Bastard Behind the Lines: The extraordinary story of Jock McLaren's escape from Sandakan and his guerrilla war against the Japanese

by Tom Gilling

He escaped from Singapore's Changi prisoner of war camp to become one of Australia's great World War II guerrilla fighters.'The way I look at it is this...When you're behind the line and get yourself into trouble, you've got to get your bloody self out irrespective of anybody else. That's why I like it.'Scottish-born but a Queenslander to the bone, Jock McLaren was a true Australian hero. As a prisoner he escaped twice, first from Changi and later from the infamous Sandakan POW camp in Borneo. After paddling a dugout canoe across open sea, he fought for two years with American-led Filipino guerrillas, his exploits so audacious the Japanese put a price on his head. At the helm of his 26-foot whaleboat, the Bastard, McLaren sailed brazenly into enemy-held harbours, wreaking havoc with his mortar and machine guns before heading back out to sea. In early 1945 he joined Australia's secretive Z Special Unit, parachuting into Borneo to carry out reconnaissance and organise anti-Japanese resistance ahead of Allied landings. He cheated death on numerous occasions and saved his own life by removing his appendix without anaesthetic, using 'two large dessert spoons' and a razor blade.Drawing on Allied and Japanese wartime documents, Bastard Behind the Lines brings the story of a courageous digger vividly to life and throws light on a rarely explored aspect of Australia's Pacific war.

Genres: War, Nonfiction, World War II, History, Biography

261 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 2, 2021

Reviews

[Cav · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bastard Behind the Lines was a mixed bag for me...

Author Tom Gilling is an English writer who emigrated to Australia in 1983. His first book, The Sooterkin, was critically acclaimed and was named a New York Times Notable Book in 2000.

Tom Gilling:


The book details the incredible true story of war hero Jock McLaren, a decorated Australian Army officer, who rose from enlisted rank and was noted for his involvement in guerrilla operations against the Japanese during World War II. As a POW he escaped twice, first from Changi and later from the infamous Sandakan POW camp in Borneo.
Gilling writes that McLaren was first captured by Malay policeman, and then turned over to the Kempei-Tai for a $25/head bounty.

I am generally a fan of real-life sagas, including ones set against the backdrop of war. Unfortunately, however, I didn't really like the way the story was framed here. I found the writing a bit lacking.
It's tough to put my finger on exactly what didn't work for me here, but I can say that I didn't feel like the author laid out the story in a clear and/or concise manner. Too many characters, events, and timeframes are introduced without giving them a proper contextual grounding.

Among the mass executions of American POWs, the book also details the sadistic cruelty of the Japanese:

"In mid-August Ehara took over his interrogation. One day Ehara asked Wells whether he was hungry. When Wells said he was, Ehara and his henchmen forced him to consume ‘three or four cupfuls’ of uncooked rice. Then they pushed a garden hose down his throat and filled his stomach with water. ‘About three or four hours later the pain became excruciating as the rice swelled within the stomach.’ Part of Wells’s intestine came out of his body, but Wells ‘managed to push it back by hand’. Then the interrogation continued.
On another occasion the interviewer produced a small piece of wood like a meat skewer, pushed that into my left ear, and tapped it in with a small hammer. I think I fainted some time after it went through the drum. I remember the last excruciating sort of pain, and I must have gone out for some time because I was revived with a bucket of water … the ear was very painful; it bled for a couple of days, with no medical attention. But fortunately for me it didn’t become infected. Eventually it healed, but of course I couldn’t hear with it, and I have never been able to hear since..."

