‘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.