Timor WWII. Book Review.

I spotted this book in a local book store and had it on my future reads list for a while. I finally got around to reading it and I would highly recommend it. It's about Australian soldiers fighting a guerrilla campaign in Timor. An Island to our North not all that far from Darwin.
Australia has had a strange relationship with Timor and in particular East Timor since WWII and the end of this books does not hold back on the how Australian politics has not been exactly good for the new country. Living here in Darwin, Australia's nearest capital city to the very young country we have often heard a lot about the place. Especially once the Indonesian military left behind a Scorched Earth policy after years of brutal occupation. However this book begins prior to the Japanese bombing of Darwin in 1942 and concerns mainly Australia's fight against the Japanese.
Australia created a unique force with the purpose from the onset to fight as a guerrilla force. Men with backgrounds such as Station workers made ideal candidates. Young blokes who are very comfortable living of the land and living out bush for length periods. Skills that they would later need to just survive let alone wage a certain style of war against overwhelming forces. The book describes how in some ways Australia dragged Timor into WWII by it's very presence on the Island. Divided into two, Timor was roughly half Dutch and the other half belonged to Portugal. However a Japanese occupation was most likely inevitable with the strategic proximity to Darwin's port and Airfields.
This book mentions Darwin a lot. The city I now call home. So that was really interesting to see the aspects of the Timor campaign with Bombing raids, evacuations and supply by sea and coordination and communication from here. Some of the Australian soldiers even spent some time in Fannie Bay prison here when they managed to sail to the Tiwi Islands after the invasion of Timor. Once the Japanese occupied Dili (East Timor capital) the Australians supplied vital intel for bombing missions. Some of the actions described in this book is just incredibly ballsy when it comes to the ambushes they successfully carried out against the superior number of Japanese. Would make for great scenarios in wargames. Perhaps at Bolt Action scale skirmish games. Actually the story would make for an excellent movie but the I am not sure how the ending would go. Not really a happy one with Timor becoming totally subjugated to the brutality's of the Japanese war machine. The locals who helped the Aussies out paid a heavy price and mostly didn't get the recognition for serving in the Australian military campaign. The Japanese managed to carry out war crimes as soon as they accepted the first surrendered Australians so this meant that no more Australians would willingly surrender if it could be helped. Any way I am probably rambling now. It's an excellent read. Go read it.

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)

Bombing of Darwin 71 years ago

Today as at writing this is February 19th. Seventy one years ago this city that I live in was attacked by Japan. I have previously posted a small blog entry and that according to my Blogger stats is the most viewed post here. Once again the city sees a few old veterans of those times come back to a much different place to back then to attend official ceremonies and functions.
Back in the early 1940s Darwin was very much a frontier town (some consider that it still is) but on the day of the first attack the harbour contained a lot of allied shipping. By the time of the attack Australia was already at war with Japan. Joining allied declarations after the Pearl Harbour surprise attack. It was from Pearl Harbour that the Aircraft carriers came to deliver destruction to Darwin. Those four Japanese aircraft carriers were later sunk during the Battle of Midway. The lessons learnt by the Japanese during the attack on Pearl Harbour were put to use over Darwin and one result was a greater number of bombs dropped on Darwin.
Today I went and had a look at a small exhibition on aspects of mapping the Darwin area before during and after the first bomb raid. It is no surprise that there was as good as no maps over North Australia at that time so it was a critical intelligence operation to create some.
In the aftermath of the first and largest bomb raid Darwin's war largely became an Air War. Naval forces dispersed to Brisbane, Fremantle and other locations. You can read about a Veteran of WWII in Darwin posted last year here.
Rather than some Black and White WWII images this year here are some recent photos from Darwin.

My Uncle David who visited from New Zealand in the 2012 Dry Season at the Aviation Heritage Centre in front of a Spitfire replica. Sadly Uncle David passed away in January 2013. 

View from Stokes Hill Wharf at sunset across Darwin Harbour. Civilian wharf workers were killed here during the bombing and it would have been a scene of chaos and burning ships on February 19, 1942.

Lest we forget.

Air Craft Hanger, then and now

Around Darwin we have plenty of sites that remind us of a violent past. In particular when Darwin was repeatedly bombed by Japan during WWII. In July 2012 I had some relatives visit from New Zealand. They are particularly keen on vintage cars so I took them to what is now the home of the local 'Motor Vehicle Enthusiasts Club' which is based at the old QANTAS/Guinea Air hanger. Back in 1942 this was a civilian Aerodrome but no doubt quickly became military. The former runway has long since become another Road (Ross Smith Avenue). I took these photos (except for the first one) because it makes a good now and then comparison.

