Operation Opossum was a

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 opposin ...

raid undertaken by Australia's

Z Special Unit 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 in ...

in 1945 on the island of

Ternate Ternate is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands. It was the ''de facto'' provincial capital of North Maluku before Sofifi on the nearby coast of Halmahera became the capital in 2010. It is off the we ...

near Borneo to rescue the

Sultan of Ternate This is a list of rulers of Maluku from proto-historical times until the present. The four sultanates of Ternate, Tidore, Sultanate of Jailolo, Jailolo and Bacan Islands, Bacan were considered descendants of a legendary figure called Jafar Sadik a ...

, Muhammad Jabir Syah.

Operation

The island of Ternate had been occupied by Japan since 1942. The Sultan sent several islanders to Australian Army headquarters on

Morotai Island Morotai Island ( id, Pulau Morotai) is an island in the Halmahera group of eastern Indonesia's Maluku Islands (Moluccas). It is one of Indonesia's northernmost islands. Morotai is a rugged, forested island lying to the north of Halmahera. It ha ...

asking to be rescued. The Dutch were enthusiastic about the mission. The mission had been requested by the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration who was, according to Dick Horton "embarrassed that the Sultan...had been captured by the Japanese ... and was being held hostage in his own castle". The mission was authorised by General

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...

who was worried about the Sultan's life and his wives. The Sultan had been sympathetic to the Allied cause. The Allied contingent consisted of eight Australians from

, and three Dutch officers and a Timorese corporal. The mission left Morotai on 8 April 1945 aboard two Australian crewed US Navy patrol boats and landed on the northern coast of Hiri Island, two kilometres north of Ternate. They went to the coastal village of Kulaba after a six-hour trek. Members of the unit rescued the Sultan along with his two wives, eight children and retinue of courtiers and relatives. Several boatloads of Japanese soldiers arrived the next day resulting in a shooting fight which resulted in the death of three Japanese and Australian officer Lieutenant George Bosworth.George Bosworth's service record
accessed 15 September 2013 Warrant Officer Dick Perry assumed command and attacked the remaining Japanese who were all killed. The sultan and his family were taken to Morotai by

PT boat A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the wa ...

where the Sultan spoke with MacArthur. They were then settled in the Queensland town of

Wacol Wacol is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Wacol had a population of 3,761 people. Geography Wacol is bounded to the west by the Brisbane River and to the north loosely by Wolston Creek. It is south-west of t ...

until the end of the war.

Legacy

The mission reportedly inspired the film ''

Attack Force Z ''Attack Force Z'' (alternatively titled ''The Z Men'') is a 1982 Australian-Taiwanese World War II film directed by Tim Burstall. It is loosely based on actual events and was filmed in Taiwan in 1979. It was screened at the Cannes Film Festiva ...

'' (1981), even though the plot of that movie was very different from the facts of Opossum.

References

External

Operation Opossum
at Z Special Unit * {{DEFAULTSORT:Opossum, Project Opposum 1945 in Indonesia Special forces of Australia Opposum Opposum Opposum