I'm including a summary of McLaren's WW2 efforts, taken from Wikipedia; both for my own future reference, and for anyone else interested. I'm covering it with a spoiler, to avoid giving anything away:
World War II:
Following the outbreak of World War II, he continued to serve as a veterinary officer, although he joined the Citizens Military Force in March 1941.[1] Shortly after, he volunteered for overseas service and opted to transfer to the Australian Imperial Force.[1] He was assigned to the 2/10th Australian Field Workshops with the 8th Australian Division in British Malaya when Singapore fell to the Japanese army. At this time, he was thirty-nine years old.[3]

He could not endure imprisonment and immediately organized an escape party. Escaping from the POW camp with two comrades,[4] they successfully made it almost to Kuala Lumpur, often with the aid of Malayan Chinese and Chinese communist guerrillas, before they were betrayed to the Japanese by Malays.[5] It was during this escape that McLaren began to hate the Japanese as he passed the bodies of hundreds of Chinese men, women and children, who had been tortured, raped, and then killed by Japanese occupation forces.[6]

Imprisoned once again, McLaren sought to escape from the Singapore prison camps.[7] He managed to add himself to a contingent of prisoners being sent to Borneo to a labour camp.[8] Once he arrived at Berhala Island, in Sandakan Harbour on northeastern Borneo, he began, with several other prisoners, to plan an escape. Hearing that they were to be sent to a more permanent camp at Sandakan with less opportunity for escape, they moved up their escape and, stealing a boat from a nearby leper colony, they set off to the Tawi Tawi islands where they were told other Australians were fighting as guerrillas.[9][10] On their arrival, they soon made contact with Filipino guerrillas, who assisted McLaren and six others to make contact, in June 1943, with the guerrilla organization on Mindanao.[1] Their escape from Berhala Island saved their lives as they then missed the early 1945 Sandakan Death Marches.[11]

Eventually, McLaren and his comrades arrived on Mindanao where they made contact with American and Filipino guerrillas under the overall command of Lieutenant Colonel Wendell Fertig.[12] Their hopes of returning to Australia to join formal army units were curtailed due to the need for experienced leaders for the guerrilla forces and lack of transportation. Eventually, some of the party were sent to Australia by submarine.[13]

Surprisingly, McLaren wished to remain behind, as transfer to a formal unit would not only inhibit his actions and desire for revenge, but his age would preclude participation in combat.[14] Except for a short leave in Australia toward the end of the war, he spent most of the war years serving as a coastwatcher and guerrilla leader. He participated in numerous raids on the Japanese, sometimes in command of small, heavily armed, coastal vessels.[15] At one time, he radioed information on a ship carrying 3,000 Japanese troops to another island. Most of the troops were killed or drowned when American submarines sank the ship. The rest were killed by Filipinos as the Japanese survivors reached shore exhausted and in no condition to fight. McLaren's numerous land and sea guerrilla actions so disrupted Japanese operations that eventually the Japanese placed a reward of 70,000 pesos on McLaren's head.[16]

Jock McLaren (at left) returning to Berhala Island in October 1945.
During one period of his service in the Philippines, McLaren commandeered a 26-foot whaleboat that he called The Bastard. McLaren and his crew often used surprise to their advantage, entering Japanese-controlled ports in broad daylight, to fire at supply vessels and piers with machine guns and a mortar, before retreating.[17]

As senior officers at both the guerrilla unit and army levels began to appreciate his initiative and dependability, he was often assigned to make small unit and solo forays into Japanese held areas for intelligence. Toward the end of the war, high-level U.S. and Australian commands relied on him to penetrate Japanese areas in the Philippines and former Dutch colonies ahead of planned invasions for the latest intelligence and to scout possible enemy routes of retreat which could then be interdicted.[18] As a member of the American forces in the Philippines, McLaren was under U.S. command. However, on 20 April 1945, upon the request of the Australians who had a need for his talents, General Robert L. Eichelberger personally signed an order releasing McLaren back to Australian command.[19]

After being transferred to Z Special Unit, under the command of the Services Reconnaissance Department, attached to the Allied Intelligence Bureau, McLaren subsequently took part in an airborne operation near Balikpapan in late June 1945. Dropping in advance of the main Allied landing in early July 1945, McLaren led a section of four men on a reconnaissance mission. Despite losing two men, one from injury following the landing and another in an ambush, McLaren and the other two men were able to return to Australian lines on 6 July and report the Japanese dispositions to the Australian 7th Division's headquarters.[1] Following this, in late July, McLaren took part in an operation on British North Borneo, leading an eight-man section. It was his last operation of the war, and after hostilities he remained in Borneo to help re-establish administration before being returned to Australia in November 1945.[1]

