the location of the ammunition dump and the name and address of a man who lived nearby who could guide us to it.  This proved to be an accurate lead and the man was soon found and obligingly conducted us to the site.  This involved retracing our route back down to flat land at the base of the Three Spurs hill (400 metres down to 30 metres above sea level) for 2.5 kilometres and then branching off to the right for about 200 metres past the fenced compound of a convent.  Three large water-filled depressions clustered within a grove of large date palms provided convincing evidence for the large-scale explosions that took place there 75 years ago.  Our guide told Paul the occurrence was still redolent in the local communal memory.

 

Ammunition Dump site, April 2014    

 

 

Map showing the location of Three Spurs and the ammunition dump

 

GPS Data for the sites of the Three Spurs Camp and the Ammunition Dump

 

REFERENCES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE TERRITORY REMEMBERS – 75 YEARS – Commemorating the bombing of Darwin and the defence of Northern Australia

 

The Territory Remembers is a program of activities commemorating WWII wartime events with a connection to the Northern Territory.

Territory Remembers program aims to increase awareness of the Northern Territory’s involvement in WWII, recognise the contribution of Indigenous Australians to the war effort, and preserve and share our rich military history with future generations to create an understanding of how the war shaped the Territory.  The 2-year Territory Remembers Program culminating in the commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the bombing of Darwin and defence of Northern Australia includes activities right across the Territory.

·      Events (including regional events) commemorating significant events/dates in the Territory’s WWII history

·      Education and History Program

·      Community Memorial Grants Program

·      Community Event Grants Program

·      A travelling display to all regional centres during the 2016 mid-year Show Circuit

·      Static exhibitions throughout the NT.

Members and supporters of the 2/2 Commando Association will find this article from the ‘Collection of Stories’ on the website of particular interest:

‘From the Jaws of Defeat... Darwin, Timor and Sparrow Force’

http://www.territoryremembers.nt.gov.au/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/collection of stories/ian_skennerton.pdf

 

 

 

EXPLORING AROUND DILI

DECEMBER 1941 – FEBRUARY 1942

INTRODUCTION

‘Geographical intelligence has played, and will always play, an important role in determining success in battle.  Accounts of military commanders using it to their advantage, or ignoring it to their peril abound and predate even the earliest recorded campaigns in history’. [1]

One of the key factors in the success of the 2nd Independent Company’s campaign against the Japanese in Portuguese Timor was their deep knowledge of the terrain over which they were fighting.  Their training on Wilson’s Promontory imbued them with the importance of gaining this knowledge and the expertise to put it into effect.  The effectiveness of their efforts in this regard is demonstrated in such things as the sound selection of ambush sites, escape routes, observation posts, headquarters locations and bivouacs.

Much of this geographical intelligence was gathered in the peaceful interval between the Company’s landing in Dili on 17 December 1941 and the Japanese attack two months later, on 19 February 1942.  Tangible evidence of their efforts is available in the War Diary and associated records that include hand drawn maps and panorama sketches and hand-written and typed reports and few photos that can be partially sourced on the Australian War Memorial website.  Material from these sources was incorporated in a Terrain Study issued by the Allied Geographical Section in February 1943 titled ‘Area study of Portuguese Timor’; Captain David Dexter of the 2nd Independent Company prepared this study. [2]

This post includes an example of this exploratory work related to the area between Dili and Tibar that includes the Cactus Flats camp at what is known locally as Tasi Tolu.  The post concludes with a description of the area as it is today for the benefit of visitors to the site.

TRAINING IN MAP MAKING ON WILSONS PROMONTORY

Paul Cleary describes this aspect of training the 2nd Independent Company:

'When the men weren’t on exercises, they retreated to ‘the Chalet’ near Darby River, formerly a guest house for visitors to the national park, for detailed lectures by the specialists.  They learned not only how to work with maps and compasses but also how to draw panoramas and their own rough maps.  They were acquiring skills for creating images of the landscape around them which would be valuable in a real guerrilla campaign.  [Freddy Spencer] Chapman extolled the primacy of good field-craft, his pet subject.  This was nothing new to the bushmen in the unit, who could read the sun and the stars at night and always knew where they were going, which greatly impressed the recruits from the city.  Chapman taught the men ‘a new conception of fitness’, how to track and memorise routes, and how to escape if captured.  During one lecture, Dexter wrote in a small pocket book a prescient note on what lay ahead.  Under the underlined heading ‘Warfare’ he jotted down with a pencil: ‘Not new type but oldest known to man.’ '[3]

One of Spencer Chapman’s biographer’s Ralph Barker found that:

'Freddy's teaching methods were not always orthodox.  ‘He gave biscuits as a prize for drawing maps-not simply biscuits to be eaten later but biscuits to be eaten in the classroom where the lesson was being held’, writes a former pupil, James Scarlett.  ‘At the time it seemed highly unusual, and a great advance in teaching methods.  Anyhow all the geography I know I learnt from him, and learnt it largely from drawing maps with rewards in prospect.  I think Freddy had a clear picture of what interested us, and certainly his teaching of geography was effective’.  This is confirmed by Erica Thompson, widow of H.L.T. ‘Tommy’ Thompson, then the junior partner at Aysgarth.  ‘Geography, which had always been considered dull and dreary, became the subject, and boys spent their free time drawing maps and planning expeditions to the moors, while other lessons took a back seat’.' [4]

The syllabus in the War Diary shows that each platoon undertook full day training exercises covering:

·      Elementary explanation of bearings – grids – map reading – map references, relief & conventional signs

·      The preparation of recce plans & reports

·      Sectional topographical recce

·      Making of maps to illustrate points

·      Panorama sketches

·      Map reading

The tools of trade for these exercises comprised ‘compasses, paper, pencils, rubbers, rulers [and] protractors’. [5]

Training programme Tuesday 5 August 1941 showing map reading and panorama sketching

The training programme in the Unit War Diary lists the manual for the course as ‘Map reading and field sketching: the use of protractor and field compass and reconnaissance for battalion in intelligence’. [6]

Manual used in training

ONCE IN DILI THE TRAINING IS PUT INTO EFFECT

Paul Cleary resumes his narrative:

'Within a week of the landing in Dili the 2/2 Company had begun pushing out beyond the township of Dili, despite agreeing earlier with the Portuguese governor to remain at the airfield.  The first reconnaissance patrols surveyed the coast west of the town from where they believed that a Japanese attack was likely.  Callinan, the energetic and inquisitive engineer, led these first forays into the ‘tangled mass’ of mountains of Portuguese Timor.  Some of the men put pencil to paper and began producing detailed maps and panoramic drawings of this exotic territory.  A handful of men proved to be very talented at drawing: Lance Corporal William Vernede, 25, of Beverly, the wheat-belt town east of Perth, and Private Tom Foster, 23, a farm manager from Geraldton, WA.  These maps were to be vitally important because, incredibly, the Australians had arrived in Portuguese Timor without accurate maps of the territory'. [7]

Road and track map of Portuguese Timor prepared for the Area Study and based on this early and later surveying activity

Stan Aitken described how the mapping work was done:

'We removed ourselves now to the country.  ‘A’ Platoon went to the hills along the Dili – Aileu Road at a place called by the Australians Three Spurs.  ‘C’ Platoon were at Tibar, a cactus walled village near the junction of that road and the coast highway.  ‘B’ Platoon drew Cactus Flat, a hot salt encrusted area on the coast road, but to the west.

When it was realised that despite triangulation and despite the cost of their production, the maps of Porto National Geographic Society were hopelessly inaccurate, particularly as to distance, an attempt was made to right the matter.  A series of compass traverses were put into hand and it was discovered that one ‘Dusty’ had a skill in cartography.

…

The Timorese themselves are distinctly conditioned by their mountains.  They describe heavy-going simply as ‘Sai Tune’, which means only ‘up down’.  On the other hand, their concept of ‘flat’ is a strange one.  Ask a Timorese to describe a piece of land which only requires, say, a thousand climbs and descents each of say, four or five hundred feet per day’s march and he will invariably say, ‘raitecic’ which means level ground.  We found this clash of training and concepts vastly nerve-wracking.

The compass traverses gave one sub-section of the unit a solid lesson in the dangers inherent in unfamiliarity with terrain.  The traverse was being made up a river which on the coast was a broad dry stream with a single viable creek amongst the sand.  As the Section climbed, the stream became a fast running half-leg deep affair between rocky walls.  The traverse was made in a practical if primitive manner.  A single soldier with a bayoneted rifle slung across his shoulder would march ahead until an obvious turn in the stream would mean that further progress would render him invisible to his fellows.  The soldier with the compass would take a reading on the bayonet and one of his fellows would ‘book’ it.  The members of the Section would then pace the leg silently and on reaching the first soldier would compare notes.  One of their numbers would remain at the beginning of the leg.  This provided a sight for sight for ‘back bearing’.  It may sound a very rough measure but these soldiers were highly skilled in ‘yard stepping’ and variations were slight and differences of opinion rare.  A continuous bearing taking on all recognizable features right and left of the legs from both its extremities permitted a triangulation insurance policy against major error'. [8]

THE CACTUS FLATS CAMP

Wray described the location of the Cactus Flats Camp and the disposition of the Platoons:

'By mid-January all platoons were established in their locations.  Two sections of Baldwin's platoon were situated near the Comoro River at an area called Cactus Camp about 5 kilometres from Dili, and at a point half-way between Dili and Tibar from which patrols could range effectively in either direction.  The other section, commanded by Lieutenant David St A. Dexter, was posted as guard at the airfield.  Boyland's platoon and the Company Headquarters were established at Three Spurs from which patrols were sent back towards Dili.  Laidlaw's platoon was occupying positions on coastal flats near Liquissa.  The troops were all engaged in patrolling and mapping the tracks, streams and rivers in their areas, gaining a great deal of local information which would later be of enormous value'. [9]

Callinan adds:

'Drinking water was difficult to get on the coastal plain, and Baldwin had to cart all the water from his platoon a distance of two and half miles, using a hand cart pulled by two soldiers.  On one occasion, one fit and two sick men did the journey twice in the one day, and Baldwin himself was one of the three men out of his whole platoon capable of doing guard duty'. [10]

Going to Tibar to collect water by cart for the Cactus Flats camp – ‘near the headland east of Tibar’

Rolf Baldwin recalled his Platoon’s move to Cactus Flats in the following interview:

'So, we decided and we'd had, there were no precautions.  We had no Quinine of our own and preventive creams or anything like that you know.  They weren't thought of at that stage, so then I think that lasted for about a fortnight and we had several men mostly from 1st Platoon for some reason and another in hospital in Dili just being looked after there and then Spence told us, ‘Well, we we'll disperse’, and I was told to go down to a place called Tibar, a bit out in one direction.  Well, I (UNCLEAR) forty men just fell over on the way to this place.  It was a couple of miles I suppose and they trickled into camp afterwards but they had proper malaria you know, and they were shivering like that all the time.

