The untold story of Z Special Unit in the Second World War.
| Publisher: | [North Sydney, New South Wales] : Vintage, an imprint of Penguin Random House Australia, 2021. |
| ISBN: | 9780143784982 0143784986 |
| Characteristics: | xiii, 378 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 24 cm. |
| Source: | (and YPRL) |
For those interested in Australian World War II history this book is something a bit different from the ordinary, Secret and Special covers the covert operations of Z Force.
Each chapter covers an operation and the author goes into much detail for each mission. Many missions weren’t’ successful due to bad planning and bad luck. Often bad weather would wreck the fragile “folboats”, the foldable kayaks used to reach the beach from the ship. On the way back if soldiers missed their rendezvous they would have to fend for themselves in enemy territory.
Much work had to be done to get support from the local tribes. Sometimes they would favour the Japanese due to bribes, but as the war wore on the Japanese abused their hosts making them more likely to help the Australian forces.
Reading the book gives you much respect for the soldiers, and helps you understand what they went through, from their war service to fitting back into society when they return home. One soldier, Roland Griffiths-Marsh, is and excellent example. He estimates that of the 2098 days he served in the AIF, he spent just 91 days in a “bed,” and as he had been just 16 when he enlisted, on his return from the war he had little education, no professional training, and no useful or influential contacts back in ‘Civvy Street’. His hardships didn’t end there.
As he recalled:
For five years and seven months I had been a frontline soldier. I had fought in four campaigns around the world, consisting of seven major battles, several operations, one major rear-guard action, innumerable patrols, ambushes and firefights. I had been sunk at sea, strafed and bombed from the air. I had been wounded, injured many times and had malaria, dengue, sand-fly fever, amoebic dysentery and God knows what else.
Roland Griffiths-Marsh, author and AIF soldier.
After the war I suffered from amoebic dysentery and my bowel extruded and I was dying. I had operations as a result. It took me about five years to return to civilian life. I was unemployable, I was completely shattered, my nerves had gone, I’d knock a person down for the slightest provocation. But I was very lucky. I met a marvellous lady and slowly my sanity came back.
The author summarises what Z went through, and their contribution to the war victory that should not be forgotten.
There were many men like him, dedicated volunteers into the AIF who found themselves, through bad luck or bad management, in a unit like Z. Special. While it was ‘Boys Own’ stuff, it was deadly serious, unbelievably frightening and fraught with danger and the possibility of an agonising death.
Yet these men had volunteered, trained and stepped out of an aircraft into the cold jet stream of a lumbering Liberator over a green carpet of hostile jungle or paddled their frail, canvas folboats into a darkened shore, not knowing what awaited them.
While some question the military value of SRD’s operational successes, the men involved in its operations were truly brave men and their exploits were accomplishments.
Today, so many seem to forget what so few men did to help win the war.
Contents
- Return to War
- Now Set Europe Ablaze
- A Fourth Fighting Force
- We’re Going to Singapore
- The Early Days – Operations in Timor
- The Great Tragedy of Lagarto
- The Insect and Fish Operations – Papua New Guinea
- Increasing the Pressure and Pushing West
- The Ill-Fated Operation Copper
- The Bite of the Sand-fly- the Agas Operations
- The Bite of the Ant – the Semut Operations
- The Secret War in the Spice Islands
- In Support of Oboe II – Balikpapan
- The Rescue of the Sultan
- The Audacious Disaster of Rimau
- The Last Raids
- War’s End
Definitions
The book talks of many organisations and groups, each with their own acronym. Here’s a list to make it easier.
