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It is the story of Charlie McLachlan’s war: a triumph of stubborn Scottish defiance and laconic Aussie genius over the relentless violence of man and nature.
From the Rudolph Hess crash-landing to the atom bomb, from history’s last bayonet charge to the war’s greatest aerial bombardment, Charlie McLachlan survives and bears witness to some of the landmark days of World War II.
At one time or other in his four-year ordeal he is fired upon by the armies, navies and/or air forces of Germany, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, Great Britain and the United States of America – pretty much everyone but the Russians.
He defies or evades the ravages of tropical ulcers, tropical heat, alpine cold, gangrene, cholera, malaria, beriberi, dysentery, mosquitoes, crocodiles, snakes, sharks, scorpions, sadistic Sikhs, Japanese hellships, falling coconuts, flying shrapnel, beatings, beheadings, bullets, bombs, bayonets, torpedoes, a crushed leg, a fractured skull, malnutrition and premature cremation.
He’s presumed dead by the British Army, left for dead by Japanese guards, and declared dead by a Dutch-Javanese doctor.
Yet through it all Charlie soldiers on.
Half a world away, his wife Mary, fashioned from the same mental granite, stoically awaits his return. Not even an official telegram confirming the near-certainty of Charlie’s death, or later rumours of his torture, can shake her iron faith.
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Sparrow Force – the force that defended Timor in 1942 – was one of Australia’s most successful military units. At the lowest point in the Second World War these soldiers - equipped with First World War weapons and cut off from Australia - waged a commando campaign that held off Japan’s most successful and elite special force. Low in medicine and ammunition, they built an improvised radio that regained contact with their homeland. It was the first good news of the war for the Allies.
Sparrow Force was unique. They were the first force to defeat Japan in battle, and they were the last to be captured. Those who escaped to pursue a guerrilla campaign spent more time in combat against the Japanese than any other Allied unit. They were set up to fail; instead they endured, defied, and succeeded.
Newsreels were made, victories were recorded, medals were awarded, and Australia’s morale was elevated. As Winston Churchill famously said, “They alone did not surrender.”
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Grant McLachlan is the grandson of Charlie and Mary McLachlan - the central characters of Sparrow. Born on the 30th anniversary of his grandfather's liberation, Grant interviewed over 100 war veterans and travelled throughout twelve countries to research a true story told in the way the veterans of Sparrow Force wanted them told.
A qualified lawyer and hearings commissioner, Grant has worked in Parliament as a researcher and advisor. His columns in New Zealand newspapers and his pro-bono work has assisted many people involved in disputes with central and local government authorities.
Starting his research with the purchase of a Sony Handycam in September 2003, as each day of interviewing his grandparents completed he verified the accounts. Grant slowly unravelled the story of his grandparents’ war as he collected copies of books and then shared his research with Mary and Charlie. Over time, Grant travelled to Sparrow Force reunions in Australia and other places that Charlie visited during the war.
“With each place I visited, I was fortunate to meet people who remembered Charlie. Charlie was the barber who was the central figure in the camps and he also had a remarkable story of survival.”
The prologue describes Grant’s journey to research and write Sparrow.
