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RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2013
father’s top-Secret steps retraced When Judi Wigzell decided to visit Borneo to see where her father had lived with headhunters while fighting the Japanese during World War 2, little did she know it would escalate into a full-scale celebration. Her father, the late Sgt Frank Wigzell NZ422668, was one of 23 New Zealand soldiers seconded to the Australian Army for deployment with the top-secret Z-Special Unit, which carried out reconnaissance and espionage activities behind enemy lines before the surrender of the Japanese forces in Borneo in October 1945. She discovered that the Sarawak Tourism Federation was planning to erect a memorial plaque in the remote highlands community of Bario, 1090 metres above sea level, where the first Z-Special operatives parachuted into on March 25, 1945. She contacted the families of other Z-Special veterans in Australia, and four of them came to the 68th-anniversary event. Leading the group was 93-year-old Jack Tredrea, from Victoria, one of the few surviving Z-Special operatives. He had made two previous visits to Borneo (the second, in 2010, documented on Australian television) and he was invited to unveil the new monument. With him were: Lynne and Colin Behn (his daughter and sonin-law); Bob Pinkerton, from Perth (son of Lt Robert Pinkerton NX43707), and Linda Burr, from Adelaide (daughter of Sgt Fred Sanderson QX11361). Before going to Bario the visitors were guests at a Sarawak Tourism Federation luncheon. A welcome letter described their “pilgrimage visit” as “a significant inspiration to us in promoting a greater awareness of the selfless sacrifices of your comrades and the supporting local tribal warriors in the cause of peace, unity and freedom from the Japanese occupying forces during World War 2.” The letter said the establishment of a minimuseum in Bario, with exhibits from Sarawak Museum, was an initiative towards the preservation and promotion of this priceless heritage. Visitors can walk through a historical journey on Z-Special Unit’s Operation Semut. Flying over the rugged ridges of the Borneo jungle in the small Twin Otter aircraft (still the only means of access into the interior), Judi could only imagine the apprehension her father would have felt before he jumped from the RAAF B-24 Liberator in the second Z-Special group insertion. He had splash-landed in a paddy field at the edge of a hastily-constructed bamboo airstrip
Plans in train for 70th anniversary of Bario landings
They had time to reflect on the hardships experience by Z-Special Unit. at Belawit where Maj Tom Harrisson had set up the Semut 1 operational base. His first meeting with the local Kelabit headhunters was when they laughingly dragged him to dry land. Judi’s first encounter with the locals was equally memorable – an official reception at Bario airport, then whisked away in a convoy of four-wheel-drives for the unveiling ceremony, and a luncheon at the Bario Asal longhouse, with welcome speeches by dignatories and traditional musical items by the women. A special banquet in the evening, organised by the Rurum Kelabit Association, was attended by more than 200 people The guests were greeted individually by the tribespeople, many of whom wore their husbands’ and fathers’ wartime medals. More speeches were given and responded to by the visiting relatives of the Z-Special operatives. Judi was able to retrace her father’s footsteps along one of the jungle tracks he traversed with his band of local guerrillas searching for the Japanese and reporting their movements by WT
wireless back to base. With a local guide, she and three other visitors had climbed 600 metres when the heavens opened. Within minutes, they were drenched, and forced to retreat, slithering and stumbling across bamboo-pole bridges accompanied by thunder and lightning in a replay of conditions their fathers endured 68 years ago. Sheltering under one of the huts of the native Punan people, who still live in the jungle without any modern facilities, they had time to reflect on the hardships experienced by Z-Special Unit members trying to survive against an enemy and a hostile environment. Judi presented a framed memorial to the mini-museum listing the names of the 22 New Zealanders who served with Z-Special Unit, along with a photograph of her father as a 20-year-old in his army uniform. Jack Tredrea also contributed a plaque with the names of the first eight Australian operatives who parachuted into Bario. She hopes visitors may appreciate that the Anzac spirit of Z-Special Unit is also part of their heritage. She also donated a New Zealand flag to the Sarawak Tourism Federation for use on Anzac Day and other occasions at the Heroes Memorial in Kuching to recognise the involvement of Kiwi soldiers in the liberation of Borneo.
