Escape from Timor

Parties of displaced Australian servicemen were dodging the Japanese in South-East Asia, seeking any means of escape to Australia. Aircraftsman L. Bourke was one of a rearguard of 33 RAAF officers and airmen who remained behind on the island of Timor when the Japanese overran the Netherlands East Indies. He related that 'the mission of his party was to carry out rearguard and destructive operations in order to deny the Japanese the use of airfield and ground installations in Timor'. The officer in charge of the group was Flight-Lieutenant Bryan Rofe (D.Met.S.) formerly OIC of the meteorological section at Koepang.[51]

The subsequent adventures of this party constitute what may be one of the most graphic and dramatic escapes in Australian war history. 'It was a story of sheer courage and of grim hide-and-seek with the Japanese in the jungles and hills of Timor', reports a staff writer of T.V. Times. [52]

The events leading up to the escape were described mainly by Rofe himself to the T.V. Times. 'It all started even before Japan entered the war. Members of 2 Squadron RAAF were sent to Timor where, living as civilians, our job was to establish relations with the Dutch and establish aerodromes with meteorological facilities for heavy bombers.' [53]

The advancing Japanese reached Timor early in 1942. Rofe's party destroyed the same airfield they had so laboriously constructed a short time before; and also arms and ammunition which could not be left to the enemy. The only items retained were limited food supplies, vital radio equipment, meagre medical items and secret documents.

Bureau of Meteorology