Tracing the steps of Sparrow Force in West Timor

The not-so-lovely beach at Kupang.

The oh-so-lovely sunset!

Kupang  was truly off the beaten track. With only one pub to choose from and a couple of restaurants it was an interesting place to explore for four days. In mid-May, we flew to this city of 300,000 which is the capital of West Timor with our friends Alice and Horst who are also volunteering in Indonesia with us. Alice’s father had been a prisoner of war in Kupang during World War 2. So Alice had managed to get in contact with Ian Skenerton, a fellow Australian who had been doing research into Sparrow Force, the company that Alice’s father had been in. Mr Skennerton’s father had also been in Sparrow Force with Alice’s father in Timor while fighting the Japanese. He has recently produced a documentary about the exploits of Sparrow Force during the war.

Our transportation and drivers for our tour around the old WWII sites.

Alice had organised us a tour with Stanis Wanti (stanic_qz6@yahoo.com) , the local guide who had been helping Skennerton uncover a number of different World War 2 sites. We were apparently the first people to visit these sites after having been unearthed by Skennerton’s research – places even the local people had forgotten about.

An artillery gun at Klapalima

The  Australians had landed in Kupang a few of months prior to the Japanese coming and had set up headquarters and strategically placed heavy artillery around the place to protect the bay. This artillery is still found in its original locations, however, villages have gone up around them. It was a strange sight to see these massive guns surrounded by houses and people’s washing drying on the fence surrounding them.

Japanese caves

In February 1942, the 2nd/40th Battalion (“Sparrow Force”) comprising approximately 1300 men, faced an invading Japanese force of more than 23,000. These brave men inflicted heavy casualties on the Japs, killing almost a thousand in one battle  while only losing 12 of their own. After being left almost completely without ammunition, they were finally beaten – half surrendering and the other half retreating into Portuguese Timor (today Timor Leste). These men then waged a 10-month guerrilla war from the East against the Japs assisted by locals with almost no help from the main Australian supply chain. Other than Skennerton’s documentary, there has been very little attention given to the battles and historical sites of these soldiers in Timor.

We continued on to see some of the Japanese caves. Apparently the Japanese loved forcing local people to build them a whole underground system of caves, these can also be found in North Sulewesi in Manado. The local children play in the caves but nobody knows how far they go, as the children are not brave enough to explore the caves until they come to the end.

The concrete monument to the Japs' short-lived glory

When the Japanese conquered Kupang they also built a very interesting monument for themselves. It was strange to see in the middle of nowhere a concrete monument that the Japanese had built to honour their feat.

Alice sits on a wall possibly built by her dad

We continued our journey on to the site where the Australians had made their headquarters. This was a very special place for Alice as her father had been a concreter and the concrete foundations still remained intact. He would have played some part in constructing the buildings. The Australian headquarters was eventually captured by the Japanese which they to over and again built more caves to hide in.

All that remains are the foundations of the Dutch bridge at Champlong

                                              

With the locals at Champlong

The Australian War Memorial at Oesau

Our journey took us 2 hours northeast of Kupang to the Mina river where we were able to see the remains of an old Dutch bridge that had been blown up during the fighting between the Australian and the Japanese. While we were here I (Candice) was desperate to go to the toilet. So I walked up to some villagers house and asked them if I could use their toilet – which they eagerly let us use! After using their facilities we talked with them for a while. The grandfather, an old man with rotting red teeth from chewing betel nut, told us how he had been eight years old when the Japanese invaded Kupang. He was able to retell us stories of the Japanese and the Australians fighting. He told us that the locals hated the Japanese and would do all they could to help the Australian forces. However, when they were caught by the Japanese they were normally tortured and killed for assisting the Australians. 

All that remain of a Portuguese or Dutch war grave (perhaps 18th century) on the palm grove of the beach at Usapa Besar. 

We spent the next couple of days exploring a few more sights such as former war graves in a palm grove on the coast and heading down to a very disappointing beach. It was gross. However, on a positive note it was very interesting to drive through the villages and see how everyday people spend their days in West Timor.

I (Nat) think we would very much like to return to Timor one day, possibly get out to East Timor too!

The traditional Timorese harp, the Sasando being played. The song is the popular Javanese tune "Iwa Peyek"