PHOTOS: Jack Tredrea and Judi Wigzell (centre) in the official party at the unveiling of the new monument in Bario (top) and presenting plaques to the Bario Mini-Museum curator (lower, far left). Below, left: Z-Special Unit operatives parachute into Borneo on March 25, 1945. Below, right: A Kelebit family waits to greet the visitors at the special banquet organised in their honour by the Rurum Kelabit Association.
Judi Wigzell and the Australian family members who travelled to Borneo this year plan to return for the 70th anniversary of the Bario landings in March 2015. She hopes some relatives of other New Zealanders involved in Z-Special Unit will join her. She says they will be welcomed as family by the local Kelabit community and come away enriched by the experience. Information: millarju@xtra.co.nz. Z-Special Unit’s existence was not revealed until 40 years after World War 2 when the provisions of the Official Secrets Act were lifted in 1986. Many operatives published books about their personal exploits, but Sgt Frank Wigzell was the first to research and document the entire history of the unit to dispel any doubts about its existence and the role it played in the SouthWest Pacific. New Zealand Army Involvement, Special Operations Australia was published in the United Kingdom in 2001. This edition is now out of print, but a new e-book, Blood Brotherz, reprints his personal account of his involvement with Z-Special Unit and his top-secret mission with Operation Semut I, which resulted in the deaths of around 1200 Japanese and the capture of 400 prisoners in Borneo. Judi Wigzell has contributed the foreword and an epilogue, which records her father’s efforts to obtain official recognition of Z-Special Unit for its New Zealand members. Another 14 Kiwi ‘Z’ servicemen were in Borneo: Maj Don Stott (Auckland), Lt F.J. Leckie (Christchurch), S/man Ernie Myers (Invercargill), Capt L.T. McMillan (Auckland), WO R.G.Houghton (Wellington), Lt R.M. Morton (Dargaville), Sgt W. Horrocks (Auckland), S/Sgt G.R. Greenwood (Christchurch), Signalman N.G. Flemming (Auckland), Sgt V.F. Sharpe (Christchurch), Lt R. Tapper (Pukekohe), Cpl G.R. Edlin (Invercargill), Sgt R.R. Butt (Auckland), Sgt R.B.Shakes (Auckland). Maj Stott and Capt McMillan were lost, presumed drowned, after being off-loaded into folboats from a submarine off the Borneo coast, and S/ man Myers was beheaded after being captured and tortured by the Japanese when he landed.
Inventory first step towards refurbishment of Southland war memorials Peter Owens Venture Southland has secured an $85,000 Lottery Grants Board grant to help restore at least 10 war memorials. Growing awareness of Anzac Day and, increasingly, Armistice Day, and the 100-year anniversary of World War 1 in 2014 are motivating many communities and organisations to refurbish monuments. The Government has allocated more than $17 million to help communities commemorate the centenary. This Lottery Grants Board has $7.291 million for community events and smaller capital
works, and $10m for larger-scale projects of national significance. Venture Southland will contract a heritage consultant to assess the memorials that will be identified when the Southland War Memorial Inventory is developed in consultation with the war memorial steering group. Historians and community groups have also identified several memorials in need of restoration. Local communities are being supported to look after individual monuments and develop a Southland-wide inventory of memorials. The project has arisen amidst concerns that some
memorials are being lost as older people with relevant knowledge die and community venues change or disappear. Venture Southland community development team leader Bobbi Brown says about 160 memorials have been identified. However, it is widely thought there could be as many as 600 ‘memorials’ to wars in the Southland region. This As well as statues, obelisks and column s, these include cairns, plinths, plaques and rolls of honour, memorial plantings, clocks, bird baths, gates/arches/entranceways and bridges. The inventory will eventually lead to an
electronic record available to the public on line. A steering group has been established, and Venture Southland is facilitating the project. RSA branches are being contacted. Memorials to World War 1 were largely funded by local communities without government assistance. Following World War 2, most communities accepted the then-government policy that subsidies would be available only for “living memorials”, hence the proliferation of amenitybased memorials – including parks, libraries, swimming baths, indoor sport complexes, halls/ community centres.