Question: Did you have [malaria]?

A fair number didn't, how we didn't, I didn't catch it.  My sergeant didn't catch it and a fair number of men didn't have malaria and I don't know why the mosquitoes didn't, oh this was a Cactus Flat we called it because it had prickly pears growing all over it.  Well we cleared a bit and we had tents, so we still had tents on our establishment and they were trucked out from Dili straight away and I just had all the men working on clearing away enough of the cactus to pitch tents.

Question: Put your tents down, yeah.

And at one stage we were down to just five of us.  Eric Smyth and myself didn't, we hadn't had malaria and a few men didn't and so we just did as best we could.  There was water at a little place called Tibar, a bit further down, so we had a couple of men, well we just used to take it in turns to?

Question: Collect it, yeah.

Go down there and bring water, carry water back, you see and that way and then I soon, I had them all swimming if they felt up to it.  We were right on the water's edge and that seemed to work you know, a lot, most of them, a few had to be sent back into the Dili hospital, I think but most of them got on all right there'. [11]

Ray Parry wasn’t fond of Cactus Flats either:

'Question: What were the medical supplies like?

… And long before the Japanese landed what was a healthy, physically tough body of men of the 2nd Independent Company had been decimated with fever just through the food.  They had bags of rice. I didn't see them until we went down to Cactus Flats?  They were terrible things the cactus.

Question: What cactus?

Cactus, they have good needle-sharp prongs on them and you can bend it and think it's going to break, but it doesn't.  It's like a spring of steel and back it comes.  It's like 4 inches long, that's 10 centimetres long at least.  And on the tip, that is green in colour, the cactus itself the leaves are pale green, but the spike goes into a medium-toned green and on the tip for bout probably half a centimetre at least there is a brown tip and that's where the barbs are.  So, if it goes down which it did in many cases you daren't pull it out.  You've got to push it right through.  And in some cases, of course you can't, you've got to pull it out and then it becomes infected.  I had one down there in my foot and you used the Sig [Signals] pliers.  You pushed it through and then grabbed it with the Sig pliers and pulled it right through the toe.  Very rarely was I ever barefooted because of hookworm and all that sort of thing.

Question: How densely were the flats covered in the cactus?

There was a ridge that ran almost parallel to the shore line and in some cases, it was several hundred yards, two hundred and fifty, three hundred yards from the shore to the feature.  But then there were spurs that ran off it down into the cacti and near the road.  And it sort of meandered its way down the coast, this ridge, for many miles.  And even between the sea and the road was this cactus.  And then between the road and the base of the feature it was just a mass of cacti.

And we were in amongst that stuff.  And George Marriott, he was a member of 5 Section D Troop, and we had to dig a firing pit and we dug the thing and George said, ‘Well they won't get us here?  I said, ‘Tell me, how do we get out?’  He had a look around and he said, ‘That's a good question’.  I said, ‘Yes, we've got no chance.  That's where we should be, up on the top of the ridge’.  We had sixteen or seventeen or eighteen-year-old boys that we were well trained asking that question.  Why in the name of all reason did they put us here?  And you've got responsible people that are running the Company that ordered us to this spot-on Cactus Flats.  Further down there was 2 Section from A Company, but they weren't there very long.  We were there for quite a while'. [12]

THE BALDWIN-DEXTER RECONNAISSANCE REPORT ON THE DILI COASTAL AREA

On 12 June 1942 Brigadier Veale (CO Sparrow Force) submitted a reconnaissance report on ‘… the coastal topography of the Dilli [sic] area.’ to his superiors in Darwin.  The report was ‘Compiled conjointly by Capt. R.R. Baldwin and Lieut. D. Dexter.  Original sketch drawings by Pte. C.W. Vernede …’.  The report included this description of the coastal section incorporating the Cactus Flats Camp:

ROADS AND TRACKS: TIBAR TO DILLI

About 8 miles (13 km.).  This portion of the road is trafficable for M.T. at all seasons of the year.  It will carry two streams of traffic.  In places, it is right at the water's edge, the sides being revetted to avoid encroachment.

At Tibar Headland the road is subject to interruption by landslides.  About 6 miles (10 km.) from Tibar there is a crossing of the Comoro River, which is about 400 yards (360 m.) wide.  When the river is in flood, this crossing cannot be used.  It rarely remains in flood longer than two or three days, after which time motor traffic can affect a crossing.  The river is constantly changing its course and depth and can flood the enlarged Dilli Airdrome.  There is a narrow cutting 20 feet (6 m.) deep and 80 yards (75 m.) long about 1^1/2 miles (2.5 km.) west of the river.  This cutting is said to be not detourable and a suitable demolition point.

On the south side of the road, halfway between Tibar and the Comoro River, is the area known as Cactus Camp.  This area is about It miles 1^1/2 miles (2.5 km.) long by 3/4 mile (1 km.) wide and besides much cactus encloses three bitter salt lakes.  A.F.V.'s and M.T. using the coast road could use this area for concealment.

TERRAIN AND VEGETATION

(a)  EAST OF TIBAR the coast runs right out to form a rocky headland, approx. 400 feet at its highest point.  Beyond this to the EAST is a plain which extends as far as another spur of the main range, which ends in a bold peak approx. 500 feet in height and approx. half a mile from the shore.  EAST of this another plain stretches to the COMORO.

(b)  The first plain ‘a’ above is covered with clumps of prickly pears, interspersed with grassy spaces, and carries some timber.  There is little cover from the air.  Close under the range lie three salt lagoons.

Sketch maps and photos were included in the report. [13]

Sketch maps from the Baldwin-Dexter reconnaissance report

CACTUS FLATS – TASI TOLU TODAY

The area the men of the 2nd Independent Company called Cactus Flats or Cactus Camp is still recognisable today, though the cacti is not so evident.

Approaching Tasi Tolu by road from the east, the terrain opens into a vast natural amphitheatre with the surrounding hills on three sides dominating an expansive open space containing three salt lakes of varying size with the sea shoreline near to the north.  Geoffrey Hull provides an explanation for the name of this place:

Tasi Tolu, the name of the three lagoons situated west of Dili curiously meaning ‘three seas’, makes better sense when one recalls that tasik in Malay means not ‘sea’ (like its Tetum cognate tasi) but ‘lake’, this hydronym thus being an adaptation of an earlier Malay Tiga Tasik. [14]

 

Current map showing the Cactus Flats Camp location

A publication issued by Birdlife International provides the following useful description of this site.  It states Tasi Tolu is a:

[a] small catchment near Dili with a variety of habitats including beach, grassland, mangrove, permanent saline lakes, and Eucalyptus alba savanna woodland along an altitudinal gradient.  Tropical dry forest is developing in topographically protected gullies and on headwater ridges but is not extensive.

… The area is of national cultural, social and historical significance being an important symbol of the East Timorese struggle for independence.  Pope John Paul II held mass at the site in 1989 and it was the location for the restoration of independence celebrations on 20 May 2002.

… it was announced by the Timor-Leste government as a Peace Park on Restoration of Independence Day (20 May 2002) because of its historical and social importance.

[Tasi Tolu] is very close to the capital city of Dili and under threat from intensive human use.  The known threats to the site include timber collection (of mangrove and Eucalyptus), rubbish dumping, extraction of rock and sand, annual horse racing events and learner drivers using the seasonally dry saltpans.  It is currently [2006] being used as a base by the International Military Peace Keeping Forces [as a firing range]. [15]

Photo 3 from the Baldwin-Dexter reconnaissance report – Looking towards the 3 lagoons area and the headland EAST of TIBAR from the spur EAST of the 3 lagoons area

A view looking in the same direction today from a slightly different angle

There are no houses or shacks here and the only evidence of human structural impact on the isolation is a building Julio popularly known as ‘the Pope’s altar’.  Another recent visitor has provided a discerning description of the scene:

'It’s hazy out on this flat wetland wedged between sea and the guardian hills. Cynics and old hands call Dili a swamp.  Here, 8km to the west, on the road to Kupang, the merging of sea and shore has a benign logic.  Birds flock here, some flying from as far away as Russia.  The tang in the air is salt, not from frying palm oil or open city drains.  The hope is that this place of salt lakes and swaying grasses will become a peace park and conservation area.

In 1989, ten years before the independence referendum that bought (dearly) East Timor’s freedom, Pope John Paul II came here.  Where the morning winds now blow, thousands upon thousands of people once gathered.  The Pope said Mass from the traditional house, or Uma, built for the occasion.  The palm roof thatch is now home to opportunistic ferns (in East Timor even stones nurture orchids).  The pink and white wash on the walls (a breath of Portugal) brushes off on our fingers as we try to decipher the graffiti that now marks the steps leading up to the Pope’s balcony.  FATIN NE SANTO RESPEITO NIA TEMPAT (This is a holy place, respect it).  The balcony is modest but elevated.  A breath of the Vatican.  But from here you can see clear across deserted lakes and plains to the mountains which were the only refuge in 1999, when the pro-Indonesia militias and military went on their murderous rampage …'

Photo 2 from the Baldwin-Dexter reconnaissance report – Looking from the range above the TIBAR POST and towards the spur running to the sea EAST of the 3 lagoons area

The same view as the previous photo, taken 2008

At Tasi Tolu, a plain cross stands hammered into the crumbling cement forecourt of the Pope’s open house, its white wood reflecting light like bone or washed coral. In the cool under the house the goats wander.  One milks.  Others spring nimbly up the steps to the balcony.  We are the only creatures here.  Four humans and a few dozen bibi—the Tetun seems the gentler language for these delicate deft creatures which have the freedom of the island'. [16]

POPE JOHN PAUL II MONUMENT

Nearby is another recent addition to Timorese national iconography, the Pope John Paul II Monument that stands at the head of the western enclosing hill overlooking the lakes and the sea.  The best road in Timor [2008] accesses the monument; it is perfectly smooth and engineered to the highest standards and wends its way in carefully graded curves until it reaches a car park at the top.  The journey of a couple of kilometres or so presents a challenge to the local young fitness fanatics who come out in force, singly or in small groups, jogging their way up.

