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WITHOUT PREJUDICE & STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

Mr Barry Sue
PO Box 490 Kalamunda
WA 6076

Dear Sir

Re- Investigation
Into the matter of allegations by Lynette Silver against Jackie Wong Sue (Deceased) as reflected in
the West Australian Newspaper 10 July 2010

Further to our twenty seven (27) page report complied acting upon your instructions, we herewith submit
the following summary.

From the information we have obtained, as reflected in our report, it is our respectful suggestion that the
report in Toto not be made public. The reason for this is that close inspection of your father’s diaries and
trans communicable letters of 1945 contain some intimate and private information.

Additionally, it is presently undetermined as to whether or not, some of the information contained therein
may or not be subject to the ‘Official Secrets Act’. We therefore recommend that any information derived
of our enquiry be publicly disseminated, it should be confined to this summary.

Firstly, as per your instructions, we sought to investigate the assertions made by Lynette Silver as to the
veracity of your father’s comments as to his service in Blood on Borneo during 1945. As we understand
those assertions by Silver, they were;

1. Jack could not have witnessed the death marches.

2. Jack could not have been involved in the attack on Trusan due to the fact at the time; he was out
of the operational area.
3. Jack could not have been present during the attack on Pitas.

PO Box 490 Kalamunda WA 6926

Mobile +61(0)411 861 690
Email: aicone@iinet.net.au
Assessment of Issues

1. Jack could not have witnessed the death marches.

We have closely studied the following documents which appear to be all that can be, now
relied upon and they are;
(a) Special Operations Records in Archives’ (referred hereon as SOA’s),
(b) Your father’s various diaries / documents
(c) Your father’s official wartime service record
(d) Statutory declarations by Graham Greenwood of Operation Agas with Z
Special Unit as well as eminent reliable witnesses to various conversations
during the 1960’s and 1970’s with former groups of Z Special personnel
including Lt Don Harlem.

We have to question the reliability of the SOA documents. It is understandable that in any
conflict where special forces troops are operating under cover or behind enemy lines, that
‘report writing’ at best, is an onerous duty performed under duress.

As a result, they are usually brief and lack expanded detail. They are written after the
event and are therefore subject to the memory of the authors who are notoriously
fatigued, with malnutrition and often suffering from maladies of several kinds.

The accuracy especially of actual dates often suffers (see in the above report the quoted
instances where the pertinent months have been revised by crossing out and writing in
corrected or altered data.

We have contacted personnel tasked with the responsibility who co-ordinate, confluence
and compile historical military data who affirm that any wartime report (and in particular
the SOA’s relied upon here) are subject to inaccuracies; and I quote their observations
“… enough holes to make a very good sieve …”

To emphasise just how unreliable such reports are, we refer you to Silver’s own book
Sandakan – A Conspiracy of Silence pages 315 and 316 wherein her ‘Chronological
Sequence of Events’ through March to August; adequately demonstrate the confusion as
to the exact status of the prisoners at Sandakan, Ranau and points between.

Specifically we quote her assertion that on the;

* 3rd April “Agas signals SRD that all POW’s have been moved from Sandakan”

Yet she states,

* lst August “10 POW’s alive at Sandakan”

* 14th August “2 POW’s alive at Sandakan”

2
* 15th August “Murozumi beheads last Sandakan POW”

These are her words in her book.

We refer you also to an SOA dated 20 May that states “All POW gone from Sandakan”.

We venture to suggest it would be imprudent of Silver as a self proclaimed investigative

historian, being availed of these discrepancies that these reports at best were indicative
only of actual events and at worse, totally unreliable.

Yet, in her scathing, cowardly attack on the late Jack Sue, she totally relies upon their
veracity as if they were unequivocally the gospel truth. It goes without saying that even if
Jack Sue somewhere stated that he and Gort Chester saw the last 4 POW, how would he
know they were the last 4?

In any case, in his book Blood on Borneo, he makes it on a number of occasions very
plain that some 50 plus years after the event, he apologises for any inaccuracies.

