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A MAN is only as strong as his weakest self. This vivid life reminder is a variation of the proverb, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link”despite solid overall strength.

Meaning a single weak element can cause catastrophe.

This happened to five lone Japanese soldiers guarding the Coleman mansion, Pitas Rubber Estate, in early 1945. 

What was their weakest moment? When they were all sleeping and gunned down without them knowing!  

There was a purported 80,000 regular troop once occupied Pitas Rubber Estate.

But somehow, that number weakened to just five because of a troop movement earlier under General Baba’s order. And became victims of betrayal and kill targets.

Elite Aussie commandos planted behind the back of Japanese  

Not aware that a small band of seven elite Australian Z Special Unit commandos had been inserted behind their backs 40 miles away in Lokapas by American submarines towards the end of WW2 or early 1945, to prepare for Allied campaign to liberate Borneo.

Until carnage struck in a fatal predawn attack on Coleman House, the precise date of which I am not sure.

But this hardly told drama  is recorded in the book “Blood on Borneo” written by Australian of Chinese descent – Jack Wong Sue, a recipient of the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM), one of ‘Z’ Force members involved in Agas 1 & 3 operations on intelligence gathering, recruit and trained local guerrillas, carry out sabotage.

This writer has never read ‘Blood on Borneo’, until photo copies on the pages related to the covert Colman House attack was WhatsApped to me by Tham Yau Kong who received a copy of the book sent by Jack Sue himself when he was alive (died Nov 16, 2009) .

Tham also had a flurry of contacts with son Barry Wong Sue once.

Jack Sue claims shared experience in attack 

There are disputes as to who carried out the raid.   

Reading his description of the actual attack, it is clear Jack Sue included himself as a collective shared experience among four led by Lieutenant-Colonel Gort Chester, Geoff Watts, Nick Combe and Jack himself.    

But irrespective who executed the deadly attack, you just have to visit the Coleman House and see proof of all the bullet holes that still riddle the bedroom floors, 80 years after the fact!

The main purpose of this 2nd of a series is to publish a pictorial focus on these 9mm bullet holes fired from Austen machine guns. 

As Jack Sue’s story on the plot leading up to the small but focussed attack is a bit wordy and windy, we just highlight here the paragraphs that describe actual firefight.

‘Blood on Borneo’ description on the machine gun attack   

Page 192: “Dawn was about to break. A rooster was crowing as Cookie (Chinese cook in the employ of the Japanese) led the remaining four of us towards the front of the house, the shape of which was about to materialise with the approach of daylight.

“Wherever one finds habitation in Borneo, it is inevitable that chooks or dogs or both will be present.

There were four of us (ie Gort, Geoff, Nick, Jack Sue) but five beds to cover – Nick’s radio operator, was allocated the task of covering two beds in the one room.

Armed with Austen machine guns, each weapon having a shaded torch attached to the underside of the barrel to sufficiently illuminate the outlines of the beds, we lined up the targets.

When all four were positioned and Geoff gave the pre-arranged signal, the crowing of the rooster and the otherwise reigning silence of the dawn hours was shattered by the bolt actions of the silenced Austens on automatic fire.

Volley after volley of 9mm bullets and the occasional whine of ricocheting rounds  as the targets were sprayed, created a strange sensation  and sound in the confinement  of the basement area (from where they shot through the wooden planks of the sleeping room).  

Dumbfounded when the shooting was over 

The shooing completed, all ears were strained for human sounds from above (sleeping rom) but none issued. 

Gort and Nick took to the front stairs leading to the centre of the living room while Geoff and I headed for the back door leading to the servants’ quarters.

We were completely dumbfounded to find the body of the Malay police boy (who was earlier deployed strategically to guard against any Japanese escapee) lying crumpled near the steps of the rear entrance with a neat single bullet hole almost dead centre of the forehead (imply being summarily executed by an escaped Japanese through the forehead), and his rifle beside him. 

We found it almost unbelievable that a shot could have been fired (by a suspected escaped Japanese) without us hearing the report, but recognised that he may have been shot during the automatic fire of the Austens, despite the silencers; the bolt actions were noise and could not be silenced.

It was obvious the police boy had been shot with a 7mm rifle or pistol (ie not the Austens used by the four but a Japanese who escaped the attack).

That nobody had heard the shot (fired by a Japanese soldier) was the puzzling point.

It was all the more puzzling knowing that Japanese pistols and rifles were not equipped with silencers.

(However) A thin trail of blood led past the body (of the Malay police boy), indicating that whoever fired the shot (single shot through the forehead) had been wounded.

Four dead, one feared escaped!

Wasting no time, we cautiously made our way into the living room area where Nick (Combe) quickly advised us that the other four Japanese were dead in their beds and that it appeared one had escaped.      

This was evident from the trail of blood leading away from the bed towards the rear door of the house. 

What we had feared and yet believed most unlikely, had become a reality.

Maybe the survivor was now making his way to Langkong and the wrath of the Japanese would soon be upon us.  

By this time, every dog for miles around was registering the disapproval of the disturbance.