The Pope's altar

The following news item explains the origins of the monument:

'The government of Timor Leste (East Timor) has erected a statue of Pope John Paul II to honour the late pontiff's moral support for the country's self-determination.

The six-meter-tall concrete statue was inaugurated on June 14 [2008] in Tasi Tolu, on the western outskirts of Dili, the same place where Pope John Paul celebrated Mass on October 12, 1989, during the Indonesian occupation.

Tasi Tolu was notorious as a site where Indonesian soldiers allegedly dumped the bodies of many young people during the independence struggle.  Catholics form an estimated 96 percent of Timor Leste's 1 million people.

The statue, which overlooks the capital's western fringe and faces the sea, stands next to a chapel for Sunday Mass, also built in the late pope's honour.

President Jose Ramos-Horta of Timor Leste inaugurated the statue in the presence of Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, the Jakarta-based apostolic nuncio to Timor Leste.

‘Pope John Paul was a figure who inspired peace and justice in the world. He also fought for the right of Timorese people to be recognized by the world and in its fight toward self-determination’, Ramos-Horta said in his address'. [17]

Pope John Paul II monument

REFERENCES

[1] Allied Geographical Section, South West Pacific Area. - Area study of Portuguese Timor. - [Brisbane] : The Section, 1943.
[2] Reuben Bowd ‘The Allied Geographical Section, 1942–46: forgotten by history’ Australian Defence Force Journal Issue No. 165, 2004: 36.
[3] 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: 11-12.
[4] Ralph Barker. – One man’s jungle: a biography of F. Spencer Chapman, DSO. – London: Chatto & Windus, 1975: 108.
[5] 2nd Independent Company war diary, July and August 1941
[6] A.S. Keighley. – Map reading and field sketching: the use of the protractor and field compass and reconnaissance for battalion intelligence. – Wollongong: Illawarra Newspapers, 1942.
[7] Paul Cleary. - The men who came out of the ground … : 33.
[8] Extract from Ray Aitken ‘Tales of the 2/2’ – manuscript in 2/2 Commando Association Archives.
[9] Christopher C.H. Wray. – Timor 1942: Australian commandos at war with the Japanese. – Melbourne: Hutchinson Australia, 1987: 32.
[10] Bernard Callinan. - Independent Company: the Australian Army in Portuguese Timor 1941-43. – Melbourne: William Heinemann Australia, 1953 (repr. 1989): 22.
[11] Australians at War Film Archive, Transcript of Interview, Rolf Baldwin, Archive number:364, date interviewed: 30 May, 2003.
[12] Australians at War Film Archive Transcript of Interview, Ray Parry, Archive number:1736, date interviewed: 14 April, 2004
[13] Reconnaissance report contained in Australian War Memorial file PR00249.
[14] Geoffrey Hull ‘The place names of East Timor’ Placenames Australia: newsletter of the Australian Placenames Survey (ANPS) June 2006, 6-7 http://anps.org.au/documents/June_2006.pdf.
[15] Important bird areas in Timor-Leste: key sites for conservation / edited by Michael J. Crosby. - Cambridge, U.K.: BirdLife International, 2007: 70. http://www.birdlife.org/downloads/iba/IBAs in Timor-Leste low res.pdf.
[16] Morag Fraser ‘Morning in East Timor’ Eureka Street April 27, 2006 http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=443.
[17] Pat Walsh ‘Dili’s new Pope John Paul II Memorial’ http://www.etan.org/et2008/6june/08/02johnpaul.htm.

Aerial view of the area discussed in this post - looking east from Tibar headland towards Dili - Tasi Tolu lakes (3 Lagoons) and the Cactus Flats camp site in the 3/4 mid background

________________

This post was originally prepared for the 75th Anniversary Commemoration in January 2017

Revised and updated by Ed Willis

14 January 2022

 

75 YEARS ON

CHRISTMAS DAY IN DILI

25 DECEMBER 1941

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The fullest (and frankest) account of how the men of the 2nd Independent Company spent Christmas Day 1941 in Dili is provided by Cyril Ayris in ‘All the Bull’s men’ (pp.71-74).

 

 

One photo located in the Association archives was taken on Christmas Day 1941 in Dili.  It is a remarkably evocative informal group portrait of three men from No. 2 Section: Colin (Pinky) Criddle, Fred Smith, and Cyril (Tiger) Doyle; they distinguished themselves in the defence of the airfield when the Japanese landed nearly two months later on February 19 1942.

 

 

Annotation on rear of photo: Timor-Dilli Chinese Studio Xmas 1941: Colin Criddle – Pinky L, Fred Smith – Smithy C, Cyril Doyle – Tiger R - [Source: 2/2 Commando Association of Australia photo archive]

 

The men of the Signals Section also spent the day together and Corporal Harry Wray recorded his memories of it and related events and personalities that can be read in the following section.

Don’t forget an e-book version of ‘All the Bull’s men’ by Cyril Ayris can be downloaded from the Doublereds store for the purchase price of $19.99; all income from the book purchases goes toward the Association’s fund raising. https://doublereds.org.au/store/

 

 

 

 

 

 

2nd Independent Company men on leave in Dili – January 1942 – Tony Adams tentatively identified on the right – [Source: 2/2 Commando Association of Australia photo archive]

 

HOW THE SIGNALS SECTION SPENT CHRISTMAS DAY IN DILI, 1941 [1]

 

For the first few days at the Dili aerodrome my Section was camped in a lean to shed of palm thatch, about six feet high in front and three feet high at the back.  The mosquitos were very thick at night and we slept under nets, all snowy white, and could be seen for hundreds of yards at night.  The Dutch had green nets, and green tents, all our equipment shone with new whiteness, and was difficult to camouflage.

Later we shifted to a coconut grove skirting the aerodrome, and pitched tents there.  The ground was very wet, almost boggy in fact, and even with ground sheets under our sleeping bags became damp.

On Christmas Day, we were allowed leave to visit Dili in the afternoon, and several of us hired a tiny carriage drawn by two Timor ponies and set off in state.  We had a look at the cathedral, and a walk around the town, which did not take long.  We bought soap and Chinese cigarettes from some of the numerous Chinese shops, then went to the waterfront and had a look at the small Jap ship tied up at the jetty.

Annotation on rear of photo: Taken January 1942 – One of the carts used to a great extent – L to R – M. Ryan, F. Smith, A. Dalbridge.  Source: 2/2 Commando Association of Australia photo archive.

 

This ship used to lie off Dili prior to our arrival and before the Jap entry into the war, and every day would go out beyond the three-mile limit and send and receive messages from Japan on the very powerful wireless set, which had been installed on board.

After the Japs came into the war our Hudson’s based at Koepang heard of the ship and how it went out each day to send and receive messages, so one day a Hudson swooped down and machine gunned it to such an effect that most of the crew jumped overboard, and the crew of the Hudson had the pleasure of seeing sharks put an end to those who did so.  The remainder of the crew took cover and let the ship run as she pleased until she piled up on the beach of a nearby island.

 

Patricio Luz, a radio operator at the Portuguese radio station prior to the occupation.  Behind him is the wreckage of the Japanese ship, ‘Nanyei Maru’, in Dili harbour.  It had been bombed and strafed by the RAAF immediately after the declaration of war with Japan and after drifting unmanned was eventually towed to Dili harbour.  (Photographer Sgt K. Davis).  Source: AWM photo ID number 121402: Dili, Portuguese Timor 1945-12-09.

 

Later a Dutch ship found her deserted, and towed her back to Dili where the Dutch almost tore her apart searching for what they could find.  When I saw her the panelling was ripped off walls, bedding ripped open, and everything in a terrible mess after the search.  Goodness knows if anything worth having was found.  We managed to get a few batteries from the radio installation, which came in very useful later on.

A fair number of drums of oil and petrol were found in the holds of the ship; however, the Japs had put sand in the oil and petrol before leaving her derelict.  After filtering, some of the oil and petrol came in quite handy to the Dutch, and us also.  The Japs had also taken the precaution of removing a few vital parts from the engine, which made it hopeless to attempt to get the engine running.

Portuguese postcard showing the Dili Cathedral  

 

I noticed that the Hudson had made a good job of the doing over, which it gave the ship, as the bridge and decks were holed like the top of a pepper pot.

After visiting the Jap ship, we went back to the town square near the cathedral and hired a couple of the carriages to take us back to the aerodrome.  The drivers at once whipped at their horses and off we went at a gallop.  Our ponies managed to take the lead, and one of our chaps in the other carriage thinking he could make a better job of the driving took the reins from the native boy, and with whip and shouts urged the ponies on to greater efforts.  This resulted in his carriage gaining on us, and in trying to pass he took his carriage too near the edge of the drain running alongside the road.  This drain was about twelve feet deep and about twelve feet wide.  Jerry’s carriage hung balanced on the edge of the drain while the ponies hung down the sides.  We ran back to the rescue and soon dragged the terrified little ponies back onto the road and righted the carriage.  Jerry had to pacify the boy with an extra Pataka (1/8).

 

Source: Hudson Fysh ‘Australia’s unknown neighbour – Portuguese Timor’ Walkabout, vol. 7, no.7, May 1st 1941, p.7.

 

All hands were supposed to take quinine twice a day.  This quinine was in powder form, and it was very difficult to persuade anyone to take it, and I imagine this contributed to the heavy toll malaria was soon to take.  I had the job of seeing that my Section had his quinine, and watched to see that everyone did take it, but I used to wrap each dose in a cigarette paper, and consequently did not have much trouble getting everyone to have his dose.  One man who preferred the powder neat, and said he liked it; a peculiar taste.

