The Heroes (mini-series)
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The Heroes (mini-series)
''The Heroes'' is a 1989 British/Australian mini-series on Operation Jaywick, a World War II special forces raid on Japanese shipping in Singapore harbour by the Australian Z Special Unit, based on Ronald McKie's 1960 book ''The Heroes''. Plot A British Army officer, Ivan Lyon, who is promoted to major and decorated for his bravery has the eccentric idea of commandeering a dilapidated old fishing boat and with a hand-picked team of commandos, sail it into Singapore and destroy the Japanese warships in the harbour. When Lyon receives the awful news that his wife and young son have been killed on board a ship bombed by the Japanese, his superiors feel that he is unhinged and refuse to consider his foolhardy plan. He eventually wins them over and the dangerous mission is put into action. "The Heroes" tells the absorbing true story of Operation Jaywick. Part One When the Japanese invade Singapore, Captain Ivan Lyon formerly of the Gordon Highlanders and currently working for the ...
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Ronald McKie
Ronald Cecil Hamlyn McKie (11 December 1909 – 8 May 1991) was an Australian novelist. He was born on 11 May 1909 in Toowoomba, Queensland. After receiving his education at the Brisbane Grammar School and the University of Queensland, he worked as a journalist on newspapers in Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore, and China. He served in the AIF during World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ... from 1942–1943, following which he served as war correspondent for several Australian and UK newspapers. After the war he worked for Sydney's '' Daily Telegraph''. McKie died from kidney disease on 8 May 1991 in Canterbury, Melbourne, Australia. Awards * Miles Franklin Award, 1974, and FAW Barbara Ramsden Award (joint winner 1974) for ''The Mango Tree''. Bi ...
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Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bordering the Strait of Malacca to the west, the Singapore Strait to the south, the South China Sea to the east, and the Straits of Johor to the north. The country's territory is composed of one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet; the combined area of these has increased by 25% since the country's independence as a result of extensive land reclamation projects. It has the third highest population density in the world. With a multicultural population and recognising the need to respect cultural identities of the major ethnic groups within the nation, Singapore has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. English is the lingua franca and numerous public services are available only in Eng ...
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Batman (military)
A batman or an orderly is a soldier or airman assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant. Before the advent of motorized transport, an officer's batman was also in charge of the officer's "bat-horse" that carried the officer's kit during a campaign. The British English term is derived from the obsolete ''bat'', meaning "pack saddle" (from French ''bât'', from Old French ''bast'', from Late Latin ''bastum'') The military term long predates the appearance of the fictional superhero Batman. Duties A batman's duties often include: * acting as a "runner" to convey orders from the officer to subordinates * maintaining the officer's uniform and personal equipment as a valet * driving the officer's vehicle, sometimes under combat conditions * acting as the officer's bodyguard in combat * digging the officer's foxhole in combat, giving the officer time to direct his unit * other miscellaneous tasks the officer does not have time or inclination to do The action of servi ...
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Robert Page (soldier)
Robert Charles Page, DSO (21 July 1920 – 7 July 1945) was an Australian soldier who was a member of Z Special Unit during the Second World War. He took part in Operation Jaywick and Operation Rimau, in which he was captured and executed by the Japanese. He was the nephew of Australian prime minister Sir Earle Page, and the son of Harold Page, who died as a Japanese prisoner of war in 1942. Page was played by John Howard in the film ''The Highest Honor ''The Highest Honour'' is a 1982 Australian/Japanese co-production about Operation Jaywick and Operation Rimau by Z Special Unit during World War II. The same story inspired the TV mini-series '' Heroes'' (1988) and '' Heroes II: The Return'' (1 ...'' (1983) and Chris Morsley in '' The Heroes'' (1989) and '' Heroes II: The Return'' (1991).
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Donald Davidson RNVR
Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the Gaelic pronunciation by English speakers, and partly associated with the spelling of similar-sounding Germanic names, such as '' Ronald''. A short form of ''Donald'' is ''Don''. Pet forms of ''Donald'' include ''Donnie'' and ''Donny''. The feminine given name ''Donella'' is derived from ''Donald''. ''Donald'' has cognates in other Celtic languages: Modern Irish ''Dónal'' (anglicised as ''Donal'' and ''Donall'');. Scottish Gaelic ''Dòmhnall'', ''Domhnull'' and ''Dòmhnull''; Welsh '' Dyfnwal'' and Cumbric ''Dumnagual''. Although the feminine given name ''Donna'' is sometimes used as a feminine form of ''Donald'', the names are not etymologically related. Variations Kings and noblemen Domnall or Domhnall is the name of many anci ...
