‘Morale in the face of steel doesn’t always work.’ In this week’s episode, we take off from where we left off with the Bombing of Darwin and the Sparrow Force’s work in Timor combating the Japanese advance through South-East Asia and the Pacific. Joined by my regular co-host LTCOL Steve Young, this episode is about the turning point in the Pacific, the Battle for Milne Bay.
Following the Bombing of Darwin and Sparrow Force’s deployment onto the island of Timor, the 7th Brigade was sent to Milne Bay to establish airfields using the US 43rd Engineering Regiment. The 7th Brigade, under BRIG John Field, would be bolstered by the 18th Brigade under the command of BRIG Frank Wootten. Milne Force as it would become to be known was also allocated two Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) fighter squadrons, making a Combined Joint Force commanded by MAJGEN Cyril Clowes.
This episode tells the story of the Australian’s first win in the Pacific and the turning point for the Japanese Thrust. It started in the dead of the night, LT Robinson’s platoon established the first hasty ambush against the Japanese landing force, then a battalion tasked with fighting patrols was rerolled into the defence of KB Mission, two Japanese tanks advancing without lights and then illuminating Australian’s whose only defence was the Sticky Bomb which was not designed to be used in humid climates. These stories characterise the fighting in Milne Bay which was a battle of a thousand skirmishes fought in the pitch black.
The RAAF’s 75 Squadron (who now fly F-35A Lightning II multi-role, supersonic, stealth fighters) is again mentioned in this episode, as both 75 Squadron and 76 Squadron fly P-40E Kittyhawks in air combat against Japanese Mitsubishi Zero’s to oppose the Japanese beach landings. As each aircraft would land for refuelling and rearming, the underside would be sprayed in mud as the aircraft matting got pushed further and further into the New Guinea mud. The Aircrew and Maintainers would use their bare hands to claw the mud from the underside before a pilot would take off again, exhausted and riddled with malaria and dysentery. The commander of 76 Squadron SQNLDR Peter Turnbull DFC was killed in action defending Milne Bay.
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Lead Source:
Veitch, M., 2019. Turning Point: The Battle for Milne Bay 1942 - Japan's First Land Defeat in World War II. Hachette Australia.
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58:09
Reserve Integration - CPL Mitchell Clark
‘Mobilising the Reserve provides the Regular Army with a relatively quick solution for plugging manpower gaps and also the means to prime the pump.’ In this week’s episode, the creator of the popular Instagram page Tuesday Night Violence Co. joins us again to talk about his reserve battalion. CPL Mitchell Clark is currently posted as the Training Sergeant at 2nd/17th Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment (2/17 RNSWR). He has bounced in-and-out of full-time and part-time service and today he talks us through what a typical reserve infantry battalion looks like, and the value that those who volunteer to be a part of our organisation bring.
CPL Clark came to Army with a teaching background and finds real fulfilment in teaching and mentoring diggers as a Junior Non-Commissioned Officer. He has done jungle training in Malaysia as part of Rifle Company Butterworth, has deployed to Iraq with 6 RAR, was a Team Leader on Operation Resolute as part of the Transit Security Element and his career is not dissimilar from those he serves alongside. From diesel mechanics to medical professionals to architects, CPL Clark’s section looks a little bit different to a regular infantry one.
High levels of motivation, bang-for-buck training and a vast breadth of experience epitomise our Reserve workforce. If you get to work with a reserve unit, ask plenty of questions to not only get to know your attachments but also what they can offer in terms of getting after problems that your current callsign might try to solve in more conventional means. 'Choccos’ bring a wealth of knowledge from their full-time professions and trades to an Army that is trying to solve more-and-more complex problems.
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Subscribe to The Cove Podcast to make sure that you do not miss out on any of the heavy hitting content we have recorded with CPL Clark and many other amazing guests. if you haven’t already done so, go back and listen to CPL Clark’s previous episode and Mobilising through History which CPL Clark recommends in this episode.
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39:54
Ready, or Not: Leading Troops in a Violent Peace – COL John Papalitsas
‘So, a fistfight ensues a couple of meters inside East Timor and the situation deteriorates very quickly.’ In this week’s episode, we talk through what it is like to deploy with no notice and little preparation onto an island that is on-fire and in turmoil. Our guest – COL John Papalitsas – was a brand-new infantry Platoon Commander at the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment when he got word that he would deploy his platoon to East-Timor as part of International Force East Timor (INTERFET). Listen in as he describes what it was like as the boat arrived and throughout his six-month deployment, telling the stories of the men and women that were deployed.
COL Papalitsas saw the Ready Parachute Company Group come in to do PT in the morning, conduct what they thought was an equipment check and by the afternoon deploy to RAAF Base Tindal to stage for an infill into Timor. With five-days' notice, his platoon followed up and flew to Darwin NT before deploying to Timor via ship on HMAS Jervis Bay. He talks of witnessing the aftermath of a massacre at the Hotel Tropical, his platoon deploying from Maliana by Blackhawk helicopter to clear some militia, giving his soldiers the order to fix bayonets in the form-up point, a tense checkpoint exchange between a section of his platoon and the Indonesian National Armed Forces and retrieving the local mayor’s daughter before she was dragged across the border by the militia.
