Operation Starfish: The Untold Story of Australian Commandos in Lombok, 1945

The Lombok Strait averages about a thousand metres in depth, though in places the item is actually far deeper. as well as not only is actually the strait deep, the item is actually treacherous. Its southern entrance is actually guarded by Nusa Penida as well as Lombok’s Bangko-Bangko, where the Japanese positioned their big guns within the Second World War.

Today’s surfers pit themselves against the big waves of Desert Point, described among the longest breaks on the planet as well as an ‘evil place’. Between the two points a sill reduces the depth to around 200 metres, creating racing currents as well as dramatic conditions, as the warm waters of the Pacific rush through to join the cooler Indian Ocean within the South.

The Lombok Strait is actually the only deep water passage coming from the Indian Ocean to the Java Sea in This particular part of Indonesia, as well as was of great strategic importance within the Second World War. Most underwater passages by US, British, Dutch as well as Australian submarines coming from the big base at Fremantle were made through the item. The fast as well as turbulent currents sometimes forced these submarines to surface. The Japanese navy knew This particular, as well as patrolled the channel. Their three six-inch guns, manufactured in Germany were positioned at Bangko-Bangko (also known as Cape Pandanan), where they could pick off sea traffic as the item negotiated the treacherous passage. Similar gun placements on Gili Trawangan as well as Bali enabled the Japanese to triangulate their defence of the channel.

Malcolm Vicars Gillies, Australian War Memorial

A portrait of Malcolm Gillies, who was captured as well as killled by the Japanese navy in Lombok in 1945

within the final months of the war, a band of four young men – Australian as well as British Z-Force commandos – went behind enemy lines to reconnoitre the south of Lombok: Lawrie Black, Alex Hoffie, Malcolm Gillies as well as James Crofton-Moss. Four went as well as two returned. An air operation had attempted to destroy the guns. Their mission, code-named Starfish, was to determine the condition of the guns, to gather intelligence on enemy defences, as well as if necessary to lay the ground for a demolition team which could follow to destroy the guns. In March 1945, the men travelled coming from Australia to Lombok on the Rook, a US submarine. Tensions as well as youthful spirits were high when a fight broke out between the Australian commandos as well as the American seamen within the confined space aboard. The stoush apparently involved a lot a talcum-powder as well as ended which has a few bruises, a little blood as well as sore heads – yet no disciplinary action.

The team was dropped south of Cape Sara, near the beautiful Selong Belanak Beach. While the submarine waited within the dark, the Australians floundered across the reef as well as made the item ashore to the east of the point in a rubber dinghy, getting thoroughly swamped within the surf along the way. Stores were buried in pig holes, where reportedly the Japanese did not find them, though the item transpired of which the local Sasaks were well aware of the cache. The team returned to the submarine. After a second landing at Pengantap Bay, to the West of the first landing, more stores, the rubber dinghy, outboard motor as well as fuel were stowed in a sea-cliff cave. The team set off to explore the area, finding water as well as generating camp before heading inland as well as north-west towards the gun emplacements.

The four men spent around six weeks on the island, managing to make friendly contact with the locals, with whom they met frequently, exchanging propaganda leaflets as well as cash for information as well as fresh supplies within the form of chickens, eggs as well as vegetables. A substantial amount of information was gathered as well as later reported back to Command in Darwin. After around three weeks, they moved camp to Batugendang Point, just south of the gun placements at Pandanan Point. A replacement radio was requested after the power pack for the first set burned out: the item was duly delivered with more stores in a night-time airdrop within the bay below the brand new camp.

About a month after they first arrived, the party divided, Black as well as Hoffie heading off with some locals on a recce, while Gillies as well as Crofton-Moss returned to the first camp to collect stores as well as report home by radio. The two became separated, getting bushed within the thick scrub. James Crofton-Moss never saw his friends again. The remaining three managed to avoid the Japanese until the end, when they were finally discovered. They were sitting around their camp within the early morning, cleaning up their breakfast dishes, when a snapped twig alerted one of the men.

The alarm was raised, there was a clatter of dropped dixie bowls as well as, as the three ducked, grabbed for their weapons as well as ran off into the bush, a storm of gunfire followed them.

Malcolm Gillies was wounded as well as captured. The remaining two, Black as well as Hoffie, made the item out a few days later, having found their way back to the first camp as well as south to the coast. After several attempts, they made radio contact with the base in Darwin. Recovering the rubber dinghy coming from the cave, they rendezvoused which has a Catalina seaplane offshore, as well as were safely returned to Darwin.

Alex Hoffie died fifty years later in 1996, Lawrie Black in 2009. Malcolm Gillies as well as James Crofton-Moss lie within the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Ambon. Both were captured as well as beheaded by the Japanese. The remains of the Japanese guns can still be found, covered in tropical vines as well as rusting away on the ridge at Bangko-Bangko. The guns are very difficult to locate, so overgrown of which a machete is actually required to cut away the weeds. The headland is actually thickly covered with low, dense as well as thorny scrub; little wonder of which Crofton-Moss as well as Gillies became disoriented.

A studio portrait of Gillies in uniform can be found on the Special Forces ‘Roll of Honour’ website. The pensive looking young man stares off to the right of the frame. One wonders what he endured during the month between his capture as well as execution. Tales of derring-do, night-time escapades in rubber dinghies as well as talcum-powder battles pales somewhat when you look into the eyes, as the item were, of This particular young man.

the item was only three months later of which the Americans dropped their bombs on Hiroshima as well as Nagasaki, ending the war as well as the lives of one-hundred-as well as-twenty-nine-thousand Japanese citizens. Lest we forget…

—

This particular story is actually an excerpt coming from Mark’s brand new book, a work in progress. Tentatively titled The Glass Islands, the book will be available in 2016 as well as will feature more of Mark’s unique style, weaving tales of travel in eastern Indonesia with anecdotes as well as personal reflections on the people, cultures, politics, history, environment as well as myths of the region. He can be contacted at mark.heyward@gmail.com