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In Phuoc Tuy province, South Vietnam, a tractor was stolen from the French Courtenay rubber plantation. Intelligence reported that it was being used by Viet Cong guerillas, to transport weapons and ammunition across the Australian area of operations. A patrol from 2 Squadron, Special Air Service Regiment was tasked with its destruction. This episode of Backyard Battlefields features excerpts from an interview with SAS veteran Anthony Bowden, recorded by the Australians At War Film Archive.

The Beaufort was a twin-engined torpedo bomber, built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. In 1939 the Australian government decided to have them built under licence by the Department of Aircraft Production (DAP) at Fishermans Bend in Melbourne and Mascot, New South Wales. Over 700 were built between 1941-1944 and were extensively used as a medium bomber and for general reconnaisance around Australia and the Pacific theatre of operations.   On the 9th of September 1943, a RAAF Beaufort A9-317 of No.14 Squadron took off from Busselton, Western Australia out into Geographe Bay on a patrol to search for enemy shipping. Carring four crew and one passenger, it was scheduled to land at RAAF base Pearce later that day, but never arrived. The circumstances of the disappaearance, on what should've been a routine patrol, remains an enduring mystery.

The Wunaamin-Miliwundi ranges are an elevated feature running through Western Australia's Kimberley region. Between 1879 and 2020 they were called the King Leopold Ranges after King Leopold II of Belgium. Through his private army the Force Publique he oversaw the death, torture and dismemberment of millions of people in the Congo Free State. The horror and depravity which took place were brought to mainstream attention by author Joseph Conrad in his novella 'Heart of Darkness'. Why was 35,000 square kilomentres of Western Australia named for a blood soaked European monarch?

Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Station Cunderdin was established in 1940 near the Western Australian wheatbelt town of Cunderdin. It was home to the No.9 Elementary Training School teaching ab initio (entry-level) pilots for the 'Empire Air Training Scheme' (EATS) an initiative to produce Australian air crew for eventual transfer to the Royal Air Force (RAF). Later it staged B-24 Liberator heavy bombers of the RAAF No.25 Squadron and US Army Air Force's 19th Bombardment Group (USAAF) conducting  range ocean patrols for the defence of Western Australia. This episode of Backyard Battlefields contains an interview with John Utting, the full transcript of which can be found at the 'Australians at War Film Archive' (Archive number 1653)

Northam is a small town approximately 100KM East of Perth. During WW2 it supported the US Navy's 7th Fleet operating out of Fremantle. The nearby locality of Springhill housed the bunkers of the '7 Naval Ammunition Depot' (7 NAD) storing ordnance the US, British and Dutch submarines needed to take the war to the Japanese. Torpedoes, shells, small arms and explosives were housed there and shipped by rail to the port at Fremantle. 7 NAD was one of three US Naval Ammunition Depots throughout Australia, the others being at Mount Coot-tha, Brisbane and Newington, Sydney.

The Sirius Dog Sled Patrol is a Danish Naval Special Forces unit.  Named for the brightest star in the night sky, it's tasked with long range reconnaisance, patrolling and maintining Denmark's sovereignty over the vast, Arctic wilderness of North-Eastern Greenland. It was born during the Second World War, enlisting hunters and native Inuits for the purpose of preventing a German presence on the remote North-East coast. Today their role in patrolling Greenland has come into sharp focus with the melting ice opening up new shipping and resource opportunities for the territory. Opportunities drawing the avaricious attention of great powers.

Bill Simmonds was from Bunbury, Western Australia. A pilot with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) 77 Squadron, during the Korean War he flew P-51 Mustangs before converting to the Gloster Meteor jet fighter. On the 8th of May 1952 he became one of the few Australian 'Mig Killers' of the conflict after shooting down a Communist MIG-15 while escorting US bombers over North Korea. He went onto a distinguished career in the RAAF. He was seconded both to the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and US Air Force (USAF) and was a member of the 77 Squadron aerobatic team before retiring at the rank of Air Vice Marshal. This episode contains elements of an interview recorded for the television series 'Australians at War', available at the 'Australians at War Film Archive' (UNSW/2563).

