The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald - Pick of the Week
June 22, 2013
"Not long before the Pacific war, a group of Australian airmen were sent to Timor with the task of preparing an airfield in case of hostilities. Events, in the form of the Japanese invasion of Timor in February 1942, overtook them. All but a rearguard of 29 airmen (led by Bryan Rofe, the author's grandfather) were evacuated. Over the next 58 days, helped by locals, they tramped through jungle (most losing half their weight) to a north-west beach, arriving almost dead. Just when rescue seemed out of the question, they were told a US submarine would collect them. But it wasn't going to be easy - 300 Japanese soldiers were closing in, the waters were shark-infested and the sea was rough. The rescue was so successful, though, it was kept secret ... [T]his a gripping tale, especially the actual rescue, which has you glued to the page."
The Daily Telegraph
June 13, 2013
"As Japan's empire stretched further south during World War II, an ill-fated plan was hatched to send forces to defend islands likely to be invaded by the imperial armies. Timor was one of those islands, within striking distance of the Australian mainland. The small team of less than 2000 men was known as Sparrow Force. For months the Japanese military crept ever closer until in February 1942 the order was given to evacuate. A small caretaker force was left behind to "keep up essential service." Twenty nine men were picked, all of them single men - a sign they were not expected to return. To say any more about what happened as the Japanese began bombing and hundreds of paratroopers started wafting down would perhaps be to give away too much. Suffice to say that through the clear-sighted leadership of a meteorologist, Bryan Rofe, the situation was saved from being a debacle. Trumble gives a gripping account of one of those many little-known stories worthy of a big-budget Australian film."
Herald Sun
June 13, 2013
"Trumble has written a passionate tribute to his grandfather, Bryan Rofe, who was a meteorologist, stationed at Penfui, West Timor, in World War II. In February 1942, the RAAF was busily evacuating people to Darwin but in the urgency Rofe a small team were left behind. What follows is a tale of survival against the odds, as they struggle to live in the jungle, evade the Japanese and organise a rescue. Trumble reveals a story that is brutal and inspiring.
VERDICT: Courageous"
Adelaide Advertiser
June 15, 2013
"Trumble has penned a ripping yarn of courage against the odds, great resourcefulness and a daring night rescue by submarine. There is enough material here for a stack of Boy's Own Paper tales: Being chased through the jungle by Japanese troops filled with bloodlust after decapitating Diggers with their Samurai swords; rivers brimming with crocodiles and broiling seas full of sharks; and the man killed when a poisonous snake slithered into his wurley after dark."
The AU Review
June 13, 2013
Michael Aiken
"Rescue at 2100 Hours is a quick, detailed narrative account of the fate of a group of RAAF airmen and who were stranded on Timor in 1942 during the Japanese occupation of World War II. A true story reconstructed using a horde of primary sources, including diaries of the soldiers and records from war crimes tribunals, this book is written with care and style. Not only does Tom Trumble relate intricate details of the circumstances and position of the various stakeholders - RAAF, indigenous Timorese, Dutch colonists and Japanese paratroopers - but he does so without undermining the excellently paced storytelling.
The tale sets up the Australian characters well, showing their recruitment to the RAAF, initial training as meteorologists and eventual deployment to Timor. By the time the base is abandoned and the airmen flee into the jungle, the reader is thoroughly familiar with the personalities, values and motivations of the various players. What then follows is an intense, unbelievably challenging flight over mountains and beaches, stricken by famine, betrayal, malaria and torture.
This amazing story was in part lost over time due to security issues. While still on Timor most of the airmen destroyed their journals to protect the local people who helped them, in case the Japanese should capture those records, while the allied military heavily censored news of the rescue so the possibility of rescue by submarine would not become known to the enemy.
The depth and genuine feeling this book is imbued with is doubtless enhanced by the author's personal connection - he is a grandson of the leader of the Australian airmen. Throughout the story he adds personal touches, such as the occasional quotes from his grandmother about what it was like knowing her husband was trapped behind lines without much hope of rescue. ... A particular highlight is the final rescue scene, effected with amazing daring by US sailors (including swimming at night with 20 sharks for over 200 metres in rough surf).
This is a fascinating and engagingly written account of a near-lost bravery and exceptional endurance on the part of members of the RAAF and US Navy, this book is an entertaining account of an astounding story."
Goodreads
June 13, 2013
Rick McQualter, Goodreads moderator
"This is a thrilling and engaging account of a little-known story that occurred during the darkest days of the war in the Pacific. Not only does it allow us to read about the bravery of the author's grandfather and the other RAAF men but also it tells the story of the selfless devotion of the local Timorese to help the stranded Australians. We also get the opportunity to read of the brave American submarine crew who also placed their lives in danger to rescue these men. Anyone who loves a good book about man's devotion to his comrades or a good wartime drama will be sure to enjoy this book."
ARMY - The Soldier's Newspaper
May 23, 2013
"Amid the best known stories of World War II are countless largely untold tales of heroism and survival. Rescue at 2100 Hours by Tom Trumble tells on such tale, detailing the escape of a band of 29 airmen stranded in Japanese-occupied Timor for two months in 1942.
Trumble's willingness to explore the story from all angles is commendable, especially given his personal connection. Several chapters are told from the Japanese perspective, detailing the experiences of paratroopers charged with clearing the island of its Allied occupiers. As well as the well-rounded approach, a sense of pervading dread hangs over many of the chapters that detail the group's struggle to evade detection while stranded behind enemy lines. Trumble's clever depiction maintains tension even while telling the story from the points of view of the airmen and their pursuers."
Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times
Reviewed by David Ellery
July 13, 2013
"While there is no doubt the phrases 'forgotten battle' and 'forgottten soldiers' are some of the most overused in non-fiction, it is a fact many war stories have not received the attention they deserve. A case in point is the experience of the diverse groups of Australian servicemen and women dispatched to South East Asia in a feeble attempt to deter the Japanese in late 1941.