| AIF | Australian Imperial Force |
| AIB | Allied Intelligence Bureau |
| BEF | British Expeditionary Force |
| CID | Committee of Imperial Defence (Britain) |
| CMF | Citizen Military Force (Australia) |
| DGS | Directorate of General Staff |
| FANY | First Aid Nursing Yeomanry |
| FELO | Far Eastern Liaison Office |
| GHQ | General Head Quarters (Melbourne, Australia) |
| IRA | Irish Republic Army |
| ISD | Inter-Allied Services Department |
| MSC | Motorised Submersible Canoes |
| NEFIS | Dutch intelligence organisation. |
| OSS | Office of Strategic Services (US) |
| PRS | American Philippine Regional Section |
| RAAF | Royal Australian Air Force |
| RAF | Royal Air Force |
| SIS | Secret Intelligence Service |
| SOA | Secret Operations (Australia) |
| SOE | Special Operations Executive (Britain) |
| SWPA | South West Pacific Area |
| WAAF | Women’s Auxiliary Air Force |
| ZES | Z Experimental Station (Australia) |
Further Reading
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Austen submachine gun – WikipediaThe Austen (from "Australian Sten") was a 9×19mm Australian submachine gun derived from the British Sten gun developed during the Second World War. In total 19,914 Austens were produced during the war by Diecasters Ltd of Melbourne and W. T. Carmichael Ltd of Sydney. |
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Auster – WikipediaAuster Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer from 1938 to 1961. |
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Folding kayak – WikipediaA folding kayak is a direct descendant of the original Inuit kayak made of animal skins stretched over frames made from wood and bones. A modern folder has a collapsible frame made of some combination of wood, aluminium and plastic, and a skin made of a tough fabric with a waterproof coating. Many have integral air chambers inside the hull, making them virtually unsinkable. |
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Harbour defence motor launch – WikipediaThe harbour defence motor launch (HDML) was a 72 ft (22 m) long British-designed motor vessel used for harbour defence during World War II. Nearly 500 were built by numerous Allied countries during the war. |
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HMAS Black Snake – WikipediaHMAS Black Snake was a Snake-class junk built for the Royal Australian Navy during the Second World War. She was launched in 1944 and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy on 30 December 1944. She was used by the Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD) and was paid off on 3 November 1945, before being handed over to the British Civil Administration in Borneo. |
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Motorised Submersible Canoe – WikipediaThe Motorised Submersible Canoe (MSC), nicknamed Sleeping Beauty, was built by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II as an underwater vehicle for a single frogman to perform clandestine reconnaissance or attacks against enemy vessels. |
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MV Krait – WikipediaThe MV Krait /ˈkraɪt/ is a wooden-hulled vessel famous for its use during World War II by the Z Special Unit (Z Force) of Australia during the raid against Japanese ships anchored in Singapore Harbour. The raid was known as Operation Jaywick. |
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Storepedo – WikipediaA storepedo, or alternately storpedo, is a cylindrical storage container with an attached parachute.[1] Resupplying troops in the jungle by air drop during World War II was proving problematic. Regular parachutes were costly in both money and material. Drops without parachutes risked loss of the materials due to the impact. |
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Type 3 Mk. 2 (B2) spy setThe British Type 3 Mk. II, commonly known as the B2, is arguably the most well known spy radio set used during WWII. It was designed in 1942 by (then) Captain John Brown at SOE Station IX, and manufactured by the Radio Communication Department of the SOE at Stonebridge Park. |
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Welrod – WikipediaThe Welrod is a British bolt action, magazine fed, suppressed pistol devised during World War II by Major Hugh Reeves at the Inter-Services Research Bureau (later Station IX). Station IX, being based near Welwyn Garden City, gave the Welrod its unusual name, being derived from "Wel" from "Welwyn Garden City" (a prefix used by covert equipment designed by Station IX) and "rod", gangland slang for gun, as a way to obscure its purpose. |
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Winnie the War Winner – WikipediaWinnie the War Winner was a radio set built by Sparrow Force during the Battle of Timor in 1942. The radio re-established contact between Sparrow Force and the Australian Army in Darwin on 19 April 1942. At the time, the Allies believed that Sparrow Force had been captured by the Japanese Army. By then, Sparrow Force had fought a guerrilla campaign isolated from Australia for 60 days. |