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Services Reconnaissance Department
Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD), also known as Special Operations Australia (SOA) and previously known as Inter-Allied Services Department (ISD), was an Australian military intelligence and special reconnaissance unit, during World War II. Foundation Authorised by Prime Minister John Curtin in March 1942, following the outbreak of war with Japan, the Inter-Allied Services Department was formed on 17 April 1942 having been given approval by General Thomas Blamey and modelled initially on the British Special Operations Executive (SOE); it was organised initially by SOE British Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel G. Egerton Mott. For security reasons it was named ISD and its existence was to be only known by the Prime Minister and the High Command. Operations On 6 July 1942, a controlling body Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB) was formed to co-ordinate the operations of ISD and other similar organisations and became fully functional in December 1942. ISD was known as Secti ...
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Townsville
Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. Townsville hosts a significant number of governmental, community and major business administrative offices for the northern half of the state. Part of the larger local government area of the City of Townsville, it is in the dry tropics region of Queensland, adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef. The city is also a major industrial centre, home to one of the world's largest zinc refineries, a nickel refinery and many other similar activities. As of December 2020, $30M operations to expand the Port of Townsville are underway, which involve channel widening and installation of a 70-tonne Liebherr Super Post Panamax Ship-to-Shore crane, to allow much larger cargo and passenger ships to utilise the port. It is ...
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Samuel Warren Carey
Samuel Warren Carey Order of Australia, AO (1 November 1911, in Campbelltown, New South Wales, Campbelltown – 20 March 2002, in Hobart) was an Australian geologist and a professor at the University of Tasmania. He was an early advocate of the theory of continental drift. His work on plate tectonics reconstructions led him to develop the Expanding Earth hypothesis. Biography Samuel Warren Carey was born in New South Wales and grew up on a farm three miles from Campbelltown, New South Wales, Campbelltown. The family was to move to the town centre, saving the young Carey the walk to school. An interest in physics and chemistry during high school was to lead to selection of both subjects when he attended the University of Sydney in 1929. Mathematics was required and he was encouraged to study geology as his fourth subject, a department still under the influence of retired Professor Edgeworth David. He started a student Geology club as he became attracted to the subject's mix ...
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Z Special Force
Z Special Unit () was a joint Allied special forces unit formed during the Second World War to operate behind Japanese lines in South East Asia. Predominantly Australian, Z Special Unit was a specialist reconnaissance and sabotage unit that included British, Dutch, New Zealand, Timorese and Indonesian members, predominantly operating on Borneo and the islands of the former Dutch East Indies.Horner 1989, p. 26 The unit carried out a total of 81 covert operations in the South West Pacific theatre, with parties inserted by parachute or submarine to provide intelligence and conduct guerrilla warfare. The best known of these missions were Operation Jaywick and Operation Rimau, both of which involved raids on Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour; the latter of which resulted in the deaths of 23 commandos either in action or by execution after capture.Horner 1989, p. 26 Although the unit was disbanded after the war, many of the training techniques and operational procedures ...
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Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, and southeast of the Arabian Sea; it is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Lanka shares a maritime border with India and Maldives. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is its legislative capital, and Colombo is its largest city and financial centre. Sri Lanka has a population of around 22 million (2020) and is a multinational state, home to diverse cultures, languages, and ethnicities. The Sinhalese are the majority of the nation's population. The Tamils, who are a large minority group, have also played an influential role in the island's history. Other long established groups include the Moors, the Burghers ...
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MV Krait
The MV ''Krait'' is a wooden-hulled vessel famous for its use during World War II by the Z Special Unit (Z Force) of Australia during the raid against Japanese ships anchored in Singapore Harbour. The raid was known as Operation Jaywick. The MV ''Krait'' is on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) in Sydney. History ''Krait'' was originally a Japanese fishing vessel based in Singapore named ''Kofuku Maru''. Following the outbreak of war, the ship was taken over by the American destroyer USS ''Edsall'' and used to evacuate over 1,100 people from ships sunk along the east coast of Sumatra. The ship eventually reached Australia via Ceylon and India in 1942, and was handed over to the Australian military. In Australian service, she was renamed ''Krait'' after the small but deadly snake. In September 1943, ''Krait'' transported members of Z Special Unit to Singapore, where they successfully raided the city's harbour, sinking seven ships, in what became known as ...
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Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent islands such as the Simeulue, Nias, Mentawai, Enggano, Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung and Krakatoa archipelago. Sumatra is an elongated landmass spanning a diagonal northwest–southeast axis. The Indian Ocean borders the northwest, west, and southwest coasts of Sumatra, with the island chain of Simeulue, Nias, Mentawai, and Enggano off the western coast. In the northeast, the narrow Strait of Malacca separates the island from the Malay Peninsula, which is an extension of the Eurasian continent. In the southeast, the narrow Sunda Strait, containing the Krakatoa Archipelago, separates Sumatra from Java. The northern tip of Sumatra is near the Andaman Islands, while off the southeastern coast lie the islands of Bangka and Belitung, Karim ...
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