The only other time I was in Dili was one morning when we had a few hours leave.  One of our officers said he would take a few of us who had happened to run into him in the street, to dinner at one of the few hotels. [2] On the way, there he told me that he was short of money and perhaps I could lend him some.  I did and had the pleasure of him standing us all drinks and dinner at my own expense, as I only recovered a very small part of the loan a few days later.

 

Mr George Bryant, an Australian who has lived in the area for the past 24 years, being welcomed aboard the RAN vessel HMAS ‘Warrnambool’, a section of Timforce, which has arrived in the area to ensure that the Japanese forces carry out the surrender terms.  Source: AWM phot ID number 117047: Dili, Portuguese Timor, 1945-09-23.

 

At this hotel, we met a man who was an employee of Imperial Shell, and had been making a survey of Timor for the purpose of assessing the geological possibilities as regards oil. [3] This chap told us an amusing tale, or rather an amusing experience.  Not long before the Jap declaration of war, such as it was, the Japs had concluded a treaty with the Portuguese by which they were given full rights to the use of Dili aerodrome, for civil purposes of course, or what they told the Portuguese at the time.  On the day that this treaty was finalised the Shell man happened to be in Dili staying at the hotel.  Later in the day a Qantas flying boat pilot came along to the hotel for the night.  The flying boats stayed overnight at Dili at that time.  The pilot and the Shell man were old friends.  The pilot asked the Shell man to accompany him to a function that evening to celebrate the treaty between the Japs and the Portos.  The Shell man was finally persuaded, and the pilot obtained the necessary invitation for his friend.

Fish vendor, Dili waterfront 2014    

 

The Shell man told us it was a terrific celebration, with both the Japs and the Portos getting more and more drunk as time went on.  Everyone was on the best of terms with everyone else, the Japs sang songs in praise and honour of their Porto friends, and the Portos did likewise, but the cream of the piece came when the Japs and Portos decided to honour their English and Australian friends by roaring out ‘God save the King’ in the heartiest fashion.  Only a few weeks after this token of their everlasting friendship, they were at war with us.

I do not know what became of the Shell man, as several Qantas flying boats called after I saw him, and before the Japs appeared on the scene.  He may have left safely, and in time.

There was an old man living in Dili, an Australian who had been there for years.  He did a little prospecting at times, but latterly I think he was living at the Australian Consul’s house doing odd jobs there.  As it happened he was the uncle of one of our men, quite a coincidence that they should meet in Dili of all places.  I do not know what became of this man, he was in Dili during the Jap occupation I believe, and may still be there. [4]

I forgot to say that our Lieutenant [John Rose] managed to buy a bundle of fresh fish something like herrings in appearance, and full of bones, for our Christmas dinner.  We also provided a few fowls, which we souvenired from a deserted house nearby.

The owner of the house was an Arab, and we learned later a spy in the pay of the Japs.  He kept well out of the way while we were at the aerodrome.  We did hear subsequently bumped him off for some reason best known to themselves.  They liquidated several of their friends at different times, as you will hear later, one of their very good friends just because he was unlucky enough for appearances to be against him.

To get back to the Christmas dinner, the fowls gave us a terrific chase in the heat of the day, but we managed to catch about six of them, so with the fish did quite well for ourselves.

Map of Dili 1943.  Source: Area study of Portuguese Timor / Allied Geographical Section, South West Pacific Area.    

NOTES

 

[1] Corporal Arthur Henry Kilfield ‘Harry’ Wray (WX11485), Recollections of the 2nd Independent Company Campaign on Timor, 1941-42, manuscript in 2/2 Commando Association archives.

[2] This was probably Lieutenant Colin Doig.

[3] This was M.L.E.J. Brouwer, a Dutch geologist from Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (Shell), arrived in Timor during April 1941.  There was considerable suspicion that Brouwer was a Nazi sympathiser, but a later memo indicated that 'Brouwer is a geologist for cover only' suggesting that his primary role was not exploration.  See Tim Charlton ‘History of petroleum exploration in Timor-Leste’ http://www.timcharlton.co.uk/other-projects/timor-leste-history-of-oil-exploration

[4] Bernard Callinan described Bryant as David Ross’ ‘general factotum’.  Bryant’s nephew was Cpl. Bryant, William Frederick VX29713, a cook in Q Section.  Bryant was born in Melbourne in 1882 and had worked in Portuguese Timor for at least 28 years.  Although ill, Bryant survived the war in Dili.  For an interesting summary of Bryant’s life, see J. Carey ‘Link with the past’ 2/2 Commando Courier vol. 140, September 2002, pp.10-11  https://doublereds.org.au/couriers/2002/September/

 

ADDITIONAL READING

 

AUTHOR	TITLE	PAGES
Cyril Ayris	All the Bull's men: no. 2 Australian Independent Company (2/2nd Commando Squadron). – Perth: 2/2nd Commando Association, c2006, Chapter 4 ‘Decimated by Malaria’	68-74
Bernard Callinan	Independent Company: the Australian Army in Portuguese Timor 1941-43. – Melbourne: Heinemann, 1953 (repr. 1994), Chapter 2 ‘Unwanted protectors’	17-24
Archie Campbell	The Double Reds of Timor. – Swanbourne, W.A.: John Burridge Military Antiques, c1995, Chapter 5 ‘The landings’	26
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, Chapter 3 ‘”Sitting Duck” Force’	35
C.D. Doig	The history of the Second Independent Company. – Perth: C.D. Doig, 1986, Chapter 5 ‘Bound for Timor’	32
Lionel Wigmore	The Japanese thrust. – Canberra.: Australian War Memorial, 1957, Chapter 21, ‘Resistance in Timor’	469-471
Christopher C.H. Wray	Timor 1942: Australian commandos at war with the Japanese. – Hawthorn, Vic.: Hutchison Australia, 1987, [Chapter 3] ‘A breach of neutrality’	30

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

75 YEARS ON

THE AUSTRALIAN AND DUTCH LANDINGS AT DILI
17-20 DECEMBER 1941

 

INTRODUCTION

75 years ago, on December 17, 1941, the 2nd Independent Company began its campaign in Portuguese Timor when a contingent of 150 men landed on a beach outside Dili along with 260 Dutch indigenous troops.  The remaining men of the Company arrived three days later and disembarked in Dili harbour close to the town centre.

This initial experience and the year-long campaign that followed left a lasting impression on the Australians, who benefited greatly from the support given to them by the Timorese people during their conflict with the Japanese.  More broadly, this event was the foundation of the close relationship between Australia and what is now the young developing nation of Timor Leste.

This is the second in a series of stories marking significant events that occurred in 1941-1942 during the 2nd Independent Company’s campaign on Timor.

THE FIRST LANDING

The following narrative of the first landing was prepared by Corporal S.A. Robinson of No. 5 Military History Field Team using information gained from interviews with men of the 2nd Independent Company who were involved.  Robinson conducted the interviews with the men in New Britain, where the unit was then serving, in July 1945. [1]

Image 1: Captain Archie Campbell being interviewed by Corporal S.A. Robinson (Military History Section) about an incident during the Timor campaign [2]

As the sun climbed into the midday sky of December 17th 1941 the old Dutch training cruiser Soerabaja swung about and came to anchor on a strip of sandy beach about 2^1/4 miles west of Dili the capital of Portuguese Timor.

Over her side and into launches went Australian troops clad for battle the launches chugged through the blue water and the troops shouldered their arms and stood huddled closely, waiting.

They landed on the strip of white beach and the launches returned for more troops.  The colourful campaign of Portuguese Timor had begun.

The men who were landing were troops from the number 2nd Australian Independent Company, men of C Platoon.  With the remainder of the Company they had arrived on the Island of Timor, at Koepang in the Dutch Sector on December 12th, only five days before and from there had been allotted the task of garrisoning and if need be defending, the Portuguese part of the Island.

…

Image 2: Dutch training cruiser Soerabaja

The Company Split

The training cruiser could not accommodate the whole of the No 2 company in one trip, so only A and C Platoons and Company HQ's could make the initial landing.  B Platoon had remained at Koepang, and was to follow with the unit transport.  It had not been decided whether they should go overland or by boat.  Captain Laidlaw, O.C. of B Platoon and Lieutenant Turton had left Koepang to recce the area through to the Portuguese border to ascertain if an overland trip was practical.  While they were on this recce B Platoon, the company Signallers and Engineers moved up to Dili, arriving three days after the main body.

Dutch troops, 260 in all, accompanied the Australians on the initial landing, these being under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel van Straaten, who was in effect in command of the whole force and the defence of Portuguese Timor.

Negotiations with the Portuguese Governor

It was not known at the time of landing just what reception the Australians would receive.  Portugal had applied herself to strict neutrality but a delegation consisting of Lieutenant-Colonel Leggatt, CO of the 2/40 Infantry Battalion and Dutch Lieutenant-Colonel Detiger commander of the Dutch forces at Koepang had sought interview that morning with the Portuguese Governor at Dili.

Dressed in precise civilian clothes they were introduced to the Governor by Mr David Ross, British Consul in Dili.  They advised the Governor that Lieutenant-Colonel van Straaten had bought information from Java that in the event of attack the Portuguese Government were desirous that Dutch and Australian troops should constitute the protection of their territory.

The Governor stated that these facts were known to him but claimed that his instructions were definite, only to ask for help after Portuguese Timor had been attacked.

By this time Soerabaja had arrived escorted by R.A.A.F planes and was standing off about 10 miles out of Dili harbour.  Lieutenant-Colonel Leggatt advised the Governor of this fact only to be told that the Portuguese army must resist any landing of troops which would constitute a breach of neutrality.

Lieutenant-Colonel Leggatt pointed out that the Australian and Dutch forces did not desire that there should be fighting but made it quite clear to the Governor that he did not have adequate means of resistance and that such a step would be useless sacrifice.  The Australian officer then contacted the Soerabaja and informed that the landing should be made west of Dili.

At this stage, it seemed very likely, per Dutch intelligence information that the Japanese forces would soon attempt to overrun Timor in their southward drive.  It was considered that Portuguese Timor must necessarily be occupied by Dutch or Australian troops to prevent any possible landing which would give the Japanese bases from which to attack Dutch Timor and Koepang.

Even though this action constituted a breach of neutrality it was a practical step which the Allies could not avoid.

