The Killer Bees
Australian Independent Companies and Commandos at War, 1942 - 1945
Gregory Blake
Newport, NSW: Big Sky Publishing, 2024
Paperback 320pp RRP: $29.99
Reviewer: David Rees, June 2024
The aim of the Independent Companies (ICs) within the Australian Army in the Second World War was to conduct long range reconnaissance, harass and destroy enemy personnel and equipment, conduct sabotage and disrupt the enemy’s communication system. Like “killer bees”, they needed to find a victim, sting fatally and fly away. According to the author, Australian ICs were created as a result of some secret communications between the Australian and British Chiefs of Army, Sir Cyril Brudenell White and John Dill in 1940. At that time, Britain had a secret Special Operations Executive (SOE) for controlling a number of British Independent Companies tasked with secret operations behind enemy lines. An agreement was apparently reached to set up similar independent companies in Australia with training help from the SOE.
However, the Australian Army for reasons unknown, had no knowledge of this ICs agreement because a little time later, Sir Cyril Brudenell White was accidentally killed in an RAAF air crash near Canberra in August 1940. So, when a training team from SOE arrived by ship in Melbourne in November 1940 with Tommy guns, explosives and maps ready to train the Australian ICs, they were arrested by the Australian Army before the confusion about their purpose was made good.
Gregory Blake, the author, argues that the Australian Army initially never had any idea what to do with Independent Companies. Although training facilities were set up at Tidal River at Wilson’s Promontory in 1941, the senior army staff just weren’t ready for operating ICs. So, in June 1941, after a special breed of volunteers were selected for an initial training course for IC 2/1, the course was stopped and the recruits and trainers disbanded. When Japan entered the war in December 1941, the Army fortunately had a rethink about ICs. New companies IC 2/2 and IC 2/3 were suddenly re-formed and trained and quickly posted to Timor and New Caledonia to prepare for fighting a guerrilla type war against the Japanese. Subsequently, between 1942 & 1945, a total of eleven Independent Companies (ICs) or Commando Squadrons (CSs) as they were later named, were formed.
The book describes, the various campaigns carried out by the ICs and CSs, in Timor, New Guinea and Bougainville. They include the IC 2/2’s and IC 2/4’s roles in Timor, the IC 2/5’s role in Wau and Salamaua, the IC 2/7’s role in Bena-Bena, the 2/6’s role around Lae and with the American 32nd Division in Buna and finally the IC 2/8’s role with the 3rd Division in Bougainville.
The role of the ICs was often misunderstood by some senior Army Divisional commanders. It was mainly because of the ICs unorthodox tactics and the innovative, tough, resilient and uncompromising unique qualities of the ICs commanders and men. However, when the role was understood, even as a sort of ‘Jungle Cavalry’, the benefits of having such special unconventional warfare experts fighting alongside the regulars were huge.
Gregory Blake writes in a very readable style but the book may not appeal to some serious historians as it doesn’t provide any footnotes, index, detailed campaign maps or army organizational charts. The author wanted to make it easier for the general public to read! Nevertheless, the book still relies on a broad spectrum of reliable historical sources to compose an interesting story about Australian ICs and the important roles they played as killer bees behind enemy lines in the Second World War.
The RUSI – Vic Library thanks the publisher for making this work available for review.