Non-fiction pick of the week

The Men Who Came Out of the Ground review by Steven Carroll, The Age-Sydney Morning Herald

When Churchill set up the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the Australian army followed the model. The initial result was 2/2 Company, an extraordinary unit drawn largely from rural Australia, chosen for their resilience and adaptability, and trained at Wilson’s Prom for guerilla warfare. When the Japanese entered the war they were sent to Timor as part of Sparrow Force. By 1942, after the capture of the 8th Division at Singapore, 2/2 Company and the remains of Sparrow Force took the Japanese army on about 400 against 10,000. Ten months later they had killed hundreds of Japanese soldiers, destroyed valuable equipment and tied up an entire enemy division that would have been sent to Kokoda and only eight dead. These raids, usually three to five soldiers inflicting maximum damage, were astounding. Timorese support was crucial.

A cracker of a read, it would make an excellent TV documentary.