Image 3: Soerabaja with landing boats

Not Known Whether the Landing Would Be Opposed

Under these circumstances the Dutch and Australian forces did not know whether their landing would be opposed.  When Lieutenant-Colonel Leggatt returned to the Soerabaja he advised the Australian and Dutch commanders of the Australian and Dutch landing force that it was not known just what attitude would be taken by the Portuguese.  Intelligence information had been very scarce and had not been able to supply the strength of the Portuguese army nor its disposition.  Before the troops left the ship Major Spence, commanding officer of No 2 Company told his troops that they may have to fight as soon as they landed on the beach.

First Troops Ashore

Image 4: The section of beach depicted by war artist Charles Bush is probably where the men came ashore [3]

First troops ashore were C Platoon men, followed half an hour later by A Platoon.  These troops waited on the beach until Company HQ's landed then they formed up and moved into adjacent rice fields where they prepared for a move into Dili proper.

Before the main body was ready, a small party of signalmen, Lance Corporal G.A. Stanley, Signallers R. McMahon, K. Waddington, D. Murray and J. Servante under the command of Signals officer, Lieutenant J. Rose left for the township with the intention of taking over the radio station there and contacting Sparrow Force down in Koepang.

Again, this party had no idea what reception would be theirs, but was most agreeably surprised when they arrived in the township to find that the local inhabitants were welcoming them quite warmly and were not at all against handing over the radio station.

After the party of signalmen left, the main body moved forward to take over their positions.  It had been decided that the Dutch troops were to occupy the town and the Australians the serviceable air strip which was probably the main strategical position of Portuguese Timor.  It was a two-runway strip, both for fighter and bomber use, about a mile and a half west of the town right on the coast.

Occupying the Air Strip

The Australians believed the Portuguese army though not defending the town, may decide to defend the strip so A Platoon formed an extended attack line about 600 yards from the air strip and right along the North side while C Platoon were disposed around towards the entrance to the air strip and the hangars.  They did not advance, but in these positions awaited developments.

Image 5: Drain eastern side of the airfield [5]

Major Spence went forward to the air strip to meet the Dutch Consul from Dili, the Portuguese Governor and the Australian Consul, Mr David Ross.  It was late in the afternoon when Major Spence returned from this conference to inform his troops that they had won a bloodless victory.  It had been agreed that the Portuguese hand over the strip, Major Spence Informed his officers however that he had not received a great deal of co-operation from the Portuguese Governor and had still not been able to ascertain where the Portuguese army was situated or in what strength It was evident.

All troops then moved up to the air strip, arriving about dusk and digging in around the strip entrance and the hangars.  All night they stood to and the following day commenced to build a semi-permanent camp.

Settling In

Information was received on the 18th that an attack on these positions was possible by the Portuguese army under the command of Capt D'Acosta.  It was known now that the force totalled about 200 troops it was poorly trained and equipped and did not constitute a dangerous factor.

When the Governor was approached on this subject he assured Lieutenant-Colonel van Straaten that there could be no possibility of the Portuguese army creating trouble, then later, that the forces under Capt D'Acosta were moving out of Dili the following morning to barracks at Alieu about 12 miles away.  Nevertheless, the Australian troops stood to all that night.

The following day, the 19th, Company HQ’s was properly set up in the hangar at the end of the strip while the two platoons protected it in two detachments.  They still were taking no risk of attack from the Portuguese and maintained strict precautionary measures until they received definite information that the Portuguese army was at Aileu and that in any case their attitude was not openly hostile.  This information was received the following day the 20th.  The day on which B Platoon, the remaining platoon of the company arrived in Dili. [6]

THE SECOND LANDING

This small force, B Platoon the Company Sigs, Engineers arrived on board the Canopus without Captain Laidlaw, OC of the Platoon and Lieutenant Turton, Sapper Officer who had not returned from the border reconnaissance in time to accompany their commands.  These two officers arrived the following day by ship which also brought two one ton trucks and three motor cycles, the only transport available to the company.

B Platoon sections went straight to the strip on landing, this move concentrating the whole of No 2 company in the one area.  The three platoons and company HQ's were occupying positions around the whole of the hangars and the road entrance areas.  The sections were engaged in digging defensive positions, mapping and recceing.

Image 6: The Canopus

Corporal Harry Wray of the Signals Section arrived with the second contingent and recalled the journey from Koepang in his memoir [6]:

Departing Koepang on the Canopus

On the 17th December, after our very short stay in Koepang, we were taken into Koepang just after sundown.  After the usual wait on the jetty for an hour or two, for what reason we are never likely to know, we embarked in ships boats and were towed out to a ship, which we eventually discovered was the

One could not help but admire the marvellous phosphorescence of these waters, which was visible at night, the small bow wave from the boat caused the water to appear as if it were on fire, showing a beautiful deep flame colour.  Although I have seen all the colours imaginable in these waters at night, the phosphorescent display off Koepang was the finest I have seen.

The Canopus was Dutch government steamer, a neat little ship, beautifully fitted up for about half a dozen passengers.  Her usual work was to run around the islands taking government officials to their posts, and bringing them away for their leave, and all that sort of thing.

Cramped Conditions

By the time we were all on board it was difficult to find a place to sit or lie on.  Two men discovered the engineers’ bathroom and locked themselves in.  The night was a little hot they told me, but apart from that they had a comfortable sleep, one in the bath, and the other on the floor alongside the bath.  The engineers were furious at not being able to get into their bathroom, and despite all their hammering and shouting, the occupants would not open the door until it suited them in the morning.

Once on board we were given a mug of coffee each, and then settled down to another long wait while a party of our men unloaded a barge full of stores and stowed them on board the Canopus.

We sailed in the early hours of the morning and at daybreak we could see that we were sailing along the coast of Timor.

…

Image 7: Vessel in Dili harbour pre-war, with the Cathedral towers behind

Sailing Along the Coast

As we sailed along the coast we could see grim rugged mountains rising almost from the sea and towering into the clouds, barren desolate peaks they looked from the sea.  Now and again we could we could see a small town on the shore, one largish settlement had a large white church, which stood out very prominently against the mountains in the background.  I little thought as I gazed at the jagged line of mountains that I would spend many months climbing about their slopes.

The scenery was much the same all day, the only excitement was when a few Indonesian soldiers lounging in the stern of the ship raced to the boat deck and manned a couple of antique looking Lewis guns in a remarkably efficient and speedy manner.  A flying boat had been spotted heading towards us.  Just as the Indonesian soldiers were going to open fire they spotted the orange coloured triangle on the aircraft.

Then suddenly, a Hudson seemed to appear from nowhere and was right on the tail of the flying boat.  However, the Hudson’s crew recognised the Dutchman before any harm was done.  The Hudson had been keeping an eye on our progress, and was invisible against the sun when the flying boat appeared on the scene.  This accounted for the Hudson’s smart appearance on the tail of the rather lumbering flying boat.

Arrival at Dili

At daybreak, next morning we were off Dili, and could see a semi-circular reef exposed by the low tide with a narrow opening in it.  This reef acted as a breakwater for the collection of launches and fishing boats lying off Dili.  The shore was lined with trees and behind them houses could be seen.  The whitewashed cathedral stood towering above everything.  The twin towers of the cathedral could be seen for miles out to sea.

….

We left our heavy kit on the beach to come later by truck, and marched off down the road to the aerodrome about a mile distant.  On arrival at the aerodrome we managed to get something to eat.

When we arrived in Dili there was no certainty as to what was going to happen.  No hostilities had broken out, but it was an uneasy truce at the time.  The [Portuguese] Governor was furious about the landing, and was burning up the cables with messages to Lisbon.

 SOME CONTEMPORARY BACKGROUND

Dili in 1941 Described by Hudson Fysh [7]

Image 8: Typical Dili street scene, 1941

Dilli, which is also spelt Dili and Dilly, is one of the prettiest sites imaginable from the air as the white buildings and well-laid-out streets, set in great trees, appear below.  A curved fringe of sandy foreshore marks one arc of a tropical lagoon, the other being fashioned by a coral reef with an entrance from the air handy enough for use by visiting steamers.  It is the best harbour in Timor.

Closer inspection immediately stamps as a pretty and fascinating place – a mixture of the Old World and the new, and, though obviously having seen better days, still cleanly, as the gang of natives cleaning up the beaches bears witness.

The main buildings are the Cathedral, which dominates the town, the Town Hall, not yet fully recovered from an earthquake, the spacious columned Post Office, and the Governor’s offices.  The main buildings are brick plastered over and pained white, with balustrades and walls in the same style imparting an Old-World atmosphere.  On the outskirts, the dwellings taper off to picturesque native huts thatched with palm leaves, and fences made from palm fronds stripped of their leaves.  Bamboo is also used extensively used by the natives in building.

The trees of Dilli are a glory, and their growth is so dense and towering that a jungle-like atmosphere surrounds the town.  Coco-nuts grow in their thousands; great pagoda trees dominate the foreshore and parts of the town.  Colour is lent by poinsettias with their massive crowns of flaming red.  Such a tree is in its full glory grows near the Port Captain’s office, where it spreads above a picturesque native hut, from the chimneyless top of which rises a thin trickle of grey smoke.  On one side are the tall trees of Dilli and on the other the lagoon.  The massed red of this tree stands out as a brilliantly dash of colour and the ground is strewn with fallen blooms like a red and golden carpet.

Immediately behind the town, in fact rising from its outskirts, are the mountains, shooting up for several thousand feet, covered by forest growth.  In the morning, the range stands out clear, but each afternoon cloud masses form and gradually creep down the slopes until a great vaporous wall is formed, ever darkening and creeping over the town.  This usually ends in a thunderstorm, with heavy rain on the hills, reaching sometimes to the town, and, after its rainy violence, leaving all still and clear.

VISITING THE LANDING SITES TODAY

Dili was devastated by allied bombing attacks during the war and there has been further destruction in subsequent conflicts.  The city has also grown and been redeveloped considerably since 1941.  There is no physical evidence of the Australian landings, but the locations have been identified and can be visited when in Dili.