Notwithstanding, it is indicated that prisoners as early as late January began departing

from Sandakan and carry on through until mid June (according to Silver) which may or
not be true as we do not really know. There is no empirical evidence other than the words
of some survivors that marches were organised, as indicated by Silver restricted to those
indicated as being numbers 1 to 5 or more.

It begs the question that at any time from Jack’s insertion on 3 March to his extraction on
17 August 1945, it is not inconceivable that he and Gort Chester in their various patrols
of the area came into contact with marching POW.

Given the sensitivity of the whole POW issue at that time, it is equally not inconceivable
that any report submitted by Chester may have been conveniently “lost” in
communication (Blamey’s cancellation of Operation Kingfisher speaks volumes).

We therefore respectfully submit that Silver is remiss in her reliance on the SOA’s to
castigate Jack Sue as to his veracity in the matter of the POW’s.

Notwithstanding, we refer you to a signed hand written document by the late Don
Harlem. This document dated 31 March 1984, was in relation to a proposed book that he
and Jack were both preparing to write during the 1980’s and in this, Don Harlem clearly
states in his own hand and we quote;

“... Jack and I are writing the story of the infamous Borneo Death Marches. We are
the only two original operatives who covered this whole 160 mile Death March
route westwards from SANDAKAN to RANAU during hostilities...”

3
2. Jack could not have been involved in the attack on Trusan due to
the fact at the time; he was out of the operational area.

In rebuttal of this assertion by Mrs Silver, we have to, with due respect accede to her
assertion that he could not have been there. If she is referring to the mission as 30 May
1945 (if indeed that is the correct date for the reasons aforementioned), then he was
clearly involved in Operation Stallion at that time.

Notwithstanding, we refer you to the Agas Report of 20 May wherein it is described that
an attack on Trusan was carried out by natives on that day. This appears to be a 3rd party
report, therefore, given any previous comments such a report may well lack fully
descriptive details of this raid.

It is no secret, as evidenced from diaries and reports that Chester, his officers, his NCOs
and his OR’s had little faith in the quality of the majority of his native troops. It is
therefore inconceivable to us that Chester would authorise such a raid if it were not under
the command of an officer and at least one NCO. It was standard SRD operating
procedure for all parties to be under the command of an officer and at least one NCO and
this can be verified in the files we sighted during our research.

From the SOA’s it is indicated that Lt Harlem had been tasked to lead guerrillas that he
had trained into the area of Sungei Sungei and Sugut River as this area is in the vicinity
of Trusan; a mere 12 miles or so of Sungei Sungei.

It is not inconceivable that the reported raid on 20 May was led by Lt Don Harlem and
that his NCO was Sgt Jack Sue. This tends to be verified in that the report indicates the
location of safe containing money and other documents as described in Blood on Borneo.

We refer you to an actual outbound field signal, written in 1945 and sent from Trusan and
in what strongly appears to be Jack Sue’s handwriting. This signal clearly states, quote;

“... OUT... QSP... NRM... FROM DON AM IN TRUSAN SEND PRIORITY

MOTOTAI NOT TO BOMB FOR TEN DAYS. REQUEST IMMEDIATE
STRIKE KENOLIGAN AND TABOUAN URGENT STOP TRUSAN
DESERTED ON ENTRY FIFTY JAPS RETURNING APPROX TEN DAYS TO
CLEAR ODD STORES HAVE OPENED SAFE DOCUMENTS JAMBONGAN
MORE NEWS FOLLOWING ...”

Whilst the 3rd party report indicates no major conflict with the Japanese, it is not
inconceivable that a sole suicidal soldier possibly aware of the approach (whilst other
Japanese had fled) sought an opportunity to die for his emperor; an issue of relative
inconsequence in the grander scheme of things.

So it follows that Jack Sue’s account of taking out a single soldier to save Harlem’s life
and finding the safe could not honourably be called a lie. We also refer you again to the
supporting affidavits in the company of Don Harlem and others as to that veracity.

4
Having considered this, it gave us some concern as to why Mrs Silver given her
experience with the parsimonious ness of information contained within these reports, did
not allow Jack Sue the benefit of the doubt as to this incident.