The occupants of the few surroundings houses began arriving to find out what was happening in the usually quiet neck of the woods.

These were warned not to stay around should there be cause for additional shooting. 

Tan Teck Bak, leader of a guerrilla band who had maintained positions to cover any survivor from escaping the open compound reported seeing no escapees

All out search for escapee

When the light had improved, an all-out search  around the house took place commencing from the end of the blood train that yielded nothing. 

Still fearing the worst, all hands were diligently searching for the surviving ‘binatang’ (derogative metaphor for ‘animal’) without success.      

By now, the sun was well above the horizon.

Acting on a hunch, Geoff (Watts) and I approached the doorway of the servants’ toilet.

Geoff gingerly prodded the door ajar with the barrel of the Austen until the door backed up against the toilet wall; still nothing.                              

Still on a hunch, Geoff moved slowly and cautiously  to the dunny seat (NZ and Aussie slang for toilet seat), switched on the torch that is still attached to the Austen (machine gun) – and flipped the lid  open with the barrel of the machine gun, shinning the open toilet pit. 

Lone escapee hides in toilet pit, shot point blank  

There, stood the missing Japanese Lieutenant with the 7mm Nambu pistol (used to shoot dead the Malay police boy) at the “ready”, chest deep in the contents of the pit.

In his weakened condition and unfortunately for the “son of heaven”, the ‘Z’ man (Geoff) let fly first with a burst of automatic fire from point blank range and wrote ‘finis’ to the mystifying search.

The Japanese Lieutenant uttered not a sound and slowly sank into the mire.

The four Japanese who had died earlier, were removed from their beds, tossed into the latrine trench with their superior officer and the whole establishment was set afire, burning it totally to the ground. 

It is possible that their remains are still there.               

I have not heard anything to the contrary. 

When bullied and humiliated Japan opted to join league of world empires   

As noted in Part 1 of this series, for centuries, the feudalistic Japanese were perfectly happy to mind their own business, preferred to live in isolation from the rest of the world, until the day American Commodore Perry sailed into Yokohama with four Black Ships in 1853 demanding Japan opened its ports to American ships for trade and resupply.

Japan refused. The next year 1854, Perry returned with 9 Black Ships bristling with cannons firing blank salvos designed to force submission. 

Faced with overwhelming firing power, Japan was bullied into opening itself up. 

Humiliated, Japanese elites deeply resented the treatment.

What followed was the Meiji Reformation 1868-1889 under which Japan rapidly transformed itself into an industrial power.

But acutely lacking in natural resources domestically to support its rising industrial power, Japan joined the league of world empires and became an aggressive colonial bully itself through savage militaristic conquests.  

So their four boys who had mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters back home but killed in their sleep in Pitas and the 5th who was blown up point blank with a hail of machine gun bullets, were victims of a once reclusive Japan turned imperial militaristic monster.

Jack Sue reflects on being a ’Z’ Force man: Kill or be killed 

Reflecting on the cold blooded Coleman House attack, with a touch of pathos, Jack Wong Sue said he didn’t consider it heroic.    

“No effort is made to portray this incident as any heroic action, no one felt very good about the incident.

Unfortunately, in our type of warfare where we were the minority against foes numbering many thousands, it was a case of kill or let killed and ethics ran a second.

“As pointed out earlier in this book, many ‘Z’ men operating behind Japanese lines came from religious, God fearing families but were compelled to change their way of thinking  within a short space of time after seeing  some of the atrocities committed by our Japanese enemies. 

“No doubt many of those enemy soldiers were good clean living men – possibly of a religious faith, including Christians – and is possible that they regarded us in exactly the same light. Who could afford to take the gamble?

“It is difficult to recall specific details of some of the actions that occurred 55 years ago (time of writing). From memory, our sigs (Signals team) Skeet and Graham slept on mattresses that bore the evidence of that attack for the whole time they spent in Coleman House at Pitas Rubber Estate. 

“I cannot remember where Fred slept but in any case, nothing worried him. Fred was only a little guy but with a tons of guts, as he proved in operation ‘Python’ for which he a Gory were decorated. I doubt whether any sleep was lost as a result of the previous occupants, the Japanese”.

Keen interest from reader

A READER named Diana wrote to me about the first part of this series, expressing keen interest on the matter:

“I recently came across your article about the Coleman House in Pitas and found it very interesting.

“I was wondering if you might know the first name of Mr. Coleman mentioned as the estate manager.

“My grandfather also bore the surname Coleman and worked as an estate manager.

“From family records, we understand that he was based In Kudat before later being transferred to Papar.

“I am curious to know whether this could possibly be the same individual.

“If so, it would be meaningful and valuable addition to our family history. Thank you very much for your time, and I appreciate ay insight you maybe able to share.”

Here’s my reply to Diana:

“At the Daily Express side, we probed what we knew how for the surname of Mr Coleman but the furthest identification we got was ‘manager of a large Pitas Rubber Estate’.

“But based on the circumstances of his work base in Kudat, the chances of a close family relationship seems high.

Any reader who may know the surname of Mr Coleman can email the Daily Express at desph2015@gmail.com.”