How it looked back in 1942 after being bombed.

 

How it looks when we visited in July 2012.

Inside the Hanger you can find examples of damage inflicted on the steel structure. That's a bloody big hole! My wookie hand and arm to help show how big it is.

World War 2 gamers might recognise the shape of this vehicle. 

I am glad wasn't around when the Hanger got shredded.

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi). 

World War II Veteran talk

I recently had the great experience of hearing an Australian Veteran of WWII give a talk here in Darwin. A veteran who had active service while based here in Darwin with 380^th Bombardment Group. Richard (Dick) Dakeyne was an Aussie among the Americans with 90^th Bombardment Group then 380^th BG then back to 90^th.

Dick initially trained as a part of a new Top Secret group for Radar Counter Measures (RCM) here in Australia and was embedded with the Americans who were under control of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) while based here in the Top End.  He became an Aussie among the Yanks. But he mentioned that the Americans at that time were not all Yanks. Only those from the North considered themselves Yanks. 

The talk was a part of the 70 years since Darwin was first bombed by the Japanese aniversary and was held at the Aviation Heritage Centre. The centre is well worth a visit and I will post some pics I took there in the future. http://www.darwinsairwar.com.au/home.html

The talk really opened my eyes wider as to what was going on here during the war years. The 380^th back then was lots and lots of B-24 Liberators. Dick was a waist gunner (50cal) and RCM.

Here is some random bits I remember.

- First encounters with Japanese pilots were a wake up as to just how skilled and experienced they had become after years of conflict in China and other places.

- Operational altitudes he described as very low most of the time. So low that a B-24 crew was lost when the very bomb they dropped on a ship exploded under them. He described them as much lower than in Europe. Due in part for flying under Radar detection.

- Distances they flew became HUGE! A target in Borneo (Balikpapan oil refineries) and return to Darwin was around 16 hours leaving about 10 minutes (or less) fuel.  Since the talk I have found that this mission was 200 miles further than the Ploesti mission in Europe. A company is actually making a doco about 'Shady Lady'. One of the Liberators that crash landed safely on the coast in Western Australia. I hope they do a good job.

- Bob Hope entertained them at one point but being an Aussie Richard didn’t get half the jokes. Gary Cooper also came but was a very poor entertainer but fortunately he was also accompanied by two good looking female actors.

- The crews had an event that really shook them up. A Liberator was rammed head on by a Zero. Well before the phrase Kamikaze was mentioned. It made them concerned about the resolve of the Japanese if they are willing to sacrifice man and materiel like this.

- Between Darwin and the Tiwi Islands they saw a Crocodile swimming in the ocean. It became target practice and was sent to the bottom.

- After a Japanese Air Raid Dick used a belt to save a life by stopping a severed leg from bleeding out. Dick was hurt in an Air Raid and spent 5 weeks in Katherine Hospital (I lived in Katherine a few years back. You can still see a bomb crater that was dropped by the Japanese there).

-On a mission they came across a plane that was the Japanese equivalent of a DC-3 so the Liberator became a fighter and they shot it down.

- A crate of whiskey was on offer for the crew that could knock down a factory chimney at a Nickel plant on one mission but it went unclaimed. This was an important target as it produced a huge amount of the Nickel supply for Japan.

Reconciliation.

- Years later after the war he found himself in Japan and met a local man around the same age. They discussed what they did in the War. The Japanese man was an AA gunner on the North Coast New Guinea. The very same location that Dick had bombed on at least three occasions. They could both laugh about how poor a shot each other was (as they both survived after all) and how the Japanese would collect dead floating fish after each raid (easy fishing).

Now and then. Dick 19 years old back in 1943.

Sandra Kay (named after the Pilots daughter I think) with crew including Dick.

An Important target with a Whiskey bonus. Dick shows us the black cloud of dust in the middle is from 50 cal strafing from the Liberator.

Bombing of Bombers. Talking about Japanese tactic of trying to bomb a Liberator with a Phosphorus bomb.
Madness.

When a bomber becomes fighter.

It’s amazing what you can find on the internet now. A little digging shines more info on Richard’s war experience such as a mission record of the SANDRA KAY (one of the Liberators Richard flew in).

http://380th.org/HISTORY/PARTV/MR/MR42-72790-071.htm

Two paintings of 380^th Liberators in action.

http://380th.org/IMAGES/AMBON_Harbor.jpg

http://380th.org/IMAGES/Balikpapan_harbor.jpg

Anyway cheers for now and I will get back to gaming hobby posts soon.
The Kiwi (Brendon)