Finally, COL Papalitsas uses a quote to epitomise his approach to leadership: ‘A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way’ - John C. Maxwell. Like many of the other guests we have had on The Cove Podcast have argued, it is on you to become as competent as you can and to own your job. You must show those around you that you mean the things that you say and that you are willing to do everything that you ask of your subordinates. You must also show them what right looks like, setting an incredible example for those that are always watching. This is leadership where it matters, where there may be no right-or-wrong, so get yourself as prepared as you can because like this young platoon commander at 3 RAR, you may have no idea when you’ll deploy.
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1:22:31
The Battle for Dili Aerodrome – MAJ Guy Warnock
‘You think your whole life is going to flash before your eyes but I couldn’t think of anything.’ In this week’s episode, we continue with the defence of the Dili Aerodrome, using 2/2 Independent Commando Company as a case study to examine a small Australian force going up against a large opposing military. Our guest – MAJ Guy Warnock – just returned from years in the Defence Cooperation Program (DCP) in Timor-Leste but this is not where his interest in the history of Timor first started. MAJ Warnock deployed to Timor as a Special Forces Operator from the Special Air Service Regiment in the first few months of INTERFET.
If you want to walk the ground of Sparrow Force, the 2/2 Commando Association of Australia (inc.), along with members of DCP-TL, have collaborated with a Timor-based adventure company to develop a Kokoda-style trek up through the mountains of Timor that follows some of the network of tracks used by the soldiers of the 2/2 and 2/4 Independent Companies and their Timorese comrades.
It’s five gruelling days covering 96km with a walking tour of the battle for the Dili Aerodrome developed by MAJ Warnock on day one and finishing with a 1700m gain in the last 36 hours or so to reach the highest peak on the island of Timor - Mt Ramelau at just under 3,000m.
Options also exist to visit the crash site of the RAAF No.200 Flight B24 Liberator A72-159 which crashed in the mountains above Dili on 17 May 1945 killing all 15 Australians on board, including five men from the Services Reconnaissance Department - AKA: ‘Z’ Special Unit and the wreckage of HMAS Voyager (I) on the south coast of Timor-Leste at Betano, which ran aground and was lost on 23 September 1942 as it attempted to evacuate elements of SPARROW Force and replace them with LANCER Force based on the 2/4 Independent Company.
Maddog Adventures
maddogadventures.com.au
La Rende! (No Surrender!) Trek
https://maddogadventures.com.au/adventures/la-rende-trek/
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53:25
Sparrow Force - MAJ Guy Warnock
‘Tough men wanted for tough missions.’ In this week’s episode, we continue with the island of Timor but go back to WWII, using Sparrow Force as a case study to examine a small Australian force going up against a large opposing military. Our guest – MAJ Guy Warnock – just returned from years in the Defence Cooperation Program (DCP) in Timor-Leste but this is not where his interest in the history of Timor first started. MAJ Warnock deployed to Timor as a Special Forces Operator from the Special Air Service Regiment in the first few months of INTERFET.
Sparrow Force, our focus in this episode, was made up predominately of the 2/40th Battalion from the same brigade that provided the battalions for Lark Force and Gull Force but was bolstered with the 2/2nd Independent Commando Company. Sparrow Force’s task was to defend Timor from invasion by the Japanese but although Lark Force could move into Rabaul in New Guinea early because it was Australian territory, it was not until the strike on Malaya and Pearl Harbour that Sparrow Force could deploy from Darwin onto Timor to begin to prepare the defences. The 2/40th Battalion was centred on Kupang in the Dutch-held West Timor and the 2/2nd Independent Commando Company was tasked with defending the airfield in Dili in the Portuguese-held East Timor.
The 2/2nd Independent Commando Company was trained by British training teams that brought new equipment and weaponry to enable unconventional tactics and guerilla warfare. Wilsons Promontory was chosen as the commando training area and was given the codename ‘No. 7 Infantry Training Centre’. As soon as the commandos arrived in Dili, they began to learn the language and the lay of the ground, completely unaware that Singapore was about to fall. This episode is the first part of telling their story.
Sources & References:
The Cove Podcast and MAJ Warnock want to acknowledge the work of the 2/2 Commando Association of Australia (inc.) and in particular that of Mr Ed Willis, the son of a 2/2 soldier who has put in many decades of hard work, research and trips to Timor-Leste. All the further reading and information needed on the battle for Timor is here, including being able to purchase Ed’s recently released battlefield guide “Timor in WW2 - an Australian Army Site and Guide” which is available at their excellent website: www.doublereds.org.au
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Subscribe to The Cove Podcast to make sure that you do not miss the second part of the Timor series on Sparrow Force in WWII, when the enemy land. The next episode continues with Sparrow Force in Kupang and on the 2/2 Independent Commando Company mounting a guerrilla campaign in the hills that surround Dili.
The Cove Podcast aims to explore all aspects of Professional Military Education within the Australian Army. From short tips and soldier's fives to interviews of Army personnel on operations, find out how the men and women of today's Australian Army work towards professional excellence.
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