The First Landing Site

Image 9: Map of the first landing site

Paul Cleary wrote:

At 12.15 p.m., the contingent of 155 Australians and 260 Dutch indigenous troops … began disembarking on the beach about 4 km west of the town centre, close to the airfield and the town’s small mosque. [8]

Cleary has identified this location on the Ave. de Portugal near where it intersects with the Rua Governador Jose Celestino da Silva.  The small mosque, or its successor, sits on the corner of the intersection.  The Australian Embassy and Sparrow Force House lie approximately a kilometre south on the Rua Mártires da Pátria.  The intervening area between the landing site and the embassy was occupied by the old air field that was the objective of the Australians.  This is now a residential and small business suburb.  A drain running north-south that bisected the eastern half of the air field still exists and a portion of it can be seen in the street alongside the wall of the Australian Embassy.

Image 10: The first landing site today – this view has changed little from that depicted by Charles Bush in 1945

The Second Landing Site

Image 10: Map of the second landing site

Wray described the second landing site as follows:

Dili had a customs house on the foreshore, and almost in front of it a small jetty, at which was tied up a Jap ship of about 100 tons.

in boats, …CanopusWe were taken ashore from the

We were landed on the beach near the jetty, and there met some of the men who had been in the first party to leave Koepang. [9]

Image 11: The jetty at Dili with the Customs House behind [11]

It is possible to identify the location of the jetty and thereby the landing site from a map of Dili prepared in 1943 by the Allied Geographical Section because it is clearly marked along with the Customs House and cathedral.  Wartime aerial and ground photographs of Dili in the Australian War Memorial image collection also assist in confirming the location.  The structures referred to no longer exist but the location can be placed on a modern map of Dili on the shoreline in front of the Palácio do Governo on Ave. de Portugal.

Image 12: The second landing site today

REFERENCES

 

[1] S.A. Robinson, [Timor (1941-1942) - Sparrow Force and Lancer Force - Operations]: The Campaign in Portuguese Timor, A narrative of No 2 Independent Company.  Story prepared by Corporal S.A. Robinson, No. 5 Military History Field Team. – Australian War Memorial file AWM54 571/4/53.

[2] Australian War Memorial Photograph Collection item no. 09247.

[3] Australian War Memorial Art Collection item no. ART26321.

[4] Photo from Report on a visit to Portuguese Timor by Captain Johnston, Dr. Bradford and Mr. Ross, 29th December – 1st January 1941 National Archives of Australia file A816 19/301/778.

[5] See also the War Diary entries of the for the 2nd Independent Company and Sparrow Force for 17-20 December 1941:
2nd Independent Company: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1022619/
Sparrow Force: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1024692/
The Sparrow Force War Diary includes a detailed report on the Dili landings by Lieutenant-Colonel William Leggatt.

[6] Corporal Arthur Henry Kilfield ‘Harry’ Wray (WX11485), Recollections of the 2nd Independent Company Campaign on Timor, 1941-42, manuscript in 2/2 Commando Association archives.

[7] Hudson Fysh ‘Australia’s unknown neighbour – Portuguese Timor’ Walkabout, vol. 7, no.7, May 1st 1941: 7-15.

[8] 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, p.34.

[9] Corporal Arthur Henry Kilfield ‘Harry’ Wray (WX11485), Recollections of the 2nd Independent Company Campaign on Timor, 1941-42, manuscript in 2/2 Commando Association archives.

[10] Report on a visit to Portuguese Timor by Captain Johnston, Dr. Bradford and Mr. Ross, 29th December – 1st January 1941 National Archives of Australia file A816 19/301/778.

ADDITIONAL READING

Cyril Ayris, All the Bull's men: no. 2 Australian Independent Company (2/2nd Commando Squadron). – Perth: 2/2nd Commando Association, c2006, Chapter 3 ‘Invasion’, pp.58-65.

Bernard Callinan, Independent Company: the Australian Army in Portuguese Timor 1941-43. – Melbourne: Heinemann, 1953 (repr. 1994), Chapter 2 ‘Unwanted protectors’, pp.16-21.

Archie Campbell, The Double Reds of Timor. – Swanbourne, W.A.: John Burridge Military Antiques, c1995, Chapter 5 ‘The landings’, pp.20-23.

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, Chapter 3 ‘”Sitting Duck” Force’, pp.32-34.

C.D. Doig, The history of the Second Independent Company. – Perth: C.D. Doig, 1986, Chapter 5 ‘Bound for Timor’, pp.30-31.

Lionel Wigmore, The Japanese thrust. – Canberra.: Australian War Memorial, 1957, Chapter 21, ‘Resistance in Timor’, pp.469-471.

Christopher C.H. Wray, Timor 1942: Australian commandos at war with the Japanese. – Hawthorn, Vic.: Hutchison Australia, 1987, [Chapter 3] ‘A breach of neutrality’, pp.25-30.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The_Australian_and_Dutch_landings_at_Dili_-_first_version_revised.pdf

 

With the passage of 2021 and the transition to 2022 we move through the 80th anniversary years of significant events in the history of the Doublereds. [1]
December 10 2021 marks the 80th anniversary of the embarkation of the unit for Timor.  Over the course of the new year we will post other stories marking significant events that occurred during 1942 during the 2nd Independent Company’s campaign on Timor.

Arthur Henry Kelfield 'Harry' Wray (WX11485), a 37-year-old South African-born accountant, had worked for thirteen years as a bookkeeper on cattle stations in outback Western Australia before joining the Army in 1941.  He was soon undergoing infantry training at Northam, the main Western Australian training camp, as a reinforcement for the 2/43 Battalion.  Whilst at Northam he volunteered for ‘a special and possibly dangerous mission’, was accepted and subsequently became a member of the newly formed 2nd Independent Company as a Corporal in the Signals Section.  He served with the unit throughout the Timor campaign and was awarded a Mention in Despatches for ‘Exceptional services in [the] field …’. [2] From 1943 to the end of the war he was attached to the Jungle Warfare Training School, Canungra, Queensland.  From 1945 until his retirement in 1969 Arthur Wray (who had trained as an accountant) was employed with the Western Mining Corporation at its Melbourne head office.  He died on 5 June 1978. [3]

Arthur Henry Kelfield 'Harry' Wray (WX11485)

Wray wrote an unpublished memoir of his wartime experiences from the time he enlisted to when he left the 2nd Independent Company after its return from Timor that is held in the Association archives.  His son Christopher C.H. Wray referred to his father’s memoir in his well-researched and written campaign history Timor 1942: Australian commandos at war with the Japanese. [4]

The following extract from Harry Wray’s memoir describes the 2nd Independent Company’s embarkation at Darwin harbour on the troop ship Zealandia on the 10 December 1941 and voyage to Koepang in Dutch Timor.

EMBARKATION FOR TIMOR

We arrived in Darwin the next day about eleven, proceeded from the train to the jetty, and there found the Zealandia loaded with troops.

HMAT Zealandia

We were kept standing about on the wharf for some time.  I can well remember watching a bearded Yeoman of Signals balancing himself on the railings of an upstairs veranda of a small building at the land end of the wharf.  He would then signal to ships lying out in the harbour with his flags.  He would send a message, disappear inside the building for a few minutes, and then out he would come and send another signal.  This went on all the time we waited for something to happen.

We were given a card each, which we were told to sign, this we did.  I can recall that the cards said something about receiving 5/- [shillings] embarkation money, but we did not get any five shillings.  I can remember being very short of money at the time.  We did not anticipate any move, and as there was nothing much to spend money in Katherine did not draw much on paydays, consequently many were caught without much money, which turned out to be most inconvenient later on.

At long last we found ourselves on the Zealandia.  The ship was crowded when we arrived.  The 2/40 Australian Infantry Battalion were on board, all our Company, and a few odds and ends of Corps troops I think.  Being the last on board we found all the best accommodation gone, and were given the after well deck as our sleeping quarters.  This was partly covered with an awning, but to all and intents and purposes we were in the open.  Luckily it did not rain while we were on board.

Zealandia crowded with troops

Our party arrived in Darwin on the 8th, and the Zealandia sailed on the morning of the 10th December.  We were held up in Darwin while the wharf labourers loaded the ship in their own way and time.  Some of the 2/40 that had been cooped up on board longer than anyone else, threatened to go ashore and beat up the labourers, and some angry words were exchanged.  The wharfies finally decided that the 2/40 meant business and abandoned a threat to strike, and speeded up the loading, however, they let the stores run into the holds with a crash, which split cases open all over the place, then stowed the stores anyhow.  A tremendous amount of stuff was spoiled, and to annoy us still more when we arrived at Koepang we found they had stolen most of our tobacco.  The Darwin wharf labourers had always been notorious, and from what I saw of them I do not think they were libelled at all. [5]

THE VOYAGE TO KOEPANG

The Zealandia sailed early in the morning [10 December 1941] with H.M.S. Westralia an auxiliary cruiser, and a corvette.  The Westralia was loaded with a fair number of troops, several signal units, coast defence artillery personnel, and so on.  One of the men who sailed on her, told me that the Naval officer in command addressed the troops soon after they went on board in the following terms: that they were on a Naval ship, they must not gamble while on board, and so on.  He added that special steps had been taken to make the ship buoyant, and in an engagement, she would stay afloat long after the ordinary cruiser of her tonnage had sunk, that he did not want them to be dashing about getting in the way should the ship run into trouble.  He suggested they take a book, and sit quietly on the deck in as sheltered a part as possible and read.

Late on the first morning we saw smoke far ahead on the horizon.  Lamp signals flashed from the Westralia, the old Zealandia changed course, and he engines chugged harder than usual as she strained for a knot or two more speed.  The Westralia and the corvette went racing off towards the smoke at full speed.

We wondered what it was all about.  An hour or two later all was back at normal and our two escort ships had returned to their usual positions.  I forgot to mention that before the Westralia went off to investigate the smoke, the ship stopped and the amphibian [aircraft] was sent off to have a look at the smoke.  I heard one of the Zealandia officers remark to another that all was quiet again, and the other one replied that all was quiet now, but that things were very lively a while before, and that the officers on all the ships had been very worried until they located the source of the smoke on the horizon.  It would appear that it was considered the smoke might indicate a hostile force.
Soon after we were outside Darwin lifebelts were issued, and it was found that there were not enough to go round.  About three or four of us had to do without as it happened.

