The men who came out of the ground
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Very interesting coverage. I wonder if any of these soldiers took part in the formation and training of SAS soldiers later?
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pardus
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The book by the same name as the thread title doesn't mention anyone staying in the Army and/or being part of the SAS company, SASR or cadre. Phantoms of the Jungle goes into the experience of the initial crew of Officers and NCOs in 1957, with most having an Infantry background from Korea and a few with WW2 experience. They mention doing some cross training with 1 Commando Company, but I'm not sure what experience that unit still had in its ranks 12 years after the war. I've seen them mention that they track their lineage to Z special force on a few occasions, but not to the Independent Companies as much.
2/2 was pretty much the start of it all here for Australian SF. The Z Unit was raised on the strength of the success of the Timor guys, or their tenacity, more likely. And up to a point Z Unit infils and the rest were effective, but they lost quite a few killed or captured. The Commando Companies here were started so those guerrilla warfare skills wouldn't be forgotten. I'm a bit hazy on the SASR connection except that the commando companies predate the formation of SASR here. The other book of interest is the Coastwatchers who were doing their thing on Bougainville and other islands in providing INT at the same time. One coastwatcher even had the distinction of saving a young guy named Jack Kennedy. BTW, Anyone pick up a .303 with the telescopic sights in the doco?
Another good one for the coast watchers is Fear Drive My Feet by Peter Ryan MM, phenomenal story of a 19 year old Warrant Officer sent off into the bush with the barest of essentials with a 3 or 4 man native contingent to locate and report on Japanese activities.
Probably the best diary account of the Independent Companies is Peter Pinney's three books, The Barbarians (UQP 1988), The Glass Cannon (UQP 1990) and The Devil’s Garden (UQP 1992) which was combined in Signaller Johnston’s Secret War (UQP 1998).
Probably the best diary account of the Independent Companies is Peter Pinney's three books, The Barbarians (UQP 1988), The Glass Cannon (UQP 1990) and The Devil’s Garden (UQP 1992) which was combined in Signaller Johnston’s Secret War (UQP 1998).
pardus
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I just did some reading on this book/s. It's a fictionalized account based on true events.
Hell of a life.
Peter Pinney
Article by
Jim Klee from "Road Junkie"
Peter Pinney (1922-1992) exemplified the idea of the traveler who carries little, gets by on wits alone, and is willing to forage into the unknown despite all odds. He wrote a series of books based on his diaries, the most famous being Dust On My Shoes, detailing his odysseys around the globe.
The tales may be slightly embellished, but there is no doubt that Pinney did all a rough traveler could do –
his extended treks brought him through the Middle East, Africa, Asia, the Arctic, and Central America in the ’50s and ’60s – a time well before established backpacker trails were laid down. Pinney was a rogue, a smuggler and a trailblazer.
After serving in WWII and fighting in the Solomon Islands, Peter Pinney forged Navy discharge papers to get work aboard a Swedish ship out of Australia bound for London. It was the beginning of his traveling career which he would partially finance by smuggling.
In 1948 he found himself in Greece, near penniless, with the desire merely to see the world, a world torn asunder and left in chaos by the war:
... I am just traveling. Some people like to grow crops, others to make music, or sit in small shops, like your father, selling pots. I am unsuccessful in all the things which I enjoy the most, except the one thing which I find best of all: and that is traveling. To pass through a new country is something very dear to my heart.
Pinney did his traveling with true lust for the unknown in a world whose colors are now quickly fading to a uniform gray with globalization. In his time European ancestry still held considerable status in farflung destinations, and so he was able to con his way through every situation that came his way with the local people. Unlike now, there were no hordes of youths lugging around rucksacks and no established hostels. Everywhere he went people were amazed at his disheveled appearance, worn shoes, and his lack of luggage.
Pinney would go on to traveling overland through wartorn Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Assam and Burma – nearly dying in a train bombing, escaping multiple times from arrest, entering countries without visas, working various scams, and witnessing the drowning of his companion, Marchand, in the monsoon-heightened rivers of the Burmese jungle. It was just the beginning for the intrepid Pinney, though.
Back in India he began smuggling gold and dynamite, amongst other things, with a group of pilots in Calcutta. He was arrested picking up gold illegally in Western Australia and served out a jail sentence of seven months.
After bouncing around in Papua New Guinea, Kuwait, and Scandanavia he united with another Dutch companion, a woman named Anna, in 1952 and embarked on another major voyage this time through Africa. Strange and beautiful incidents followed involving hitching through the freezing Sahara, teaming up with a Creole named Chickenthief, and tramping through the Belgian Congo sporting a beard and Scottish kilt.
Pinney kept it up for years, and in 1955 he decided to give the New World a try. Soon he was living with Eskimos in the Arctic, and later he married [Alice] on top of a volcano [Irazu] in Costa Rica. After yet another brush with death in the jungles of Central America, Pinney got back into the smuggling game – this time in the Carribean. He bought a ship and [with Alice] ran liquor out of Panama. The boat eventually sank, of course.
In love with the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico Pinney worked a while skippering yachts for rich Americans, the quintessential thing to do as a charasmatic good-for-nothing in that part of the world. After more years he was back in Australia but he never really settled down. Remarried, he went on to a productive writing career. Rumors have it he even lived out of a VW van with his wife in Europe for a while in the ’70s. Truly a legend.
A few months before passing away he had this to say about his life:
“... I’ve had the best life, and the best mates that a man could wish for, and if I could I’d have it all over again without changing anything. Or anyone.”
Peter Pinney enjoys a bit of fame in Australia, a country that celebrates and rewards people for going on ‘walkabout.’
Texas_Medic
Verified SOF
Aren't these the guys that did the long distance open-ocean kayaking in collapsible kayaks from subs? Hell of a workout.
Yep, Operation Jaywick, they had a 50km paddle from the MV Krait to an Island LUP, then into Singapore Harbour, back to the LUP then a few days later 50km back to the Krait. 8 or 9 days all up. They tried it on again a year later in October 44, Operation Rimau, it turned to shit and 10 of the boys were killed or captured, with the captured being beheaded just before the end of the war.
More info & images for Jaywick
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=O...cE6uUiQeztYCwDg&ved=0CD8QsAQ&biw=1280&bih=651
I always wondered where Z Special Unit trained. I was on a holiday in Queensland, Fraser Island to be exact. I walk in to the lobby of the resort and there's a small display saying they trained there during the war.
The Rimau & Jaywick guys trained separately in Refuge Bay, Pittwater just north of Sydney.
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=O...cE6uUiQeztYCwDg&ved=0CD8QsAQ&biw=1280&bih=651
I always wondered where Z Special Unit trained. I was on a holiday in Queensland, Fraser Island to be exact. I walk in to the lobby of the resort and there's a small display saying they trained there during the war.
The Rimau & Jaywick guys trained separately in Refuge Bay, Pittwater just north of Sydney.