We would have thought that in the years between 2001 and Jack Sue’s death, presuming
she had read Blood on Borneo , had she had any doubts she could have clarified it with
Jack Sue as to whether he referred to the 20th or 30th May raids as he does not indicate
any date in his book.

We say that to call him a liar is despicable and we wondered why she had done so after
his death.

We are confident that Jack was still in the field as he was not extracted until the 21st May;
given the inaccuracies of dates. He was definitely in the field in the area at the time and
one of his diaries reflects he was cleaning weapons which ‘is standard operating
procedure’ after a raid.

3. Jack could not have been present during the attack on Pitas.

In support of our previous assertions as to the unreliable accuracy of the ‘Special

Operations Records in Archives’ (referred hereon as SOA’s), we refer you to the letter of
28 August 2010 from one Craig Brown of SOA; an acclaimed investigative historian.

We quote;

“… The Official History of the Operations and Administration of Special

Operations Australia [(SOA), also known as the Inter-Allied Services Department
(ISO) and Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD)) Volume 2 - Operations -
copy no 1 [for Director, Military Intelligence (DMI), Headquarters (HQ),
Australian Military Forces (AMF), Melbourne dated March 1946 - NAA citation:
NAA: A3269, O8/A

... Is, like many of the other SRD official history volumes and many of the
operational reports themselves, filled with inaccuracies. Inaccuracies I have
encountered include dates, service numbers, place names, operative names.

At first glance the records seem accurate enough, but it takes a keen eye and an
analytical mind to spot the inconsistencies.

There are several reasons for this;

1. The official history documents were compiled between October 1945 and
March 1946, in some cases several years after the events depicted. This
allowed inaccuracies and suppositions on the part of SRD Historical

5
 Section NCOs to creep in, especially where few operational or intelligence
reports existed.

2. Operational reports were often written by the Party Leaders In the field,
when these men were under extreme stress or suffering from tropical
diseases. Dates, place names and personnel names especially have proved
to be Incorrect in some of these cases. Basic facts were not checked before
the information was included in the Official History documents,
particularly Volume 2 - Operations.

3. "Interrogation" (debrief) of Operatives returned from the field was in

many cases conducted immediately on return from operations. These
operatives were often suffering from malnutrition and tropical diseases. A
glance over most service records for AIF Operatives shows that most
spent at least a week in hospital on their return from the field. Debrief of
personnel in this condition is not, in my opinion, conducive to accurate
reports. So as you can see, from the above, I do not consider the Official
History of SOA Volumes to be accurate sources. They were written by
personnel who were not on the operations described and were not fact
checked to ensure accuracy. I also do not consider Party Leader reports
to be 100% accurate either. In my own research, I use these documents as
a guide only.

Debrief of Operatives returned from the field is usually the most accurate
of the report types listed above, but as with Party Leader reports, I will
only use these as a guide.

4. Much important information only came to light AFTER the Official

History of SOA Volumes had already been written.

…” (unquote)

We now refer you to a letter which appears to be dated sometime in May 1945 from a
Chinese operative to Jack Sue in the field sent by native bearer informing him that the
Japanese at Pitas were reduced to 8 in number, had two (2) machine guns and six (6)
rifles.

The letter urges Jack Sue to act swiftly before the Japanese are reinforced, as they are
moving to and fro.

We now refer you to an order originated by Jack Sue urgently requesting a torpedo stores
drop in the area of Mempakad, some mere six (6) miles from Pitas.

Given his obvious close association with the author of the letter, referring to your father
as “Uncle” and his own father as Jack’s brother, it is conceivable that a raid was made on

6
Pitas at Jack’s insistence citing the vulnerability of the small Japanese party and
prevailing upon Chester to implement the raid.

It is equally conceivable that the raid was made some time in May. We also have sighted
one of Jack Sue’s photographs showing the radio shack at Pitas dated May/June 1945
confirming the probability that the raid on Pitas took place sometime in May.

We now refer to the evidence of one Graham Greenwood, a former “Z” Operative who
served with Jack Sue at the time in question. Specifically, we refer you to two extracts
from a book, written by Mr Greenwood, named “No Turning Back.”