The Officers and Sergeants dined in state on the Zealandia, being waited on by stewards in the saloon.  The rest of us fed in a dark airless deck in the bowels of the ship.  It used to take us about an hour or so to work our way through the crowds to the messing place, and about ten minutes to eat our meal.  The heat was terrific, like feeding in a Turkish bath.  The steel floors with a thin film of water and soup and tea on them were so slippery it was difficult to keep one’s balance.  The food was very good, but rather on the scanty side.

The weather was calm, so calm that even the worse sailor would have no excuse to be sick, but the atmosphere and heat in the mess deck was too much for a good many of the men.  During the two nights, we were on board, the ship passed over banks in the Arafura Sea.  The water is so shallow over the banks and it was thought subs might lie in wait on them, consequently when we were passing the danger areas the old ship was driven at the utmost speed, not that it was anything out of the way.  When the Zealandia was flat out you could feel the increased vibration of the engines just about shaking her apart.

During the short voyage, we were allowed a bottle of beer each per day.  Bottles were collected and all thrown overboard at once, at night, as the First World War taught that subs tracked down ships by the trail of bottles and so left floating in their wake.

ARRIVAL AT KOEPANG

On the morning of the 13th December we arrived off Koepang.  Up until then we had not been told where we were bound for, and many had been the rumours.  We anchored off a beach near Koepang, and after an hour or two the business of getting the men ashore began.  A large but ramshackle lighter was towed alongside, filled with men and towed ashore by a motor launch, after the Westralia had landed her passengers in her own boats.  Some of the boats came over and took some of the troops from the Zealandia ashore.  It was a slow and tedious business, and it was as well for us that the no planes were about to drop a few bombs, or they would have had a sitting target.

I was in the last boatload to leave the ship late in the afternoon.  The remarkable clearness of the seawater astonished us all.  You could see everything lying on the sandy bottom sixty or seventy feet down as clearly as the water was only a foot or two in depth.

FATE OF THE ZEALANDIA

SS Zealandia, nicknamed "Z" (or "Zed"), was an historically significant Australian cargo and passenger steamship.  She served as a troopship in both World War I and World War II.

On 29 June 1940 Zealandia embarked part of the 8th Division, the 2/21st Battalion, later known as Gull Force, at Sydney and took it and other units to Darwin.

Zealandia transported another part of the 8th Division, Lark Force (otherwise known as the 2/22nd Battalion), to Rabaul, leaving Sydney on 19 April 1941.  Following that voyage, Zealandia went to Noumea, New Caledonia and transported Free French troops to Sydney.

In mid-1941 Zealandia took the main body of the 8th Division, their stores and equipment to Singapore, where the main body of the 8th was surrendered to Japanese forces in February 1942.

After several other war-related voyages, in November 1941 Zealandia visited several Australian ports en route to Singapore.  A labour dispute involving some crew members caused her and HMAS Sydney to be delayed in leaving Fremantle, whence Sydney escorted Zealandia to Sunda Strait.  Zealandia's crew were the last Allied personnel known to have seen Sydney, which was sunk by the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran and lost with all hands when she attempted to stop the Kormoran.

Zealandia also took another 8th Division detachment, Sparrow Force, to Timor departing Darwin with 957 troops the morning of 10 December 1941 escorted by HMAS Westralia with another 445 troops that reached Koepang on 12 December.  On 20 December, the ship departed Darwin with 207 women and 357 children as the first of several ships to evacuate civilians from Darwin to southern Australia.

In Sydney, the ship was fitted with material to protect her oil tanks in the event of attack.  On 23 January, she left Sydney, transporting an anti-tank company and its equipment to Darwin, where it arrived on 6 February.

In the Darwin air raids of 19 February 1942, several bombs fell close to Zealandia, then one fell through a hatch and exploded in a hold, causing a serious fire.  Japanese planes also attacked Zealandia with cannon and machine gun fire.  Ammunition in one hold started to explode and the ship's fire pumps were disabled by another bomb.  The order was given to abandon ship.

Zealandia sank, leaving only her masts clear of the water.  Two crew members died from wounds sustained in the attack.  142 crew members survived. [6]

The ship was salvaged in 1960.  What remains of Zealandia lies in Darwin Harbour at position coordinates: 12°29.00′S 130°51.05′E at a depth of 19 metres and is a recreational dive site. [7]

Zealandia wreck site

STOKES HILL WHARF

With the passing of the Palmerston and Pine Creek Railway Bill in October 1883, the building of a substantial railway jetty became an urgent prerequisite in anticipation of the unloading of thousands of tons of railway materials for track laying.  A South Australian engineering contractor, J. Wishart, supervised the construction of the jetty and wharf during 1886.  Built on high timber piles, its timber deck curved out into the harbour from the construction depot and stacking yards at the foot of Stokes Hill.  The Territory's first railway locomotive was shipped to Darwin in April 1887 by the railway contractor, Charles Millar, for use in shunting between the wharf and the yards.  Built in Philadelphia, USA, at the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1886, because of its diminutive size the name Sandfly was bestowed soon after its arrival.  The little engine continued shunting between the Darwin railway yards and wharves into World War II.

By 1897 the Stokes Hill Wharf had succumbed to the depredations of the voracious Teredo sea-worm and the whole structure had become unsafe.  Building of a new all-steel jetty and wharf commenced early in 1898 and work proceeded slowly before the wharf was completed in 1900.  However, a further four years were to elapse before the wharf could be used by shipping.  Designed as a right-angle jetty and wharf with a constricting turntable between, it was slow and expensive to operate.  It was however Teredo-proof and survived for 38 years before receiving a direct hit by Japanese bombers on 19 February 1942, during which 22 waterside workers were killed.

Recent photo of Stokes Hill Wharf

After being repaired during 1942, the wharf was no longer strong enough to carry railway wagons and remained in a rickety condition with the bombed Neptuno lying half-submerged alongside until the 1950s.  By late 1952 the limitations of the old wharf could no longer be ignored by the Commonwealth Government after delays in loading uranium oxide, better known as yellow cake, and construction of a new wharf was approved.  By 1957 a neat new concrete wharf gracefully curved out from Stokes Hill to deep water.  In 1959 Japanese scrap metal dealers arrived to raise and salvage the Neptuno and the other vessels sunk in Darwin Harbour by their compatriots on that day in February 1942.  Stokes Hill Wharf commemorates the beginning and the end of a wartime journey. [8]

REFERENCES

[1]     For a Chronology of significant dates in the unit’s history, see Ayris (in Additional Reading below), pp.17-18.

[2]     Honours and Awards: Arthur Henry Kelfield Wray https://www.awm.gov.au/images/collection/items/ACCNUM_LARGE/RCDIG1068964/RCDIG1068964--395-

[3]     ‘WRAY, Arthur Henry Kelfield (31 December 1903 - 5 June 1978)’ J.S. Battye Library of West Australian History Private Archives – Collection Listing http://slwa.wa.gov.au/pdf/mn/mn1501_2000/mn1513.pdf

[4]     See Additional Reading below.

[5]     See also the War Diary entries of the units involved for the 9-10 December 1941:

2nd Independent Company: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1022619/

2/40 Battalion: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1026519/

Sparrow Force: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1024692/

[6]     SS Zealandia (1910). (2016, July 21).  In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:53, July 21, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SS_Zealandia_(1910)&oldid=730875334

[7]     Australian National Shipwreck Database: View Shipwreck - Zealandia HMAT http://www.environment.gov.au/shipwreck/public/wreck/wreck.do?key=3596

[8]     ‘Stokes Hill Wharf’ in Howard Pearce and Bob Alford, A wartime journey: Stuart Highway heritage guide. – Darwin: Northern Territory Tourist Commission, 2006, p.167.

ADDITIONAL READING
 

Cyril Ayris, All the Bull's men: no. 2 Australian Independent Company (2/2nd Commando Squadron). – Perth: 2/2nd Commando Association, c2006, pp.50-52.

Bernard Callinan, Independent Company: the Australian Army in Portuguese Timor 1941-43. – Melbourne: Heinemann, 1953 (repr. 1994), pp.2-5.

Archie Campbell, The Double Reds of Timor. – Swanbourne, W.A.: John Burridge Military Antiques, c1995, p.20.

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, pp.30-31.

C.D. Doig, The history of the Second Independent Company. – Perth: C.D. Doig, 1986., pp.27-28.

Peter Henning, Doomed battalion: mateship and leadership in war and captivity – the Australian 2/40 Battalion 1940-45. – St. Leonards, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 1995, pp.38-40.

Christopher C.H. Wray, Timor 1942: Australian commandos at war with the Japanese. – Hawthorn, Vic.: Hutchison Australia, 1987., 20-23.

 

 

 

BRIGADIER MICHAEL CALVERT (1913–1998) – Trainer and Long-Term Friend of the Doublereds

 

The iconic image featured in the ‘Debt of honour’ exhibition in a panel titled ‘Raising the Independent Companies: Australia’s first special forces’.  The photo shows Captain Freddie Spencer Chapman with the telescope and his colleague Captain Michael (Mad Mike) Calvert using the radio.  [See attached photo]

Both men were members of a small British military mission that arrived in Australia in November 1940.  Its task was to establish a covert camp to train Australians as special forces for use behind enemy lines.  The rugged and isolated Wilsons Promontory, a narrow-necked peninsula 230kms south east of Melbourne, was chosen.

No. 104 Mission, under Lieutenant-Colonel Mawhood, with Captain Mike Calvert in charge of demolitions and Freddy in charge of fieldcraft [see attached photo], and with two warrant officers in support, left Britain on 6th October 1940 in the S.S. Rimutaka, crossing the North Atlantic and heading south for the Panama Canal.  During the voyage Freddy and Mike Calvert established a relationship which they were always able to pick up again at the same point however long they were apart, based on mutual respect and an acceptance of where their lives and characters overlapped .and interlocked and where they didn't.  In fact, they had little in common.  Spencer-Chapman later recalled, ‘Michael Calvert boxed and swam for Cambridge and the Army, has no nose left, and a large red good-natured rubber-like face which he can twist into the most ludicrous expressions.  He is always laughing and cannot see why everybody else is not happy too’.

