000			03764nam a2200457 i 4500
001			wb9223428
005			20240617141741.0
008			210720t20212021vraabcf b 001 0deng d
020			_a9780143790020 _qpaperback
040			_aANL:PDS _beng _erda _dANL _dWWBK
042			_aanuc
043			_aa-bn---
082	0	4	_a940.548694 _223
082	0	4	_a940.541099159 _223
099			_a940.548694 _bHEL
100	1		_aHelliwell, Christine, _eauthor. _9115294
245	1	0	_aSemut : _bthe untold story of a secret Australian Operation in WWII Borneo / _cChristine Helliwell.
246	3		_aSemut : _bthe untold story of a secret Australian operation in World War two Borneo.
264		1	_a[Melbourne, Victoria] : _bMichael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin Books, _c2021.
264		4	_c©2021.
300			_a562 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : _billustrations, maps, portraits ; _c24 cm.
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent.
336			_astill image _bsti _2rdacontent.
336			_acartographic image _bcri _2rdacontent.
337			_aunmediated _bn _2rdamedia.
338			_avolume _bnc _2rdacarrier.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aMarch 1945. A handful of young Allied operatives are parachuted into the remote jungled heart of the Japanese-occupied island of Borneo, east of Singapore, there to recruit the island's indigenous Dayak peoples to fight the Japanese. Yet most have barely encountered Asian or indigenous people before, speak next to no Borneo languages, and know little about Dayaks, other than that they have been - and may still be - headhunters. They fear that on arrival the Dayaks will kill them or hand them over to the Japanese. For their part, some Dayaks have never before seen a white face.So begins the story of Operation Semut, an Australian secret operation launched by the organisation codenamed Services Reconnaisance Department - popularly known as Z Special Unit - in the final months of WWII. Anthropologist Christine Helliwell has called on her years of first-hand knowledge of Borneo, interviewed more than one hundred Dayak people and all the remaining Semut operatives, and consulted thousands of military and other documents to piece together this astonishing story. Focusing on the operation's activities along two of Borneo's great rivers - the Baram and Rejang - the book provides a detailed military history of Semut II's and Semut III's brutal guerrilla campaign against the Japanese, and reveals the decisive but long-overlooked Dayak role in the operation.But this is no ordinary history. Helliwell captures vividly the sounds, smells and tastes of the jungles into which the operatives are plunged, an environment so terrifying that many are unsure whether jungle or Japanese is the greater enemy. And she takes us into the lives and cavernous longhouses of the Dayaks on whom their survival depends. The result is a truly unique account of the encounter between two very different cultures amidst the savagery of the Pacific War.
610	1	0	_aAustralia. _bArmy. _bInter-Allied Services Department. _9115827
650		0	_aWorld War, 1939-1945 _xMilitary intelligence _zBorneo. _9115828
650		0	_aWorld War, 1939-1945 _xCampaigns _zBorneo. _9115829
650		0	_aSpecial forces (Military science) _zBorneo _xHistory _y20th century. _9115830
650		0	_aDayak (Bornean people) _9115831
650		0	_aWorld War, 1939-1945 _xParticipation, Australian. _98435
650		0	_aWorld War, 1939-1945 _xUnderground movements _zBorneo. _9115832
650		0	_aGuerrilla warfare _zBorneo _xHistory _y20th century. _9115833
650		0	_aIndigenous peoples _zBorneo _xHistory. _9115834
651		0	_aBorneo _xHistory, Military. _9115835
945			_i31111082179316 _p$22.26
999			_c39237 _d39237
942	0	0	_02