The extracts referred to are:

“Forty Miles on foot” Chapter 10, page 107:

“… Don, Jackie, Maruf & Kanun had already gone ahead into the area, planning a
raid on the rubber plantation at Pitas, held by Japanese garrison. So this left Gort,
Nick, Skeet and me to do the tramp …”

Page 110 Para 2

“… the next day we heard a party from here had made a night raid on the Pitas
Homestead, and the Japanese soldiers there had been killed, leaving the way clear
for us to go up the river and take the place over as our new headquarters …”

It is very significant to note that this book was commenced in 1982, well before Blood
On Borneo, and was finally published in 2005.

Any assertions as to these being the ramblings of some insignificant “Old Man” must be
considered against the fact that Mr Greenwood was only in his mid fifties in 1982, and is
still of very sound mind in his late eighties!

Mr Greenwood has been interviewed (his attached affidavit refers) and he is very clear
that Jack Sue was on that raid on Pitas, although he is uncertain of the actual date.

Once again, given an expert historian’s view of SOA inaccuracies, Jack should have been
given the good grace of doubt as to his veracity and certainly, not labelled a liar.

Possible Motive:

As previously mentioned, we were surprised at the vehemence of Silver’s callous attack

on a dead man’s reputation: There seemed no rational explanation.

As a result, we focused our enquiries on Silver’s antecedents in respect to her

predilection with the Borneo operations and the Death March tours.

7
It was discovered that from the years 1978, Jack Sue was conducting diving and special
interest tours in Borneo especially focusing on historical wartime experiences.

These tours were financially viable and very popular particularly with Australians from
all states as well as international clientele. These tours ceased in about 1995 when Jack
Sue virtually chose to retire.

Our enquiries revealed that about the time of her book Sandakan – A Conspiracy of
Silence, Silver commenced conducting tours in Borneo through a local agent Tham Yau
Kong. As far as we can determine, these tours continue to this time on a regular basis.

Further enquiries have confirmed from information supplied to us by you that in about
August of 2009 contact was made between yourself and Tham Yau Kong wherein as
confirmed by the latter that a proposal by him to you was made to instigate tours in
Borneo called “In the Footsteps of Jack Sue and the Z Men” where Barry Sue was to be
the personal escort of these tours.

We consider it being significant that this same person was also the authorised agent in
situ who ran the tours in Borneo for Silver. Tham Yau Kong confirms that negotiations
between your good self and him over a period of months with an eventual proposed
commencement date of May 27 being followed by July 1 and August 12 2010.

We understand from Tham Yau Kong that for various reasons, mainly due to your
father’s untimely death in November 2009, it would not be possible to realise the first
confirmed tour of “In the Footsteps of Jack Sue and the Z Men” until 12 August 2010;
the original arrangements being made prior to his death. Confirmation of this is verified
by both yourself and Tham Yau Kong.

We have confirmed that a website established by Tham Yau Kong was online advertising
“In the Footsteps of Jack Sue and the Z Men” in March 2010. We have perused a number
of email communications between, initially a journalist with the West Australian
Newspaper, namely one Rod Moran and yourself requesting to peruse your father’s
wartime diary, in the singular. This led into further requests for the diary and other papers
by Silver who initially gave no specific reason for the request.

Your replies did not preclude an exchange of information but requested the supply of
documents to you from Silver which you were prepared to peruse and compare to
ascertain as to if there were any obvious discrepancies. Silver was not prepared to supply
documents and requested a meeting stating that she had;
“… a limited window of opportunity …”

At the time you were unable to commit time for such a meeting due to other project
obligations and made Silver aware of that as you had no agenda to pursue unlike it would
appear, Lynette Silver.

8
It was without warning shortly thereafter that the cowardly castigation of Jack’s veracity
appeared on the front page of the West Australian Newspaper on 10 July 2010.

