Operation Sunlag was an Australian military operation in
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 ...
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 opposin ...
. Its aim was to investigate what happened to
Operation Lagarto.
Background
On 23 April 1945, Suncharlie operatives, connected to Sunlag, were deployed from , an Australian built Country Craft, some using Hoehn military
folboats (collapsible canoes). Although this operation was intended to be for long term intelligence work, they returned to Riversnake on 26 April 1945.
Actions
On 29 June 1945, the Sunlag party parachuted in from a
Liberator from
No. 200 Flight RAAF
No. 200 Flight was a Royal Australian Air Force special duties flight of World War II. The flight was formed in February 1945 to support the Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB) and saw action over Borneo and the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) from Mar ...
to relieve Lagarto. Captain A.D. Stevenson and Sergeant R.G. Dawson, both of
Z Special Unit, and Celestino dos Anjos, a Timorese guide, were parachuted into Timor two days ahead of a proposed supply drop to Operation Lagarto. They observed Sergeant Ellwood, who had been part of Lagarto, as being under guard. He had been missing for some time and was now obviously a captive. A rendezvous on 15–16 July 1945, using
''Krait'', was unsuccessful. Ellwood and others were finally rescued, together with the Brim party by on 5 August 1945.
On the night of 29–30 June 1945, Stevenson's party landed safely in an area close to the signalled drop zone and made preparations to observe any Japanese intervention and discovered Operation Lagarto had been compromised. Due to problems with their radio set, they were unable to contact Australian. In the meantime,
Operation Suncob had been undertaken and its men were captured and killed.
Aftermath
Dawson, Stevenson and Anjos had to survive pursuing Japanese for five weeks and were successfully rescued. However Dawson died of kidney failure on 10 August 1945 shortly after his return to Australia.
References
Further reading
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{{coord missing, East Timor
Sunlag
1945 in Portuguese Timor
Sunlag
South West Pacific theatre of World War II
Sunlag