On October 3, 1952 Britain detonated an atomic bomb on the MonteBello Islands, 50 miles off Western Australia's Pilbara coast. The success of the top secret test made Britain the third atomic power after the United States and Soviet Union. Author Paul Grace, has written a dramatic account of the test, 'Operation Hurricane: The Story of Britain's First Atomic Test and the Legacy that Remains' His Grandfather, Flight Lt. Ron Grace was a Royal Australian Airforce pilot who flew security patrols before the test and 'coastal monitoring' sorties in the radioactive aftermath, searching for fallout on the Australian mainland. This episode is Paul's first hand account of the test, its politics, personalities and implications for Australia.

'Eendracht' means 'Concord' or 'Unity' and is taken from the motto of the Dutch republic 'Eendracht maakt macht' - 'Unity makes strength'. It was the name of a ship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) captained by Dirk Hartog which made contact with Western Australia in 1616. The crew of the 'Eendracht' marked their visit with a pewter dish subsequently known as 'Hartog's Plate' which remains the oldest artefact of European exploration discovered in Australia.

Today 'Emily Taylor' is a bar in the fashionable port City of Fremantle, but first it was the name of a ship built in Bombay for the British East India Company and subsequently sold to a private concern. It was chartered by the Western Australian goverment to transport settler families to establish the colony's third settlement, the town of Augusta on Cape Leeuwin in 1830. Not long after 'Emily Taylor' would forever became part of the history of WA when it was blown ashore and wrecked on its return voyage to Fremantle.

In 1944 a special Japanese unit, the 'Matsu Kikan' ('Matsu' meaning Pine Tree) was tasked with gathering intelligence on bases and allied air activity in Northern Australia. Sailing from Timor in a disguised fishing vessel the 'Hiyoshi Maru', the team, all experienced in unconventional warfare, successfully made landfall in Western Australia and conducted a reconnaissance in the remote Kimberley region before returning to Koepang.

The 'Koolama' was a ship of Western Australian State Shipping Service. It was built in 1936 by Harland and Wolff, ominously the same firm that built 'Titanic', for the servicing of the remote ports of the North West and Northern Territory. In 1942, bound for Darwin with a cargo of 180 passengers and war material it was attacked by Japanese bombers 35km off the Western Australian coast. Severely damaged, 'Koolama' limped into a remote bay in the Kimberley. What followed was a murky tale of bravery, malice and possible mutiny. This episode of Backyard Battlefields tells the story of 'Koolama', from it's halcyon days as the pride of the WA state ships to it's final resting place at the bottom of Wyndham harbour.

The 'Z Special Unit' was one of the most audacious and little known clandestine forces of WW2. It comprised Australian, British, New Zealand, Dutch, Timorese and other Allied personel. One of their most famous missions was 'Operation Jaywick'. This saw a disguised fishing vessel the 'MV Krait' sail from Exmouth Gulf to Singapore where the operatives, after paddling more than 50km, attacked Japanese ships at anchor before making their escape back to Australia. This extraordinary operation was followed by 81 other covert missions including the ill-fated Operation Rimau and Operation Semut. I had the privilege of speaking with Gavin Mortimer author of the Osprey Publication 'Z Special Unit' about the history and events surrounding this incredible force. Gavin is also the author of some other seminal books on the history of Special Forces including David Stirling: The Phony Major, The SBS in World War II and Merril's Marauders.

'Galup' is a Whadjuk Noongar word meaning 'Place of Fires' and refers to what is called  'Lake Monger' a remnant of the series of wetlands once known as the 'Perth Great Lakes'. In 1830 it was the site of a colonial era massacre when Redcoats of the British 63rd 'West Suffolk' Regiment and armed settlers pursued a party of Noongar from Mount Eliza to the shores of the lake. Subequently called 'Mongers Lake' after migrant John Henry Monger, who was given a land grant between the present day suburbs of Wembley and Subiaco, the Lake area underwent continual reclamation works and from the 1920s was dedicated for the purpose of 'public recreation, health and enjoyment'.

Leeuwin means 'Lioness'. A Dutch Galleon of the Dutch East India Company it charted the South coast of Western Australia in 1622. Leeuwin left Holland bound for the capital of the Dutch East Indies, Batavia (modern day Jakarta, Indonesia) blown off course, the Captain Jan Fransz would encounter Western Australia, and thereafter it would be known as T Landt Van de Leeuwin, 'The Land of the Leeuwin'.