Commando News Spring17

Secrets’ Act were automatically released from that
undertaking. The misconception that the oath was for
life has facilitated several people to make fraudulent
claims about war service with SOA.
There is no doubting the bravery and commitment
of SOA personnel who served behind enemy lines,
especially those who lost their lives in the cause.
However, in the last seven decades the misinformation
and hype circulated in the public arena has been
considerable, despite hundreds of archival files being
readily available, many of them on-line.
The Oxford Companion to Australian Military
History, compiled by Australian Army historians, was
collated from material held in these archival files. The
following extract, indexed under ‘Special Operations
Australia’, not only sets the record straight in regard to
the terminology, it also puts the activities of SOA into
perspective: an assessment that some, who are
unfamiliar with the contents of the archival material,
might regard as harsh.
AIF personnel attached to ISD were administered
by Z Special Unit.
In February 1943 ISD was disbanded and replaced
by SOA which, under the cover-name of the Services
Reconnaissance Department, conducted operations
from that date until the end of the war . . .
Despite the glamour attached to special opera -
tions, it cannot be said that SOA missions achieved
anything of significance . . .
In the final analysis SOA operations were
characterized by inefficiency, inappropriate objectives
and unreliability. They did not greatly hamper the
enemy and did not shorten the war by a single day.
As Ivan Lyon once famously said “War is a very grim
business, isn’t it.’
Information on the structure and activities of SOA
is also available in files held at National Archives of
Australia and in Lynette Silver’s book, Deadly Secrets.
For a detailed analysis of ships in port at the time of
the Jaywick attack, see the article by Peter Cundall on
http://www.combinedfleet.com/
16 COMMANDO NEWS ~ Edition 11 I September 2017