The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements.
Operation Jedburgh was a clandestine operation during World War II in which three-man teams of operatives of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the Free French Bureau central de renseignements et d'action and the Dutch and Belgian armies in exile were dropped by parachute into occupied France, the Netherlands and Belgium. The objective of the Jedburgh teams was to assist allied forces who invaded France on 6 June 1944 with sabotage and guerrilla warfare, and leading local resistance forces in actions against the Germans.
The Battle of Timor occurred in Portuguese Timor and Dutch Timor during the Second World War. Japanese forces invaded the island on 19 February 1942 and were resisted by a small, under-equipped force of Allied military personnel—known as Sparrow Force—predominantly from Australia, United Kingdom, and the Dutch East Indies. Following a brief but stout resistance, the Japanese succeeded in forcing the surrender of the bulk of the Allied force after three days of fighting, although several hundred Australian commandos continued to wage an unconventional raiding campaign. They were resupplied by aircraft and vessels, based mostly in Darwin, Australia, about 650 km (400 mi) to the southeast, across the Timor Sea. During the subsequent fighting, the Japanese suffered heavy casualties, but they were eventually able to contain the Australians.
Z Special Unit was a joint Allied special forces unit formed during the Second World War to operate behind Japanese lines in South East Asia. Predominantly Australian, Z Special Unit was a specialist reconnaissance and sabotage unit that included British, Dutch, New Zealand, Timorese and Indonesian members, predominantly operating on Borneo and the islands of the former Dutch East Indies.
The Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB) was a joint United States, Australian, Dutch and British intelligence and special operations agency during World War II. It was responsible for operating parties of spies and commandos behind Japanese lines in order to collect intelligence and conduct guerrilla warfare against Japanese forces in the South West Pacific. The AIB was formed in June 1942 to coordinate the existing Allied propaganda and guerrilla organisations. The first controller of the AIB was Colonel C. G. Roberts. At its peak the AIB contained men from ten individual services and controlled or coordinated eight separate organisations. The role of the AIB was to obtain information about the enemy, "to weaken the enemy by sabotage and destruction of morale and to lend aid and assistance to local effort to the same end in enemy territories." One member of the AIB was Alfred Deakin Brookes, who went on to become the first head of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service in May 1952.
The Far Eastern Liaison Office (FELO) was a Second World War Propaganda and Field Intelligence unit set up under the orders of the Allied Land Commander, General Sir Thomas Blamey, on 19 June 1942. FELO became one of four sections of the Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB) which was established on 6 July 1942 to control and co-ordinate the activities of various intelligence organisations that had been set up after the outbreak of war with Japan.
Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD), also known as Special Operations Australia (SOA) and previously known as Inter-Allied Services Department (ISD), was an Australian military intelligence and special reconnaissance unit, during World War II.
Secret Intelligence Australia (SIA) was a British World War II intelligence unit commanded by Captain Roy Kendall who reported directly to MI6 in London. SIA was known as Section B of the Allied Intelligence Bureau but was not accountable in any way to the Australians or the Americans.
A long-range penetration patrol, group, or force is a special operations unit capable of operating long distances behind enemy lines far away from direct contact with friendly forces as opposed to a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol, a small group primarily engaged in scouting missions.
The Landing at Jacquinot Bay was an Allied amphibious operation undertaken on 4 November 1944 during the New Britain Campaign of World War II. The landing was conducted as part of a change in responsibility for Allied operations on New Britain. The Australian 5th Division, under Major General Alan Ramsay, took over from the US 40th Infantry Division, which was needed for operations in the Philippines. The purpose of the operation was to establish a logistics base at Jacquinot Bay on the south coast of New Britain to support the 5th Division's planned operations near the major Japanese garrison at Rabaul.
The Z Experimental Station (ZES) was established in July 1942 at Munro Terrace, Mooroobool, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, jointly by Secret Intelligence Australia and the Inter-Allied Services Department. The building chosen to be the headquarters was known as "Fairview", and it had been the home of Richard Ash Kingsford, the first mayor of Cairns and grandfather of aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.
The Bureau Bijzondere Opdrachten was a Dutch secret service during World War II. The BBO dispatched secret agents to the German-occupied Netherlands, where they supported the local resistance and carried out sabotage activities.
The Political Intelligence Service, was the main security agency for the Dutch East Indies from 1916 until its break-up in 1945.
Operation Tiger was a World War II operation by the Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service on the island of Java. Almost all ended in disaster for the Allies.
Operation Walnut was a military operation conducted by the Allies, notably the Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service, on the Aroe Islands during World War II. It took place in three phases:
Operation Oaktree was a Dutch military operation in Dutch New Guinea during World War II. Under the command of Captain Jean Victor de Bruijn, some 40 soldiers operated in the highland region of Western New Guinea for more than two years between December 1942 and July 1944, handled by the Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service, with Australian assistance.
The Netherlands Indies Government Information Service (NIGIS) was a civil secret service and propaganda organisation based in Australia, during and after World War II. NIGIS was affiliated with the Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) and the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA).
Operation Binatang was an Australian covert operation conducted by the Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD) during World War II. An agent of Z Special Unit was to be landed on the north coast of Java to recruit more men who would give active assistance to the allied cause. The operation was conceived in January 1944 but owing to the shortage of available submarines and the priority of Operation Hornbill it was delayed. When Hornbill was aborted arrangements were made for the mission to commence in February 1945.
Jean Victor de Bruijn was a Dutch district officer, soldier, explorer, ethnologist and writer. He spent most of his life in the Dutch East Indies, especially in Dutch New Guinea, working as a colonial administrator and an ethnologist. He gained fame for holding out with native Papuan soldiers in mountainous interior of Western New Guinea against overwhelming Japanese forces, as part of Operation Oaktree, maintaining one of the last Dutch-controlled outposts in the Dutch East Indies during World War II.
The 1st Infantry Battalion of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army was a Dutch colonial military unit that was active in the Dutch East Indies during World War II and the Indonesian National Revolution.
