opinion
Ben Harvey: Members of Australian Z Special Unit performed heroic acts that defy belief

“For five years he had been a frontline soldier, fought in four campaigns, seven major battles, one major rearguard action and innumerable patrols and ambushes. He had been sunk at sea, strafed and bombed from the air, been wounded, suffered malaria, dengue and sand-fly fever, and amoebic dysentery.” Author Paul Malone’s neat summation of Roland Griffiths-Marsh’s war record in the book Kill the Major will make most men feel bad about themselves. His heroics during World War II, and the ailments that bedevilled him as he fought first the Germans then the Japanese, put to shame the accomplishments and struggles of most men. Incredibly, by the time the war ended he was still barely 22 years old. Griffiths-Marsh had hijacked his older brother’s identity to enlist in the AIF in 1940, aged 16. He served in Africa and New Guinea before playing a central role in one of the most extraordinary missions of the Second World War. On March 25, 1945, Griffiths-Marsh and seven other commandos parachuted into the dense jungle of central Borneo. Three weeks later they were joined by more plane-loads of soldiers from Australia’s newly formed Z Special Unit, which was the precursor to today’s Special Air Service Regiment. The 42 men were in Borneo to gather intelligence on the Japanese Imperial Army ahead of what would be the biggest amphibious landing ever undertaken by the Australian military. The seven months the Z Specials spent in Borneo before and after Australia’s invasion of the island was like one long, harrowing chapter from Heart of Darkness. They were vastly outnumbered and greatly outgunned by the Japanese and the threat of a gruesome death was ever-present. They had little food and were plagued by the same malaria, dengue and sandfly fever, and amoebic dysentery that Griffiths-Marsh endured. Tropical ulcers on their legs and feet made marching through the jungle a special agony. When not relaying enemy movements back to headquarters, or fighting for their lives, the Z Specials recruited local tribesmen to take the fight to the Japanese. They trained native warriors to fight with rifles when ammunition was available and watched as they used blow-darts when it wasn’t. Through the delirium of hunger, sickness and fatigue, the Australians saw natives decapitate writhing Japanese bodies, in a grisly reminder that they were fighting alongside actual headhunters. As supplies ran short some of the men actively plotted the murder of their commanding officer, British Major Tom Harrisson (a would-be mutiny that informed the title of Malone’s book). By the end of the war this small band of commandos had taken control of 41,000sqkm of terrain, killed more than 1000 enemy soldiers and forced the surrender of some 400 more. It’s a little-known but astonishing fact that the Z Specials continued fighting well after Emperor Hirohito’s surrender speech on August 15, 1945. The men defied an order to leave Borneo because two Japanese companies, which had refused to acknowledge the surrender, were terrorising the local tribes who had helped the Australians. The war may have officially ended with the signing of surrender documents aboard the USS Missouri on September 2 but in Borneo it continued until October 31. Even more astonishing than these secret peacetime battles is the fact every one of the 42 men who parachuted into the jungle eight months earlier survived. All of them went home. On Tuesday, 80 years after that secret guerilla war began, parachutes will again be seen floating towards that the jungle canopy near Sarawak, in what is today part of Malaysia. The commemoration of Operation Semut will feature Malaysian ministers and defence force officials. Importantly, descendants of the indigenous warriors, who were awarded medals for their fighting, will be present. The re-enactment of the parachute drop suggests the people of Borneo understand the significance of Z Special Unit better than Australians do. Hopefully this column corrects the balance a little.

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Ben Harvey: Members of Australian Z Special Unit performed heroic acts that defy belief

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opinionBen Harvey: Members of Australian Z Special Unit performed heroic acts that defy belief

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opinion
Ben Harvey: Members of Australian Z Special Unit performed heroic acts that defy belief