We are privy to an email communication from Silver to the Borneo agent Tham Yau
Kong the following day Sunday 11 July 2010 and we quote; “…

Original Message -----

From: lynette silver
To: yau kong tham3
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2010 12:42 PM
Subject: FW: Jack Sue

Here is the main newspaper story - they certainly made a big thing of it! There is also and
editorial. All Ok here. Had one' hate' email. Also had another, but when he got my reply,
he apologised profusely and urged me to keep up the good work. Have had three long
emails from people congratulating me on the research - two were soldiers, and one is an
historian.

L.

websites:
www.lynettesilver.com
www.sandakan-deathmarch.com

additional email:
lynettesilver@live.com
lynettesilver@tpg.com.au

Later that day Tham’s website was visited and the “In the Footsteps of Jack Sue and the
Z Men” advertisement had been removed without any notice to you.

Further enquiries have been determined from Tham Yau Kong that Silver had
preordained the article in the West Australian Newspaper with a view to discredit Jack
Sue’s reputation in order to extinguish any competition to her own tours.

It then made sense to us as to why she might see fit to take such action because it occurs
to us that there is a limited market for such tours in Borneo; and the two (2) tours would
potentially be in conflict and therefore, commercially less viable.

Furthermore, we refer to the Epilogue of Silver’s latest publication “Deadly Secrets”

wherein Jack Wong Sue by inference, is vilified and the newspaper article (inspired by
but not written by Silver) lends credibility to her assertions in her book.

9
Conclusion:

We cannot specifically prove that Lynette Silver set out to castigate the reputation of Jack
Wong Sue for her own material gain, nor can we beyond reasonable doubt prove that her
motives for apparently inducing the West Australian Newspaper reporter Rod Moran to
assist her in what cannot be discounted as a commercially based attempt at blowing her
own trumpet to the degradation of Jack Wong Sue’s heroic wartime reputation.

Her platform and that of Rod Moran was that this cowardly attack on a ‘war hero’ was
promulgated in the public interest of ‘historical accuracy’. The burning question for us is
the use of the words ‘historical”& “accuracy’.

Firstly, it was never purported by Jack Sue, that Blood On Borneo was in any way
intended to be an authentic historical work: quite the contrary in fact; he makes several
apologies, in advance, as to any historical inaccuracies, and colourful inclusions, yet
Silver has treated the work as such and castigated on those grounds, unfairly, we suggest.

We question the manner in which this ‘alleged investigative historian’ has quantified and
qualified ‘accuracy’ given the respected opinion of a reputable military historian (Craig
Brown) as to the fallibility of the Special Operations Records in Archives’ upon which
Silver appears to have relied.

We leave it to you as a family, to form your own opinions as to the motives, the veracity
and intentions of this woman whom, to our understanding has never heard, felt, seen;
experienced a shot fired in anger.

A person who has the temerity to invite her reading public to believe she has an empathy
with a special forces soldier, without her ‘any understanding’ of the trials, tribulations,
the horror, the fear, the depredations, the trauma, the post stress disorder, the debilitation
of multiple tropical disease, the weariness of war, malnutrition and dehydration.

Living in constant trepidation of being betrayed or captured by a merciless tortuous

enemy; an enemy who was reputed to put little or no value on the lives of others, or even
themselves to the degree that such covert operators would question their survivability
under such harsh and strenuous circumstances.

We respectfully submit that it cannot be discounted on a balance of probabilities that

Lynette Silver callously contrived in concert with journalist Rod Moran to castigate the
memory of a much loved war hero who put his age up, volunteered to venture behind
enemy lines, did his duty, suffered the consequences for his country with the humility
representing the quality and courage of his Z Special Unit peers.

We refer you to the inscription Silver made to your father in her book Sandakan - A
Conspiracy of Silence in her hand;

10
 “… Lynette Ramsey Silver 27.8.98

To my friend Jack Sue who always knew the truth

… Lynette …”

Obviously it would appear not a time when he appeared to be, possibly a commercial
threat.

We note the overwhelming support for your father; the general Australian public in
comments following the West Australian Newspaper articles.

We also note that not one other media outlet took issue with this abominable story.

Although we cannot be definitive, it would appear prima facie that Lynette Silver has
gained her reputation as a military historian by singling out heroic people and denigrating
them; often times unjustly and on scanty and unreliable information.