Having been promoted to sergeant soon after joining the guerrilla forces, Jock McLaren later received a field commission from Australia and ended the war with the substantive rank of captain.[20] During the course of his service, McLaren was decorated with the Military Cross twice for his heroic actions,[21][22] as well as being Mentioned in Despatches.[23][24]

Later life:
Following the end of the war, McLaren was discharged from the AIF and transferred to the Reserve of Officers List in early 1946. Following this he became a government veterinarian in New Guinea.[1] He remained in this role until 1956 when he began growing coffee, buying a plantation at Wau. On 3 March 1956, McLaren was accidentally killed near his home, after he backed a vehicle against a dead tree, and timber fell on him.[25]

Jock McLaren (at left) returning to Berhala Island in October 1945:


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Despite being excited to start this one, the author's writing style just did not resonate well with me.
The real-life saga of McLaren is an amazing story. Unfortunately, I don't feel the writing here did that story proper justice.
2.5 stars.

[Jason Reynolds · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting to read about the challenges, escapes and luck of these men. Enjoyed reading and learning about what they got up to and working with the locals. I struggled with all the cross referencing to other books and 'different' accounts of what happened, though I can understand the challenges that these authors would have had, especially when dealing with the 'American' accounts and history.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account of the escape of an Australian PoW held by the Japanese in WW2. After his escape he wages guerrilla warfare against them.
The book is written from his account and accounts from others also fighting the Japanese. Often these accounts omit each others exploits other times they collaborate them. The reasons for this is given in the introduction and prologue.

[Genevieve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I am an aficionado of all things WWII…until I tried listening to this as an audiobook. While the subject matter should have been riveting, the author seemed to be buried so deep in the practice of comparing the various texts available. This writing style made the audiobook really hard to follow and basically unlistenable. Imagine being told three different versions of the same story repeatedly. That’s what it was like, and that is why I gave up after nearly three hours of listening.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account of the ex-POWs who worked with guerillas and their commanders fighting the Japanese in the jungle during WW2. Basically comparing 3 or more sources to separate fact from fiction (and censorship). Not only about McLaren.

[Mark Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but the style is a bit prosaic

[Lindsay Christie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don’t real this for the thrilling story. More of a factual account

[Ralphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the easiest read, but glad I read it.
😎👍📚✅

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very detailed account of the brave exploits of unknown Australian hero Jock McLaren in WW2. Gilling must have put in a lot of effort to gather this information from many sources. He referenced archived records of Australian, Allied and Japanese documents, as well as books written by other individual authors about the South East Asian conflicts, including the plight of prisoners-of-war and guerrillas fighting a secret resistance to Japanese occupation.
The author acknowledges some discrepancies (which he includes) due to different points of view, such as American v Australian reports, and the fact that some interviews with participants were recorded many years after the events took place.
This account depicts the terrible conditions suffered by the prisoners, the courage of the villagers in aiding the guerrillas, the brutality of the Japanese and the daring of Jock and his collaborators as they struggled with little food and few weapons as they hid in the jungle gathering intelligence and engaging in surprise conflicts to defeat the Japanese.

[Calzean · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the fall of Singapore in 1942 Private Jock McLaren escaped from Changi then after being recaptured he again escaped this time from Saandakan. With a handful of other escapees he evaded the Japanese, linked up with local guerrilla forces, became part of the intelligence gathering arm for the invasion of the Philippines, and carried out numerous attacks on the Japanese. After the Philippines were liberated he joined the Australian special forces and went on a number of raids with them. And somewhere along the line he took out his on appendix.
So his story is riveting and should make the basis for an enthralling book. Unfortunately this book spent much of the time comparing previous books on McLaren in an attempt to clarify the actual events, names, places and dates. Then between the nit picking there were long sections devoted to what was happening elsewhere in the war or to the other people in the story and Jock was sometimes well in the background.

[Bear · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers a number of aspects regarding the second world war in and around the Philippines. It covers the war from the perspective of a number of Australian military personnel, how official records sometimes differed from one another when reporting on the same issue, how the media portrayed various actions, and the politics and egos sometimes on display.
Good book.