A secret unit, that included New Zealanders, who fought behind enemy lines in the Pacific during WWII is to be recognised in Canberra today.
The commemorative plaque at the Australian War Memorial will be the first real recognition for members of what was known as the Z Special Unit.
It is estimated that 1700 men and some women served with the unit between 1942 and 1945.
Even after the war, members of the Z Special Unit were not allowed to talk about the secret missions and no one quite knows how many served or were killed in action.
Twenty-two New Zealanders served in the mainly Australian unit.
Frank Wigzell Photo: Supplied
Among them was Frank Wigzell, who was parachuted into Borneo to make contact with indigenous people.
His daughter, Judi Millar, said the team had learned some Malay and were welcomed by the locals, some of whom were headhunters. "They became their little band of men and they went through the jungle flushing out the Japanese along with the headhunters who knew the jungle well."
Donn Leckie said his father, Lieutenant Frank Leckie, and many of the other unit members did not reallyknow what they were letting themselves in for.
"I don't think they quite understood until they got in there and some of them never made it very far at all.
"The Japanese took no prisoners basically. When they got them they were regarded as spies and that was that."
The most famous of the Z Special Unit operations were raids on Japanese ships in Singapore harbour.
Lieutenant Frank Leckie served in the unit. Photo: Supplied
Dr John Connor, senior lecturer in history at the University of New South Wales, Canberra, said the unit laid mines on enemy merchant ships in two separate raids.
In the first, they sank seven ships.
"Z Special force came in in canoes at night time and put mines on these Japanese ships and once the timers went off the mines exploded and the ships were sunk.
"The success of the raid lead them to a second attempt - but this one was a failure."
He said the unit was spotted by the Japanese and most of them died as they tried to escape or when they were captured and executed.
Dr Connor said the operations were tantamount to suicide missions.
"Very dangerous when you go behind Japanese lines and the distance to be able to get back to friendly lines is very hard.
"You are working in the Malay archipelago, with its islands, its small and very hard to move in and out. It was very dangerous and many people paid the price with their lives."
Families of the Z Special Unit members in Canberra ahead of the commemoration. Photo: Supplied
That today's commemoration has come about at all is largely due to the work of associate professor of anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra, Christine Helliwell.
She was doing field work in Borneo where she first heard stories of the secret saboteurs.
Dr Helliwell approached the Australian War Memorial asking for a plaque and admistrators agreed.
"I realised that Z Special Unit had never actually been properly recognised by Australia or New Zealand in spite of the fact that these were really quite extraordinary men who did quite extraordinary things."
She said after the war the men did not want to talk about their experiences and in fact were restricted from doing so, having signed a form stopping them revealling what they had done.
"They were not permitted to talk about their work during the war, not allowed to mention Z Special Unit, not allowed to talk about the places they had been, the activities they had engaged in for 30 years."
The elite unit was the forerunner of the SAS, Dr Helliwell said.
"Contemporary commando units ... in Australia at least and I suspect in New Zealand as well, they all trace their ancestry directly back to Z Special Unit."
At least 10 families, descendants of the New Zealanders who served in Z Special Unit were attending the ceremony in Canberra. About 1000 people in all were expected to be there.
Ms Millar said her father would have been delighted to have the unit recognised.
"Dad always wanted Z Special to have a plaque. He would be really thrilled, he would be smiling especially knowing that I have managed to find about 15 families out of the 22 men (NZers who served) and they are going to Australia as well."
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