Semut: The Untold Story of a Secret Australian Operation in WWII Borneo
Semut: The Untold Story of a Secret Australian Operation in WWII Borneo
July 02, 2021 | English | ASIN: B0933GYHRZ | 13 hrs 53 mins | M4B & MP3@126 kbps
868 to 876 MB | Unabridged | Retail
Author: Christine Helliwell | Narrators: Dorje Swallow, Christine Helliwell
July 02, 2021 | English | ASIN: B0933GYHRZ | 13 hrs 53 mins | M4B & MP3@126 kbps
868 to 876 MB | Unabridged | Retail
Author: Christine Helliwell | Narrators: Dorje Swallow, Christine Helliwell
This is the story of Operation Semut, an Australian secret military operation launched by the organisation popularly known as Z Special Unit in the final months of WWII. Anthropologist Christine Helliwell has called on her years of first-hand knowledge of Borneo, interviewed more than 100 Dayak people and all the remaining Semut operatives, and consulted thousands of military and other documents to piece together this astonishing story. Focusing on two of Borneo's great rivers - the Baram and Rejang - the book provides a detailed military history of Semut II's and Semut III's brutal guerrilla campaign against the Japanese and reveals the decisive but long-overlooked Dayak role in the operation.
But this is no ordinary history. Helliwell vividly captures the terrors of the jungle environment into which the operatives are plunged. And she takes us into the lives and cavernous longhouses of the Dayaks on whom their survival depends. The result is a truly unique account of the meeting of two very different cultures amidst the savagery of the Pacific War.
PDF companion included.