This is a page from a declassified manual dated around 1942/43. It was a training manual and amongst the topics, as you can see, is a range of explosive devices.
The men involved were from Australia, Holland, Portugal, and a number of Islanders, mostly from Timor.
Many of the landings made across the islands originated in Melbourne and Perth but 90% were transported via Darwin by small ships, submarines (US and Dutch), and some by Catalina and similar aircraft.
The small boat section caught my attention as you would imagine. The men who went on these missions were all highly trained but nonetheless suffered high casualty rates, both landing and organising evacuations were fraught with danger.
Some of the documents I came across specified the types of craft used and the names of a number of small boats and/or the navy they belonged to. Sometimes though, it just refers to 'small boats' or RAN vessels.
Back to the manual, the above is a release switch for use in booby traps, the manual contains more examples of switch types and fuses and a detailed description of special silencing equipment for small boat engines as well as a range of weapons including sten gun, bren gun, a rare Welrod 9mm automatic and other silenced automatic guns.
Interestingly, the 'Secret Intelligence Australia' moniker was covered by other names, most were effectively controlled not by Australia or the US but by MI6/SOE where it was known as "Force 137". This despite many of the men being Australian Army or Navy personnel with a mixture of Canadians, South Africans, New Zealanders, Dutch and Portuguese, and many natives of the region.
Example cover names are:
Services Reconnaissance Department, Special Operations Australia and the Inter-Allied Services Department.
When researching Alf Boxall and others who served at the top end and across the islands, be aware that there was a whole lot of clandestine activity going on throughout the region with maybe 2 dozen different operations listed in 1942/43. That's not to say that Alf was directly involved in any although a reference in his letters stated that he had ventured well North of Darwin and Timor would be within that general area.
A fairly rare couple of images below, one is of a 'SLEEPING BEAUTY' semi-submersible motor-driven canoe, and the other shows the attachment of a limpet mine.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteCould I grab a copy please, these are of great interest to me. Where did you find them?
Trent
Hello Trent, I found these whilst researching Special Operations and Australian Secret Intelligence. If you Google:
ReplyDeleteThe Official History of the Operations and Administration of] Special Operations - Australia [(SOA), also known as the Inter-Allied Services Department (ISD) and Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD)
That will show you a couple of links to Operations 1 and 2 files and from there you should find the manuals. They are all filed with National Archives Australia. Hope this helps, please let me know if you need anything more.
Many thanks. Did you ever get my email about the Rubaiyat being used in another spy case as a code book?
DeleteHi Trent, Thanks for that, I didn't receive your email. Could you please resend or leave a comment with details?
DeleteTrent, Here's a link to download the 3 files I have including the equipment manual:
ReplyDeletehttps://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1brvLJU3tgyEHZoHQkT8qkD95uGv7bVpi?usp=sharing