For some 30 years or more, Borneo operations were classified and any talk about the
Borneo Death marches was strictly prohibited. The eventual writings from some self
proclaimed historians, such as Silver, have left a bitter pill in the mouths of many Z men
who strongly disagreed with her findings, taken from inaccurate records and written by
impersonal authors who were never there.

It would certainly explain why Harlem wanted to set the records straight (as can be seen
from some of his writings) in the proposed book that he and Jack Sue were planning to
write?

We refer you to part of Jack Sue’s Citation as issued from ‘Honours and Awards’ and
shown below.

11
We also note that immediately following these articles, Silver was on radio interviews
throughout Australia promoting her new book Deadly Secrets where she is recorded as
mentioning the ‘recent case in Western Australia’ as part of her book promotion. Was
this part of her real agenda or just pure co-incidence?

Additionally, we perceive that alleged historian’s, may have some difficulty admitting
that the sole source relied upon, by them, for their own reputations is inherently flawed.

We must, therefore, mention here that “commerciality” extends beyond, and does not
necessarily include financial profit.

12
Even though this has been a totally independent enquiry, we have to say there appears to
be absolutely no justification for calling Jack Wong Sue OAM DCM JP; a loved and
respected Australian icon … a liar!

We say, rest in peace Jack Wong Sue and all of his fellow Z Men.

13
 Appendix - West Australian 10JUL10 retrieved 10AUG10

Historian casts doubt on war hero's

record
ROD MORAN, The West Australian
July 10, 2010, 2:45 am

One of Australia's greatest war heroes, WA's Jack Wong Sue, fabricated key parts of his guerilla battles with the Japanese
in Borneo, according to Australia's leading investigative military historian.

The alarm was raised by historian and Order of Australia recipient Lynette Silver when she was approached for expert
advice on a planned documentary.

Ms Silver, whose investigations last year led to former Ex-Prisoners of War Association of Australia president Rex Crane
being charged with fraud after it emerged he was never a PoW, claims there are factual errors in Mr Sue's best-selling
memoir, Blood on Borneo, and inconsistencies with reports held by Federal Government archives.

Always a hero | Frauds exposed

Mr Sue was an operative in the ultra-secret Special Operations Australia, which was sent behind enemy lines in 1945. He
received a Distinguished Conduct Medal for a daring, and undisputed, reconnaissance mission on a Borneo railway
station. He died in November 2009, aged 84.

Ms Silver says Mr Sue lied in key aspects of his memoirs, including his claim that he was a witness to one of the notorious
Sandakan death marches, which saw allied PoWs marched from the Sandakan prison camp, in the north of Borneo, to the
village of Renau, in the interior.

She says that Mr Sue was not in Borneo when the first march began on January 28, was on a reconnaissance mission
when the second march left on May 29 and was in hospital when the third march left on June 15.

au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/…/3/ 1/4
10/08/2010 Historian casts doubt on war hero's re…
Appendix - West Australian 10JUL10 retrieved 10AUG10

Ms Silver says archived SOA records contradict the veteran's claims that he was involved in killing a group of Japanese
defenders at Trusan in May and saving the life of his commanding officer.

SOA archives show there were no Japanese at the village.

Mr Sue's account of a raid on a Japanese garrison at Pitas on June 13 is also disputed by Ms Silver. "At the end of my
investigation I was shattered," Ms Silver said. "Not only had Jack Sue not taken part in some of the missions, as he claimed,
he had also invented the story about seeing the PoWs.

"I trusted (him) implicitly regarding the story. It left me feeling betrayed and angry. I valued his friendship and had absolute
faith in his integrity.

"His actions … bring the entire veteran community, especially those who served in Special Operations Australia, into
disrepute.

