061 - Operation: Ferdinand

 The Australian Coastwatchers

Even though the Japanese Empire claimed much of Southeast Asia, there were still spots the Japanese Navy overlooked or just outright by-passed, mainly due to the inadequate infrastructure on some of these mostly deserted islands. However, long ago, Australian military leaders had determined that these positions would be highly valued at times of war and established the “Coastwatchers, formally known as the Combined Field Intelligence Service, which was a group of Reserve personnel, civilians, and later, escaped Prisoners of War who would act as military observers, collecting information and reporting that back to Allied Commanders.

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The group, codenamed “Operation Ferdinand” by Lieutenant Commander Eric Feldt, was so-named because the Captain wanted to evoke an image of peacefulness, like the title character I the popular children’s book, “The Story of Ferdinand”. In the story, Ferdinand, a Spanish Bull, did not like bull fighting. Instead, he preferred to sit under trees and smell the flowers. Commander Feldt thought that this image would remind Coastwatchers that there job was only one of observation and under no circumstances would the Coastwatchers get involved or take up arms against the enemy.

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Although most Coastwatchers were paid a modest salary or a bounty for captured Japanese pilots or rescued Allies, they were supplied with very meager supplies, usually consisting of binoculars, radio equipment, and some basic military gear.

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More often than not, they had to rely on their own resources to get the messages through, using short-wave radios and pirate radio stations to get the news out. By war’s end, over 400 documented persons and as many as 1,000 undocumented participated in the program.

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