On completing their Australian training assignment, Calvert was posted to India and Spencer-Chapman to Malaya.  Calvert became famous first as a daring assistant to the legendary Major-General Orde Wingate in Burma, and later during the Malayan emergency, where he became pivotal in developing modern SAS-style forces.  Calvert and Chapman left indelible impressions on the men of early Australian Independent Companies (including the 2nd Independent Company) trained under their direction.  The outstanding military careers of these two men deserves greater contemporary recognition.

CALVERT POST WWII

Post WWII, Calvert, despite all his experience, could not adapt to conventional peacetime soldiering.  A lonely person, he started drinking heavily but the end of a distinguished military career came when serving in Germany he was accused of gross indecency and convicted by court martial.  His appeal was rejected.

Calvert strongly protested his innocence throughout, and subsequent examinations of the records, many years later, suggested that much of the evidence against him was unsafe.  But the damage had been done.

M.R.D. Foot knew Calvert extremely well, having employed him as a military history lecturer at Manchester University during Calvert's 'rehabilitation' years in the 1970s and was in no doubt that he had been, in effect, ‘guilty as charged’.  What deeply upset Calvert and led to many years of drinking, depression and menial labour, was that very few of his British wartime colleagues would have anything to do with him after his conviction.  One well-known individual told him that the best thing he could do was ‘to go and kill himself’.

THE DOUBLEREDS' RESPOND TO CALVERT’S TRAVAILS

Calvert’s travails were widely reported in the Australian press and a drew a sympathetic response from Harry Botterill in the Courier (September 1952: 6-7):

May I add a word of praise for Bern Callernan’s [Callinan's] article on Michael Calvert.  It was timely, wise and expressed sentiments which are shared by us all.  I think we should have a meeting to evolve some means of conveying to our old friend that we are with him in spirit in this hour of need.  His deeds of valour have been lauded from all walks of life, his book ‘Prisoners of Hope’ loudly praised.  A slip that has caused his dismissal should not deter us in our efforts to bring solace to our comrade in arms.  He needs our very help, for one I think we should give some positive action to letting ‘Mike’ know that we still hold him in high regard, his value to us in yester years, and we appreciate even in civvy life the many lessons of courage and sagacity that he instilled into us during the days of Wilsons Promontory.

Our object is to help the indigent and lame over the stile.  Mike needs a hand; we have to give.  What about it, boys?  Let’s back Bern’s article to the full with a show of just what sort of spirit exists in this Association of ours.

There was additional supportive correspondence in the Courier (December 1952: 5):

Major Love has written once again to give us some of his doings and to bring some news of our old friends Mike Calvert and Freddy Chapman.  The good Major had received letters from both Fred and Mike are both were well.  Mike said he had been made a political scapegoat and that he was entirely innocent of the offence with which he was charged.  Freddy Chapman had thoroughly investigated the case and definitely was of the opinion that he was entirely innocent of the offence with which he was charged and at the very worst was guilty of indiscretion.  We who knew both men so well are most glad to hear these tidings and will agree that Freddy Chapman’s judgement is good enough for us.

AUSTRALIAN INTERLUDE

After leaving the army, he went to Australia in 1952 but on arrival the job which had been offered to him in London was withdrawn by local management who had learned the circumstances of his dismissal from the army.  His first port of call was Perth but he soon moved on, as reported by Col Doig in the Courier of June 1953:

Michael Calvert arrived in W.A. and unfortunately his job at Kwinana did not eventuate and he has moved off East where prospects in his line of business are much more sound.  Michael appeared to be a very sick man and goodness knows with all his troubles, worries and everything else that has happened to him since we last saw him he is entitled to be below form.  I was able to see him on three occasions and had some quite interesting talks with him.  Quite a few of the old Foster hands in Joe Burridge, Tom Nisbet, Geo. Boyland, Doug Fullerton, Keith Hayes, Mick Calcutt and Dave Ritchie were able to see him and have a few convivial drinks and chat over old times.  Michael has since arrived in Victoria and is in the excellent hands of Major Love and Bernie Callinan.  In passing, I would like to tell you that he has a high regard for our crowd, and from a man of his wide experience that is high praise indeed.

GOVERNOR-GENERAL SLIM HELPS CALVERT

Leo Cooper, publisher and later drinking companion of Calvert’s, provided this interesting anecdote about his Australian sojourn:

I first met Mike Calvert when I offered to reprint ‘Prisoners of Hope’, in which he tells the story of the first Chindit expedition behind the Japanese lines in Burma.  As such it has become one of the classics of military history and Brigadier Calvert himself one of the enigmas.

'Mad Mike', as he was known to the public, was a man of many parts.  Some of them were dark and uncontrollable.  Others were sheer brilliance, with an ability to earn the respect of his men.  He was a sensible, intelligent and responsible operator.  He and I formed an instant friendship which developed over the years and ended up shortly before his death with our publishing ‘Mad Mike’ which was really all that had been left unsaid after his own book but with a little bit more thrown in.  Many people know the story of Mike's fall from grace and his homosexuality so there is no point in repeating it here, except to say that in his final months he talked to me quite a lot about it and I let him ramble on.  In the end I was left without very much more information than I'd started with.  He did, however, tell me one unforgettable story.
….
He was doing menial work in Australia …  He was apparently labouring on the docks.  Someone got to hear of this and reported it to Bill Slim, Calvert's old Commanding Officer in Burma.  Bill was, of course, by then Governor General of Australia.  Learning what the situation was he immediately sent two equerries down to the docks to locate Mike and they smuggled him into Government House and there he stayed for a fortnight being dried out, washed and clothed and talked to, not lectured, by the great Bill Slim.  Again, someone had rescued him from the brink.

[Reference: Leo Cooper, All my good friends will buy it: a bottlefield tour. – Staplehurst, Kent: Spellmount, 2005: 160-161.]

CALVERT KEEPS IN TOUCH WITH THE DOUBLEREDS

During Calvert’s latter years he wrote to the Courier on several occasions providing updates on his current residential arrangements and activities that reflected his enduring affection for his Australian connection such as this effort from the Courier of September 1967 [see attached photo]:

MICHAEL CALVERT, of The Flat, Beech Hurst, Old Avenue, West Byfleet, Surrey, England writes.  The enclosed photograph might amuse you.

You can get any sort of sign post set up with a direction to your home town.  They have a table of distances to places all over the world and this to the Prom, is via Panama.  Bernie Callinan and I had a couple of meals together during his recent visit here.  He looks very well and decisive ….  I am still a Highways Engineer of a minor sort in the Greater London Council, and obtained my A.M.I.C.E. the other day, partly due to Bernie Callinan being one of my sponsors …

The friendship between Calvert and Callinan had developed in the Wilson’s Promontory days as recalled by Rolf Baldwin in the Courier of October 1995:

It was interesting, too, to watch and listen to Bernie when he was with his Chief Instructor, Michael Calvert.  In that case, he was measuring strength with a first-rate professional soldier of his own age and the interaction was a delight to watch.  At one level were two keen, practical minds at work perhaps on a tactical problem or perhaps on a technical matter of how much explosive to use on a particular task.  Often it would be some such business as the planning of the famous ‘Akbar Stunt’ but, whatever the matter in hand, it was easy to see the versatility of their minds and the quality of imagination in all their discussions.  Yes, and there was a roguish sense of humour too, in which they were both richly endowed.

CONCLUSION

With serious deterioration in his health, he returned to England in 1960, still only 47, but his problems would not go away.  He remained an unsettled personality and found it difficult to maintain continuity in most of his attempted ventures.  Behind it all, he continued to brood over the perceived injustices of his court martial and one project after another seemed to go onto the rocks.

He never had much money and his modest pension and earnings led to a greatly reduced standard of living in his declining years.  He died in The Royal Star and Garter Home in Richmond on 26th November 1998, at the age of 85.

His medals, which include the DSO and Bar, WW2 campaign stars and honours awarded to him by the French, Belgian, American and Norwegian governments, are now held by the Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham.

FURTHER READING

The military historian David Rooney has devoted considerable effort to reviving awareness of Calvert’s outstanding military career and rehabilitating his reputation; see:

David Rooney, Mad Mike: a life of Brigadier Michael Calvert. – Barnsley, Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military Classics, 2006.

David Rooney, ‘Calvert, (James) Michael (1913–1998)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2009 http://www.oxforddnb.com.rp.nla.gov.au/view/article/71246

David Rooney, Guerrilla: insurgents, patriots, and terrorists from Sun Tzu to Bin Laden. - London: Brassey's, 2004, esp. ‘Guerrilla fighters: World War II’, pp.180-199.

Calvert’s books also repay reading:

Michael Calvert, Fighting mad: one man’s guerrilla war. – Barnsley, Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military Classics, 2004.

Michael Calvert, Prisoners of Hope. – Revised ed. - London, L. Cooper, 1996.  [Rated as a classic]

For a useful brief biography of Calvert, see:

‘Brigadier James Michael Calvert (1913-98) and the Chindits’ Royal Engineers Museum http://www.remuseum.org.uk/biography/rem_bio_calvert.htm

These obituaries are also informative:

M.R.D. Foot, ‘Obituary: Brigadier Michael Calvert’ The Independent, Wednesday, 2 December 1998 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-brigadier-michael-calvert-1188603.html

Ann Treneman, ‘The shaming of a hero’ The Independent, Wednesday 5 May 1999 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-shaming-of-a-hero-1091460.html

‘Brigadier Michael Calvert’ Times [London, England] 28 Nov. 1998: 24.  The Times Digital Archive.  Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Australian War Memorial (AWM) has published a new book by Senior Historian in the Military History Section, Dr Karl James covering the history of the Australian commando units in the Pacific War 1941-45.  The concise text is well illustrated with photographs and art works from the AWM collections.  The 2/2 features especially in Chapter 2 covering ‘Timor and Wau’ while the striking cover photo displays four 2/2 men: Frank Thorpe, ‘Chook’ Fowler, Jack Prior and ‘Duck’ Watson.  The unit’s other campaigns in New Guinea and New Britain are summarised in later chapters in the book.  The book costs $39.99 and can be purchased at most bookshops or online ( https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/double-diamonds/ ).

Additional background relating to the book can be found on the AWM web site:

https://www.awm.gov.au/media/releases/backgrounder-double-diamonds/.

This new publication complements the re-issue Paul Cleary’s best-selling account of the Timor campaign ‘The men who came out of the ground’ by Hachette Australia.

Ed