Another well known Cinesound newsreel - though none of them are as famous as Kokoda Front Line. It focuses on the fascinating story of Sparrow Force, Australian guerrillas who lived behind enemy lines for such a long time. What makes this great is the fact Damien Parer joined the troops in Timor behind enemy lines - Timor was wild and easier to hide out in than say Malaya but it's still pretty amazing. There's a great behind the scenes story of how the guerillas agreed to delay a raid so that Parer could film it.
It's full of terrific images: Aussie soldiers having bamboo showers and talking on their make shift radio, eating crocodile, an attack on a village. We also get to meet some of the soldiers - a former roo shooter, teacher at Geelong Grammar. One only wishes Cinesound could have made a dramatic feature film of this campaign which is suprisingly still not that well knoown.
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