description
Content description
Photocopies of two ms accounts (42pp, undated c1980s) relating to his wartime service as a signalman with the Royal Signals (from January 1940) before being transferred to SOE (1941) as a signals instructor at Grendon Underwood and then Thame, Oxfordshire, (1942) where he carried out final training of agents on wireless sets to be used in the field, before transferring to Fawley Court, Henley on Thames, during which time he was promoted to Second Lieutenant, where he trained FANYS involved in SOE operations as radio operators and received and deciphered messages from operatives in the field, before working out of HQ Signals Office in London where the number of messages increased in the weeks before D-Day (June 1944), before travelling to Australia (1944) to assist Z Special Unit, his posting to Morotai (early 1945) to advise and assist signals personnel preparing for operations, during which time he volunteered to join Operation SEMUT parachuting into North Borneo with additional equipment as one party had failed to make contact, joining SEMUT II and resolving problems with their wireless sets before returning to Labuan (August 1945) to take charge of the base signal station, with comments on life in the jungle, living alongside the tribesmen and encounters with the Japanese; Z Special Association ts newsletter (2pp, March 1993) including his description of the challenges of signalling in the jungle; ts notes on wireless training and signalling procedures, with codes (15pp, 1942 and undated and 8pp booklet), Polish paraset diagram (undated) and French - English vocabulary booklet (12pp, 1942); Malay glossary (1p); ts programme for thanksgiving service (May 1945); ms translation of Japanese soldier's diary (4pp, 6 June – 16 July 1945) with brief descriptions of clashes with SEMUT operatives and ms extract of SEMUT I report (1p, undated) about enemy movements; copy of airmail edition of 'The Times' (22 August 1945) and ts souvenir programme for Gracie Fields concert in Labuan (27 August 1945); his ts report (3pp with ms notes 1p, 5 September 1945) on signals equipment and personnel of SEMUT II; receipt for equipment on return from SEMUT II operations (2pp, 19 September and 19 October 1945) and medical report giving a negative result for amoebic dysentery test (15 January 1946); ms airmail letter (2pp, 19 November 1946) from Captain A Macaskill, with whom he had served at HQ Signal Office and who had replaced him as signal master at Labuan, in which he expresses his frustration with the posting; copy of 'Commonwealth of Australia Gazette' (64pp, 27 February – 6 March 1947) with ms note (1p) listing awards given to members of SEMUT; copies of articles by Major Tom Harrisson, leader of SEMUT I, which appeared in the 'Scottish Daily Express' (3pp, 19 and 26 January and 2 February 1947); ms letter from Lieutenant Colonel 'Toby' Carter DSO (3pp, 8 April 1947), leader of SEMUT II, who remained in Borneo after the war, describing how Borneo had changed since the war had ended and discussing members of the Operation; ms letter from R Shakes (2pp, 2 November 1988) informing him of the death of Lieutenant Colonel Carter including his obituary and copy of Z Special Unit Association (Victoria) newsletter (September 1988); ts research essay (7pp, written in 1993 by J Klinger) on role of Z Special Unit in Operation OBOE, the invasion of Borneo; together with four photographs (c 1945) one of the crew at Labuan wireless station including Eadie, SEMUT II party, aerial photograph of Long Akah and parachute drop at Long Akah (May 1945).
History note
Cataloguer KM
