Blog Day 13: Sunday 05 April 2020

Another dull wet day in locked down Bentleigh East.

I have been amusing myself this afternoon looking at the 2nd Independent Company association website (doublereds.org.au).  The independent companies were the forerunners of the commando companies in WW2.  For those of you that don't know the 2nd Independent Company was the commando unit that my father (Staff Sergeant Max Miller TX3328) joined up with on Timor after the majority of his own unit, the 2/40th battalion, was captured by the Japanese in February 1942 in Dutch West Timor.  At the time of the Japanese invasion the 2nd Independent Co was stationed in Portugese East Timor, which was a bit naughty as Portugal was a neutral country and Australia had violated that neutrality by stationing a military unit there.

The Japanese landed on Timor in February 1942 and the Independent Company now including the survivors of the 2/40th remained on Timor fighting the Japanese until December 1942.

There is a long story with this which I might bore you with on another rainy Sunday afternoon whilst we are still in some sort of lockdown.

As an aside the force that the Australians landed on Timor to defend the island against the Japanese was known as Sparrow Force - do you think a force named Sparrow Force would have struck terror into the hearts of the Japanese?  I think not!

And when we finish with Dad's time in Timor of course we can delve into his New Guinea experience and then of course the Australian landing Balikpapan in Borneo that he also took part in.

I can hear you all shouting, "whatabout your grandfather's TGW experiences"? Well gentle reader I think that there will be plenty of time to discuss these as well.

Not much more to add for today, daylight saving has finished so it will be getting darker earlier.
 

Current Virus Stats Day 90

Vic: 1,135 infected (+20 from previous day) - 8 deaths
Aus: 5,687 infected (+139 from previous day) - 34 deaths (increase of 5) Recovered 701
World: 1,202,827

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