Operation Sunbaker was a

military operation A military operation is the coordinated military actions of a state, or a non-state actor, in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state or actor's favor. Operations may ...

by the Services Reconnaissance Department of

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, 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 (Austral ...

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

in May 1945. The aim was to insert a team of operatives behind

enemy lines The line of battle is a tactic in naval warfare in which a fleet of ships forms a line end to end. The first example of its use as a tactic is disputed—it has been variously claimed for dates ranging from 1502 to 1652. Line-of-battle tacti ...

. A

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

A72-159 of 200 Flight RAAF taking the team was shot down on 17 May near

Dili Dili (Portuguese/Tetum: ''Díli'') is the capital, largest city of East Timor and the second largest city in Timor islands after Kupang (Indonesia). It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in ...

with the loss of all on board. The dead were: AIRCRAFT CREW *F/O T.T. Biltoft *F/Lt. H.R. Campbell *F/O H.J. Clark *F/O H.A.J. Jones *F/Lt. J.W. Rice *F/O L.J. Brown *F/O A. McL. Clark, DFM (captain) *F/Sgt. C.A.R. Gamble *F/O G.M. Manning, DFM *Sgt. H. Riley "Z" SPECIAL OPERATION MEMBERS *Lt. A.F. Wilkins *Sgt. K.H. Bell *Cpl A.L. Lilya *Cpl J.A. Nicol *Sgt. K.M. Marshall

References

Notes

* * {{coord missing, East Timor

Sunbaker ''Sunbaker'' is a 1937 black-and-white photograph by Australian modernist photographer Max Dupain. It depicts the head and shoulders of a man lying on a beach in New South Wales, taken from a low angle. The iconic photograph has been described ...

1945 in Portuguese Timor

South West Pacific theatre of World War II May 1945 events