"I realise that my findings will come as a disappointment to many of his admirers, of which I was one. However, now that I
know his account is flawed, I cannot ignore it. In the interests of historical accuracy, I felt it my duty to set the record straight."

au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/…/3/ 2/4
10/08/2010 Historian casts doubt on war hero's re…
Appendix
State president - West
of the RSL, Australian
Bill Gaynor, 10JUL10
said Blood on Borneoretrieved
was based10AUG10
on Mr Sue's memories of his time fighting the
Japanese and was not a historical text. "I guess in this day and age, when military historians start delving into actual war
diaries, and things like that, things may come out that put it into question," he said.

"I guess the bottom line is that if you were there you are qualified to talk about it. If you weren't there, you are only going by
what the written word is. Knowing Jack's integrity, he wouldn't make any claims that weren't there. Then again, everything is
open to scrutiny."

Mr Sue's family declined to comment.

Follow thewest.com.au on Twitter

25 Comments 21 - 25 of 25 First Page < Previous Next > Last Page

Post your comment

Colin 04:14pm Saturday 10th July 2010 WST Report Abuse 1 0

Well he is a hero whatever the truth, somethings might have been stretched who knows for sure. Its not like
the book Bravo two zero where 80% was found to be fiction.

Reply

Sandy Groper 04:36pm Saturday 10th July 2010 WST Report Abuse 0 0

Sometimes the personal records of WW2 Australians falsely showed they were hospitalised somewhere
when they were in fact on highly secret missions. I know from my personal experience in Vietnam there were
incidents involving myself where there is no official record.

Reply

Ron 07:46pm Saturday 10th July 2010 WST Report Abuse 0 0

Jack was there, and the historians weren't. He's still a hero who endured much privation and danger for other
AUSTRALIANS benefit. If his book is somewhat inaccurate, it could be due entirely to faulty memory, and
confusion with age. In many actions, even witnesses reports offered up...

Reply

Ron 07:50pm Saturday 10th July 2010 WST Report Abuse 0 0

... conflicting reports on what actually happened. The man still deserves everything he was accorded,
including his medals and hero status. Even C.W. Bean was guilty of error in recording war espisodes. Is
Lynette Silver on a mission to now denigrate a man who can no longer defend himself?

Reply

Rita Ducklin 10:56am Sunday 11th July 2010 WST Report Abuse 0 0

Regardless he was still a hero .

Reply

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au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/…/3/ 3/4
10/08/2010 Despite revelations Sue will always be…
Yahoo!7
Appendix - West Australian 10JUL10 retrieved 10AUG10
My Yahoo!7 Mail More

Despite revelations Sue will always be a

hero
ROD MORAN, The West Australian
July 10, 2010, 2:43 am

Jack Wong Sue is a wartime hero. But he may not be a hero for all the reasons you think he is.

There is no denying that Mr Sue was an operative of the secretive Special Operations Australia, which infiltrated Japanese
lines to gain valuable intelligence during World War II.

But hard documentary evidence now refutes some of his claims.

These serious revelations have cast doubt over what has become an iconic story to many West Australians.

It is worth noting that Blood on Borneo, Mr Sue's 2001 memoir, was written after he had a massive stroke. Paralysed down
his right side, he painstakingly typed the 400-page manuscript with a single finger of his left hand over three years.

It was an act of heroism in itself. What effect the stroke had on his memory of events more than 60 years before can only be
a matter of speculation.

Another explanation may involve what has been dubbed "survivor guilt", an aspect of post-traumatic stress syndrome. It is a
mental condition whereby a person genuinely feels they have done wrong by surviving where others perished.

Mr Sue emerged from the jungles of Borneo having seen - and necessarily done - terrible things. He was just 19..

Perhaps at the end of his life survivor syndrome set in as he recalled mates lost, the times he killed and the hopeless plight
of the Sandakan prisoners.

Doubts concerning aspects of his memoir arose when historian Lynette Silver was approached for expert advice on a
proposed documentary concerning a series of SOA missions, code-named Agas, conducted in Borneo in mid-1945.

The storyline was based on Mr Sue's memoir. When Ms Silver read the proposed documentary narrative she was puzzled by
the many factual errors. This led her to compare Mr Sue's claims in Blood on Borneo with SOA after-action reports of the
incidents described.

Ms Silver takes issue with Mr Sue's account of the SOA raid on the village of Trusan in May, 1945. He devotes a chapter to it
in his book and describes the killing of a number of Japanese defenders.

