Footsteps of Sparrow Force

[Ian Skennerton]

An update on our Sparrow Force documentary for our MilSurps supporters in 2011...
We are currently in the filming/production phase. Floods and rain put most re-enactment scenes back 3-4 months although things are improving now in Southern Queensland.

Some ordnance and shooting sequences have been done in N.Z. and office scenes finished for Bonegilla, Noonamah and Penfui. Thanks to Brian Labudda (Kingaroy) and Mike Warwick (Mebourne) for all the Patt. 1908 webbing equipment sets, boots, uniforms, slouch hats and helmets along with WW2 typewriter, stationery, licences, ID, SAT manuals, pounds shillings & pence, field telephone, signals, lamps, bandoliers, bayonets and accessories. It is great to have a room full of original items that we can draw on for any of the sets. Our visit to Timor has been rescheduled from early December, so we are back on track for most of the filming now.

We are making contact with more Sparrow Force families because of the page linked from http://www.skennerton.com (News & Events), resulting in more photos of the men with personal details. New sequences are written into the script with personal accounts and images, a tribute to their courage against all odds. A likely release date for the DVD documentary now is Remembrance Day of this year.
And a hearty 'Thank-you' to our supporters,
Ian Skennerton

[Ian Skennerton]

Hello again to forum members following our Sparrow Force documentary.

As most Australian and p-o-v (point of view) scenes are shot outdoors, we've been delayed about six months with rain. Only recently could we finally do the Usau (Ouisow) Ridge village and weapons sequences. Then again this weekend we could not film maize (corn) field sequences at Warwick because of rain. It's been almost non-stop since October!

Filming is 80% complete now, then we move to post-production (editing). Our publishing schedule is 3 months behind because of the rain and other delays however the extra time has seen more contacts with Sparrow Force members' families and added to our stock of original photographs and personal accounts.

We are on track to have the DVD release for Remembrance Day (11th Nov.) as a 1 hour 40 minutes documentary along with a 2nd CD of historical records, complete nominal rolls, photos of graves and memorials for those who are now buried overseas, etc.

And thank-you to those who have helped with the project,
Ian

[Buccaneer]

Hi Ian, I wish you the very best of luck with this project it is so important to ensure that the memories and history of this time is not lost.
I am involved with the Normandy Veterans here in the UK, I suspect that most people when questioned could recount the events of the Normany landings on the 6th of June 1944, but it rather different when you get to know some of the veterans on a personal level. We visit the graveyards of the fallen in Normandy with the veterans who are all well into their eighties, with tears in their eyes they will stand in front of a headstone of a long dead comrade who in their memory is still only in there late teens or early twenties and recount stories like it was just yesterday, they sometimes recount the death and destruction of the battles they fought and the friends they lost, things quite often that would never have been mentioned when at home. I now have the honour and privilage to carry the "Standard" for our branch as the veteran who carried it so proudly for so many years is no longer able to do so.
Sadly I seem to be attending more and more funerals as the years take there toll but thanks to people like yourself their story and the stories of others will not be forgotten.
"AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"

[Ian Skennerton]

Hi Buccaneer,
Working through so much research material, as you say from being in contact with such veterans, brings us much closer to these special men. Since we started the project, three more of those interviewed have passed away. Of the 1,300 Sparrow Force members, there are fewer than a score left today. When we started, it was mostly memories of my dad. But now there are so many more names of those men whom I am priviledged to know.

Part of Pte. G.J. Faulkner's (HQ Coy. 2/40th) poem that we use as a monologue over the credits, tells their story...
One thousand Japs before us,
Twenty-two thou’ more behind,
We had no time to think or cuss,
Here’s into it, na’er mind.

The Japs were on the ridge top,
And we were down below,
We had to take that hilltop
Or go where good soldiers go.

Working through paperwork and nominal rolls, 'k.i.a.', 'missing presumed (dead)', 'd.o.w. (died of wounds)' constantly brings tears to my eyes. One-line annotations are all that remain of young lives, each with hopes, fears, comrades, courage and final death in battle. Each one of the thousands is a story of its own; few of us will ever know them which is truly a shame on us all.
Thank you for your thought and support,
Ian

[Ian Skennerton]

Sparrow Force Update...

Recent filming for our Sparrow Force documentary in Timor and Thailand resulted in some unexpected finds. A 1921 Lithgow bayonet with Queensland Maple grips is prized by one of the locals. It was given to his father by Australians as a token of appreciation for hiding them from the Japanese and showing the way to the coast.