Many of their stories will simply never be told. They either died fighting the invaders, drowned aboard prisoner transports such as Montevideo Maru when they were sunk by Allied submarines or succumbed to the brutality and neglect of their Japanese captors. A former journalist from Melbourne, Tom Trumble has gone some of the way to redress that imbalance with this account of his grandfather's experiences before, during and after the invasion of Timor in 1942.
The narrative falls into a fascinating no-man's land between loving biography and personal memoir. Trumble's ace in the hole is the fact his grandfather, Flying Officer Bryan Rofe, was a compulsive letter writer and diarist. Rofe and his bride, Patricia, exchanged more than 2000 letters during the war and their grandson has mined them with great effect.
Intimate passages exploring passion, separation and loneliness bring the protagonists to life in a way rarely achieved in narratives dealing with events now 70 years in the past. Passages such as 'I want to hold cupped in tensing fingers the yielding softness of your breasts and then to search with eager hands every innermost part of you, awakening it to life and aching desire' are not what we normally associate with our grandparents and great grandparents generation. Perhaps the real tragedy of growing old is that we remember being young; not that we forget our present.
Trumble's book is a timely reminder that the burden of World War II, like that of most conflicts, fell most heavily on the young. When Rofe found himself stranded on Timor with responsibility for the welfare of 29 airmen resting on his shoulders, he was just 24 years old. Some of the men under his command were only 18 and 19. Few had been tested in war. The circumstances in which they found themselves were beyond anything they had previously experienced.
This is, in short, a very different war narrative that explores the challenges facing a young and relatively inexperienced officer, who is forced to assert command with the deck stacked against him and the stakes literally life and death.
It was not smooth sailing and Trumble recounts how, on several occasions, Rofe had the wisdom to rely on the good sense of his men to squash challenges to his authority, rather than adopting a more overt 'my way or the highway' approach. A case in point occured shortly after the Japanese landing, when the Australians had been unable to organise an immediate rescue. Arthur Cole, a soldier who had won the respect of his peers for his courage, fortitude and willingness to take the initiative, proposed a 100-kilometre hike through thick jungle to locate an abandoned lifeboat, in which it might be possible to sail to Australia.
Conceived in desperation, the scheme was fraught with peril. It also, in Trumble's words, represented 'the first open challenge to his [Rofe's] leadership. He decided to let the situation play out. Beyond whatever allegiance the men felt for him, Bryan had common sense on his side.'"
The men couldn not be sure the boat was there. If it was, the fuel may have been contaminated and, even if everything worked out, they would have to sail through waters completely dominated by the Japanese.
'Sounds like another hare-brained scheme of yours, Arthur,' anorther airman said. 'Only madmen and imbeciles would come join you.'
'Once he [Eddie Park] got everyone laughing, it fixed it,' Rofe said of the incident later.
The dangers the men faced on all fronts were made clear later that night. A snake slitered into the hut, fatally biting a sleeping man and then slipping away. While the survivors were burying Clem Clements, the only AIF soldier in the group, a native ran up to warn them that a Japanese patrol of 300 men was hot on their trail.
Then everything happened at once. A message came through from Darwin asking if they had a way to shine a light out to sea. The light was needed to signal the crew of the USS Searaven, a Sargo-class submarine that displaced 2350 tonnes and could reach speeds of up to 21 knots.
The first attempts at a rescue had to be aborted and it took another two tries before Rofe's party, which now numbered 33, were taken aboard by the US submariners.
Trumble, a master of his material, builds the suspense without running aground on the rocky shallows of melodrama. His characters appear true to life and the events he describes are related with what appears to be unfailing historical accuracy.
This is one of the few recent works of military history that can be read as a thriller. There should be more like it."
The Mercury
July 14, 2013
"It was February 21, 1942. The invasion of Timor by the Japanese had begun. Swarms of strafing aircraft screeched from the tropical sun. The tiny airstrip at Penfui erupted as their planes carpet bombed with devastating effect. From afar, a bombardment of shells from a fleet of Japanese battleships rent the sky with shock waves. The aerodrome and nearby Kupang township and harbour shivered with the impact Then, like a cloud of doom, the sky was filled with enemy parachutes.
Twenty nine Australian airmen ... gathered in trepidation. Now they could not be evacuated and they faced capture or worse. In panic, they burned official documents, diaries and maps, smashed equipment and gathered as much other vital items that might prove useful and fled. Amid hostile fire, they plunged into a world almost as formidable as the one they were escaping, the near impenetrable rainforest jungle.
These vivid images inflame the pages and the book smoulders with intensity in your hands. This is high drama and this is only the beginning. The story that unfolds stretches belief.
The privations these men endured for 58 days and the courage and resilience they displayed becomes one of the real World War II escape stories told.
Driven by love and respect, Tom Trumble recounts their journey into hell with journalistic flair, empathy and restraint.
What makes the book more potent are the chapters revealing the fanatical and brutal actions of some Japanese combatants.
The inclusions here were made possible by exhaustive research and personal interviews.
Rare photographs provide added authenticity. All but four men were rescued spectacularly. The events might have come out of a movie script. Indeed all the elements for a screen adaptation are here. It's gripping reading.
The leaders of the gallant airmen that survived is Trumble's grandfather and his gratitude and pride in this man's astounding accomplishments shows. This book resonates."
THE WEEKLY TIMES
March 13, 2014
Trumble's story is truly one of daring, courage and great leadership, and the author builds the tale carefully, placing people, military strategy and Pacific geography in historical context in this worthy homage to his grandfather.
​RESCUE AT 2100 HOURS​
TOM TRUMBLE