memórias da guerra em timor

These photos show John Frederick Hartley (aged 20) NX78025 upon enlistment on 11 Dec 1941, and in centre (wearing blue) at age 74 in Sep 1975 in Timor with his fellow veterans of Timor 1942 and Timorese friends.

John Hartley was a member of the No. 2 Independent Company (2/2 Independent Company) who fought on Timor for all of 1942 in a guerrilla campaign against the Japanese invasion and occupation force.

He was an Australian of Chinese descent, aged 20, when he landed on Timor during mid-January 1942. He was always mindful of the friendship and great contribution that the Timorese people had given the Australians in Portuguese Timor.

His words to his first-born son Christopher were that “I could not have found any better friends than the Timorese in 1942. They helped me and my mates survive, even at great risk and cost to themselves”.

John Hartley had a reputation as a good tracker and bushman, superior knowledge of the terrain and a skilled deadly tommy-gunner. He was quick to win friendships with the Timorese and to learn Tetum.

He gave credit to the Timorese for showing him the tracks through the countryside, and where there were reliable fresh water and food sources, and friendly areas. Young creados carried his gear during ambushes and guided him from being outflanked and trapped when pursued by the enemy. As a tommy-gunner, he was always the last Aussie to decamp from ambush sites.

He lamented greatly when evacuated from Timor in December 1942 as he felt that he was abandoning his friends. He would return to Timor during 1945 on Z Special Unit (AIB/SRD) operations.

After the war, John made regular financial contributions to the fundraising and aid given by the 2/2 Commando Association to their friends in Timor.

As the push for Timorese independence was developing by 1974, John Hartley and other Timor veterans in NSW vigorously lobbied Gough Whitlam’s Australian Labor Government to recognise the Timorese independence movement and declarations of independence. Sadly this did not happen, and Timor was invaded, occupied and oppressed by the Indonesian armed forces and regimes from 1975 to 1999.

Along with his dear comrade and friend Paddy Kenneally, John Hartley never gave up lobbying for the rights of the Timorese to self-determination. He gave assistance to those refugees from Timor who made to Australia, including Jose Ramos Horta.

In September 1995, John Hartley returned to Timor for the first time since 1945 with a number of his veteran mates, meeting with the Timorese veterans of WW2, rekindling friendships and once again walking those tracks he frequented during WW2.

Gordon Hart (2/4 Independent Company) and Alan Luby (Medic with 2/2 Independent Company) both remarked how in awe they were in following John Hartley to the tracks in the hills around Dili and Railaco, observing that his familiarity with the terrain had not wavered in those 40+ years since he first trekked there. John’s response was “I owe it to the Timorese; they taught me”.

He despaired ever since 1975 about the suffering of the Timorese people, firstly under the Japanese, and more brutally so under Indonesian occupation. He witnessed the plebiscite of August 1999 when Timorese resoundingly voted for independence; he bewailed and grieved on the ensuing militia and military violence; he rejoiced when INTERFET moved into Timor in September 1999.

In April 2000, during ANZAC DAY Commemorations, John Hartley met MAJGEN Peter Cosgrove, Commanding Officer of INTERFET at a Commando function, and hugged him and thanked him for the Australian military actions in Timor, though he emphasised that “it was all very late for the Timorese”.

This was the final public outing for John Frederick Hartley. He died on 12 June 2000, happy in the knowledge that the people of Portuguese Timor were now free in the new nation of Timor-Leste.