Commando Magazine edition 3 2020

Jack Hanson
Wartime Commando
Born: Subiaco, Western Australia in 1921
Died: Hervey Bay, Queensland, aged 98
INTREPID TIMOR GUERILLA
From The West Australian Newspaper, 06 June 2020
While Australians were smarting under
the threat of invasion, a brave bunch of
Commandos pulled every trick to thwart
the Japanese military advance southwards
from Asia. One was Jack Hanson, whose
20th birthday in 1941 had been spent
training in Victoria for guerrilla warfare on
Timor. All were volunteers chosen for
mental and physical toughness. Early in
the piece there was much official
discussion of their status; whether the
group conformed to military standards
with proper lines of command. Was the
notion of an “Independent Company”
acceptable, politicians and the Army’s top
brass wondered?
Pearl Harbor, in December 1941,
changed all that. There was no time to
lose, Canberra realised, and more Inde -
pendent Companies were soon raised.
British advisers approved setting up teams to enact
“raids, demolitions, sabotage, subversion and organising
civil resistance”. For this noble cause of national defence,
a great proportion of Jack’s unit were from Western
Australia, particularly rural areas where bush knowledge
and living off the land were more common.
It is recognised today that these men showed great
courage in sabotaging enemy operations and attacking
patrols. Their successes are justly honoured, but Jack and
his mates also praised the essential efforts of the Timorese
people. The island’s western half was living under the
colonial rule of the Dutch East Indies; in the east, Portugal
was the ruling power. Whichever colonial masters the
locals had; they were united in helping Australians. Boys
as young as 10 brought food. Older men and women
acted as guides and carriers of supplies and equipment.
In formal military terms, these Aussie soldiers were 2/2
Company, known as Double Reds because of the
distinctive two-diamond badge on their sleeves. They
were also part of Sparrow Force, formed to defend Timor.
This campaign so near the Australian coast, lasting
virtually the whole of 1942, was a one-off, as the official
history of World War II makes clear. David Dexter, a
Platoon Commander with 2/2, was to write that this band
of men was “like no other in Australian military history”.
The 2/2’s year-long campaign was fought by a
“tattered cavalry of Australians and Timorese” in the
island’s “real wild hills”.
Cpl Hanson had quite a story to tell but for decades his
family’s attempts to prise it out of him were met by a
regretful: “We were sworn to secrecy.” His nephew,
Martin, persisted. Thus, in 2014 — the year the old warrior
turned 93 — came The White Ghost. The book, whose
A very young Jack Hanson during
WW2. You can clearly see the
Double Diamonds of the 2 nd /2 nd
on his upper sleeve,
title alludes to their knack of moving in the jungle without
being sighted, is designated “as told to Toni McRae and
Martin Morris”, giving due credit to award-winning
journalist McRae who worked alongside the Hanson
family. Her death from cancer only a month after the
launch added to the poignancy of the
occasion. The book covered his boyhood
as well as memories of mateship and
pride in helping his country. One reason
he was selected for the Timor task was his
ability with a rifle, a skill acquired as a
teenager shooting rabbits, the only meat
that many families saw during the
Depression years in which Jack grew up.
John Trelease Hanson was born in
Subiaco on August 9, 1921, oldest of
three children of Dora (nee Hall) and John
William Hanson. Always known as Jack, he
attended Beaconsfield primary school,
after the family moved to near Fremantle.
He left school soon after reaching 13, and
worked for his father’s motor trimming
business. John senior, who had fought
with the 10 th Light Horse in World War I,
including at Gallipoli, bought his two
sons’ horses to ride and learn to look after. In May 1941
Jack, then 19, enlisted after putting his age up a year so
as to be eligible.
From Timor he emerged in poor health, having lost
nearly half his weight. After convalescence he returned to
help the war effort and left the army in 1946. In the 1950s
he returned to help train soldiers and got his final
discharge in 1956. He eventually managed a panel
beating business and worked in insurance. He met his
wife, Valerie, in the NSW town of Griffith and married her
in 1963. They spent the rest of their lives in Queensland.
Valerie, to whom The White Ghost is dedicated, died in
2015.
Jack Hanson died on May 26, survived by his sister,
Dorothea Morris, who lives in Busselton.
During a visit to Timor last year, Martin found a
daughter of the man who had helped keep Jack safe.
“After talking to her through an interpreter, I rang him and
asked if he had anything to say to her . . . my uncle, his
voice quivering with
emotion, told her he
owed her father his life
and was for ever
indebted. It was an
CPL Jack Hanson 2 nd /2 nd Ind Coy/Cav
Sqn, with his book, The White Ghost.
incredibly emotional
time. On returning to
Australia, I played him a
recording of that con -
versation. As tough as
Jack thought he was,
tears welled in his
eyes.”
By Patrick Cornish
32 COMMANDO ~ The Magazine of the Australian Commando Association ~ Edition 3 I 2020