Then at Irekum (Airkom) the site of capitulation and Jap bombing, we located bomb craters. Locals believe spirits haunt the sites, like the caves we inspected at Penfui. At one bomb crater, poking into the crumbling sides, rusty metal appeared. 'Bomb fragments' turned into a badly rusted, loaded magazine, then a Tommy gun, more mags, Webley, remains of a wallet and some Dutch coins. More excited about the find than filming it, police and then army men appeared and we were shuffled away. I tried to film but was told 'no camera'. Some gold coins were in the trove but it was gathered up in plastic bags and taken away. Our interpreter noticed one of the local men who took us there put some items in his pocket... so after the gendarms left, he was asked what he found.

Two Dutch East Indies copper coins dated 1750 and 1859, called 'drout'. The finder did not want to sell them but when I indicated that my father was there during the bombing and I needed them as a memory, he sold them for 50,000 rupiah, about $6. The question was raised as to why Sparrow Force men would hide them there after the surrender as most were deactivating weapons and throwing them away. Our camera assistant is a lateral thinker and suggested that with all the trees and grass around, the easiest place to come back to later would be a bomb crater.

In 1942, the men were escorted back to Usapa Besar behind their wire defences, the new prison camp. Many men went out of camp looking for food, vegetables and trading with natives... some continued personal wars by locating earlier weapons caches and staying out for days to ambush isolated Japanese. The cache we found however had not been visited as the money was not taken, so we'll never know what happened to the original owner, or who he was.

Visiting the curator of war graves in Thailand, Rod Beattie, we discovered that original concrete crosses on Timor were placed into the open graves when remains were removed to the war cemetery. Each was engraved with name, regimental number and unit, by Fortress Engineers including one of our advisors, Cpl. Perce Curvey. Perce passed away about six months ago, unaware that the crosses remain at the original sites to this day, undisturbed. Another project for later on!

Filming is to be completed next month and post-production starts in October. We have learned so much on our journey back to 1941 and 1942; it has brought us closer to the men of Sparrow Force, and to my father, to travel in their footsteps. These men, like many veterans, could not even relate to their own families, they were a select group for which membership could not be bought or acquired. So much of their experience is lost forever with their passing. It has become a personal crusade, and understand better and relate more to their adventures and misgivings, hopes and fears, and courage against insurmountable odds.

With hours of new footage of firearms, aircraft and vehicle action with no faked Hollywood props, a friend suggested that so little can be used in 'Footsteps of Sparrow Force'; so we should make a separate 'Guns & Gear' DVD. Great idea! Now we plan two 2-disc sets, each with a DVD and an info/research CD. If only there were 40 hours to each day and 10 days to a week!

Ian Skennerton

[pusser]

I was lucky enough to meet and speak with Mervyn "Doc" Wheatley, who was in the 2/2 Australian Independent Company on Timor. He was a proffesional kangaroo shooter in outback Western Australia, and these skills obviously transfered over to his service life. He became a well known sniper whilst on Timor. You can read about his escapades in an old Guns Australia magazine which featured his beloved P14 sniper rifle and also in the excellent book titled "The Men Who Came Out of the Ground" By Paul Cleary. There is a photo of Wheatley in this book also. It was an honour and privilege to meet such an individual. I will definately be donating to the cause.

[Ian Skennerton]

Thanks very much mate,
The 2nd Independent Coy. on East Timor certainly utilised snipers armed with the No.3(T) rifles. Ray Aitken was another of the snipers, he shot the Singapore Tiger on his first excursion outside Dili. Many Aussie snipers were kangaroo shooters before.

The No.3 sniper rifles feature in Damien Parer's movie and stills although the regular infantry men on Dutch West Timor did not have scoped sniper rifles, despite requests for these and other current weapons. We are well into the editing process now and should be able to render to DVD around New Year.
Cheers, Ian

[Roger Payne]

Ian,
I think IOU a contribution. Could you please PM me some time when you have a free moment?

TIA.

Roger.

[Pablo]

Really looking forward to this release as I found out recently, when going through some family papers, my mum's cousin was a member of sparrow force. (Found his service record)
Mum says he never spoke of the war and no one really knew what he did so it was a bit of a shock when we did some reading up on sparrow force and what they got up to in timor.
He died some 30 years ago so the mystery will remain. He was never a POW luckily, that's about all we know.

[Ian Skennerton]

Hello everyone ..

In conjunction with the Milsurps site help in promoting our Footsteps of Sparrow Force (click here) project, we have just finished and have copies available of 'Guns & Gear of Sparrow Force' which runs 1 hr 23 mins, plus a CD with armourers charts, pics, etc.

It is $35, the same price as 'Footsteps' and has lots of live action... rifles, machine guns, smg, equipment, aircraft, vehicles, etc.

To bring more awareness to our project and this companion CD, Doug (Badger) has approved placing this notice here.

For more information and ordering, CLICK HERE

Thanks to everyone for their past and future support of this project …

Ian