Operation Platypus was an operation by Allied

special reconnaissance Special reconnaissance (SR) or Recon Team is conducted by small units of highly trained military personnel, usually from special forces units or military intelligence organizations, who operate behind enemy lines, avoiding direct combat and detec ...

personnel from

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 i ...

("Z Force") during the

Borneo Campaign The Borneo campaign or Second Battle of Borneo was the last major Allied campaign in the South West Pacific Area during World War II to liberate Japanese-held British Borneo and Dutch Borneo. Designated collectively as Operation Oboe, ...

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 ...

. Platypus involved small groups being inserted into the

Balikpapan Balikpapan is a seaport city in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Located on the east coast of the island of Borneo, the city is the financial center of Kalimantan. Balikpapan is the city with the largest economy in Kalimantan with an estimated ...

area of

Dutch Borneo Kalimantan () is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are Brunei and East Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo. In 2019, ...

(Kalimantan), to gather information and organise local people as resistance fighters against the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. On 20 March 1945, ''Platypus 1'' (also known as Project “Robin”) was carried out, using Hoehn folboats (collapsible canoes) and inflatable rubber dinghies that had been lashed to the side of the submarine USS ''Perch''. Four members of Z Force, in two of the folboats, which had been fitted with outboard motors, travelled to shore north of Balikpapan. As one of the motors failed to start, both crews resorted to paddling. One folboat, crewed by Sergeants Bruce Dooland (

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (CA), wh ...

) and Bill Horrocks ( New Zealand Army), managed to reach the shore. The other folboat, carrying the mission commander Major D. J. (Don) Stott and his deputy Captain Leslie McMillan, both New Zealanders, capsized; both men were reported missing, presumed drowned. At other planned landing sites Japanese patrols were encountered and no further landings took place that night. On the night of 22 March, the main body of ''Platypus 1'', using folboats fitted with outboard motors, managed to land despite the motors failing. At one stage they were surrounded by Japanese patrols but managed to evade them. Meanwhile Dooland and Horrocks used mirrors to signal Allied aircraft and were extracted by a US

Catalina Catalina may refer to: Arts and media * ''The Catalina'', a 2012 American reality television show * ''Catalina'' (novel), a 1948 novel by W. Somerset Maugham * Catalina (''My Name Is Earl''), character from the NBC sitcom ''My Name Is Earl'' ...

aircraft. To conceal operational techniques from the Japanese, their folboat was partly dismantled and stowed in the Catalina. Eight further phases of Operation Platypus were carried out. * 20–24 June 1945. ''Platypus 2'', ''Platypus 3'', ''Platypus 4'' and ''Platypus 5'', were carried out, when Z Special Unit personnel were deployed with their folboats, from a Catalina aircraft belonging to the US 7th Fleet, to gather information from local people. * 30 June 1945 . There were also Platypus 6 and 7 when two parties of Z Commandos were dropped by a plane from Flight 200, into the Semoi area of Borneo on 30 June 1945. * 3 July 1945, ''Platypus 8'' party was flown by Catalina from Tarakan to Melintang lake to organise resistance. Party members: Capt D. Prentice (AU), Capt Max Horstink (DUTCH), Sgt Ali and a local from Samarina (Dutch National Archives, report by Capt M. Horstink 14 August 1945 archive 2.20.62 nr 217) * 12 July 1945, ''Platypus 9'' party was deployed by folboat via landing craft to Djinabora (upper Balikpapan Bay). and assisted in disrupting enemy barge traffic. * 16 July 1945, ''Platypus 10'' patrolled the Riko area using a folboat and a '' prahu'' – a robust, locally-built canoe. * 22 July 1945, ''Platypus 11'', the final operation of this series, used folboats to reconnoitre and pinpoint prospective target areas .

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References

* * * {{coord missing, Indonesia Conflicts in 1945

Platypus The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or mono ...

South West Pacific theatre of World War II Borneo campaign