The Lost Company of Timor

Major Alexander Spence receives the news from the highlands of the interior: Japanese forces have landed in strength across both halves of the island, and the bulk of Sparrow Force, encircled near Koepang, has just surrendered. His 2/2nd Independent Company, 200 men trained for irregular warfare, remains intact — but cut off from any contact with Australia, without supplies, without orders, surrounded by a local population whose loyalty is far from certain. Immediate surrender or a maritime escape toward northern Australia might seem, at this moment, the only reasonable options.

Yet Spence weighs the third possibility: the jungle and mountain ranges of Timor, which his men have studied, could become favourable terrain for a prolonged guerrilla campaign. To disappear into that interior means gambling on Timorese cooperation, on the ability to live off the land, and on the slim chance of eventually re-establishing radio contact with Australia — all unknown quantities on an island now held by the enemy.

Spence must choose: disappear into the mountains and wage a guerrilla campaign, refusing any surrender; lay down arms with the rest of the garrison to spare civilians from reprisals; or immediately attempt a risky maritime escape toward Australia. If they hold out, these commandos will be the sole Allied centre of resistance across this entire corner of the Pacific, at a moment when defeats have followed one another from Pearl Harbor to Singapore.