He also says he saved the life of his commanding officer, Lt Don Harlem, when a Japanese lying "doggo" aimed his pistol
at him: "Down Don! I screamed … Don dropped like a stone as I let go a burst of automatic fire with my silenced Austen
machine gun, almost cutting the enemy in two."

Lt Harlem's version was very different: "… I was to proceed to Trusan, (to) wipe out garrison of approx 7 Japs there and thus
open the Sugut River … I arrived at Trusan … and recced the area. 1 Jap seen during the day and as I could not move
before dark I decided to recce again on the 20th. This I did but 13 Japs seen there embarked and sailed to Keningau …On
21 all was set for the attack but it appears all the Japs evacuated the day before and only stores remained. These and the
houses were burnt on the 22nd as it was reported that the Japs wished to return … to salvage them and house timber for
boat building."

Another archival SOA document reads: "On 20 May a native party organised from Jambongan raided Trusan, where,
although no Japanese were found, their headquarters and safe were seized and many documents sent back for
examination."

Mr Sue's account of a raid on a Japanese garrison at Pitas on June 13 is disputed by Ms Silver. In Blood on Borneo, he tells
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Appendix
how he was with a party-ofWest Australian
guerrillas 10JUL10
that attacked a house ofretrieved 10AUG10
sleeping Japanese soldiers.

A person in the employ of the Japanese agreed to outline in chalk, on the ceiling of the basement, the position of the
soldiers' beds. At dawn they attacked, armed with silenced Austen machineguns, firing through the floor, killing all but one of
the enemy.

The SOA report does not support Mr Sue's account. It reads: "Pitas action on 13 June, 45. Sgt Watts with three sections of
(local) guerrillas set out … to attack and take Pitas. On the night of 13 Jun contact was made with Sgt Useoff SRD agent
working with the Japanese … Watts and a native named Mustol entered the quarters while 4 guerrillas remained below to
fire on any attempting to escape … Four Japanese were killed in their quarters and two escaped. A search was made in the
surrounding undergrowth and the adjacent lavatory where one Japanese was found and killed by Watts …"

Mr Sue is not mentioned in the report. On the date of the raid he was in hospital on Morotai.

While it is difficult to explain these anomalies in his recollections - and Ms Silver's criticisms notwithstanding - Mr Sue was
nonetheless a genuine wartime hero.

On May 31, 1945, he and a Malay guerilla, Mandor Ali, were sent to reconnoitre the Bongawan area, the site of an important
railway station.

It was a very dangerous mission, code-named Stallion IV. There were several thousand Japanese troops in the district. Mr
Sue and Mr Ali were able to get the station-master, Ah Lee, to accompany them to where their leader, a pre-war friend, was
waiting.

The SOA party was seeking information about Japanese troop movements - crucial information given the Australian 9th
Division was preparing to invade Borneo.

The SOA report on this mission reads, in part: "This was the result of a very good effort by Sgt Wong Sue and Mandor Ali,
who had to go into the station actually when Japanese were working there, and persuade Ah Lee to return with them to meet
the party leader."

In recommendations at the end of the report, it was observed: "Party Leader states that the work carried out by Sgt Wong
Sue and Mandor Ali in persuading the Station Master to leave his post was of special note. This dangerous mission was
carried out in a thickly concentrated Japanese area."

Mr Sue was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions. The later citation for the award goes into
considerable detail about his activities while behind Japanese lines, noting that he displayed "leadership, gallantry and
cold-blooded courage of the highest order". It continues: "While in the interior, Sgt Wong (Sue) did magnificent work in
gathering intelligence, organising native guerrillas and harassing the enemy, capturing considerable equipment and killing
numbers of the enemy."

While at Bongawan, Mr Sue spent eight days cross-checking the intelligence gathered from Ah Lee and "at great personal
risk watched hundreds of Japanese move down the railway line. The information thus received and passed on was of the
highest importance to the 9th Australian Division."

Ms Silver says Mr Sue's wartime record was admirable - so why embellish it?

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