Z Special Unit veteran Joe Da Roza dies on Anzac Day eve ONE of the last remaining veterans of the top-secret World War II 'Z' Special Unit, Joe Da Roza, has died on the eve of Anzac Day.
Mr Da Roza parachuted behind Japanese lines on the island of Borneo in 1945 with other operatives from the Services Reconnaissance Department under an operation called Semut (ant) to recruit and train native fighters to disrupt Japanese operations in advance of the allied invasion.
The operatives actually rekindled the ancient tradition of head hunting by placing a bounty on the heads of Japanese soldiers. The locals responded with great enthusiasm and hundreds of heads were brought in.
Mr Da Roza was born in Hong Kong of Portuguese descent and was educated at St Ignatius College, Riverview in Sydney.
Following the war he was the local doctor at Warren in western NSW, where he marched on Anzac Day wearing the black `Z' Special beret of his mate Johnny Whitworth, who was killed by the Japanese during a `Z' mission on Sulawesi.
Private Whitworth's remains were finally identified last year and he is buried in Bomana War cemetery in New Guinea.
Mr Da Roza retired to Artarmon, nine kilometres north of Sydney, and died at nearby Greenwich Hospital. He is survived by his wife Joan and their six children.
News Ltd websites salute our veterans, current service men and women, and especially those who have given their lives for their country. Join us for special live coverage throughout Anzac Day.
Z Special Unit (also known as Special Operations Executive (SOE), Special Operations Australia (SOA) or the Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD)) 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 Netherlands East Indies.[1]
The unit carried out a total of 81 covert operations in the South West Pacific theatre, with parties inserted by parachute or submarine to provide intelligence and conduct guerrilla warfare.[2] The best known of these missions were Operation Jaywick and Operation Rimau, both of which involved raids on Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour; the latter of which resulted in the deaths of twenty-three commandos either in action or by execution after capture.[1]
Although the unit was disbanded after the war, many of the training techniques and operational procedures employed were later used during the formation of other Australian Army special forces units and they remain a model for guerrilla operations to this day.[3]
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