page_title: Borneo campaign
section_title: Guerilla warfare
hierarchical_section_title: Borneo campaign / Battles / Guerilla warfare
caption_attribution_description: English: BRUNEI, NORTH BORNEO. 17 JUNE 1945. NATIVE DYAKS FROM THE MAINLAND OF BORNEO, WALKING ALONG A BRUNEI STREET, ARMED WITH JAPANESE RIFLES. THEY ARE ON THEIR WAY BACK TO THEIR VILLAGES IN THE HILLS.
context_page_description: The Borneo campaign of 1945 was the last major Allied campaign in the South West Pacific Area during World War II to liberate Japanese-held British Borneo and Dutch Borneo. Designated collectively as Operation Oboe, a series of amphibious assaults between 1 May and 21 July were conducted by the Australian I Corps, under Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead, against Imperial Japanese forces who had been occupying the island since late 1941 – early 1942. The main Japanese formation on the island was the Thirty-Seventh Army under Lieutenant-General Masao Baba, while the naval garrison was commanded by Vice-Admiral Michiaki Kamada. The Australian ground forces were supported by US and other Allied air and naval forces, with the US providing the bulk of the shipping and logistic support necessary to conduct the operation. The campaign was initially planned to involve six stages, but eventually landings were undertaken at four locations: Tarakan, Labuan, North Borneo and Balikpapan. Guerilla operations were also carried out by Dayak tribesmen and small numbers of Allied personnel in the interior of the island.
context_section_description: The conventional operations on British North Borneo were accompanied by a guerilla warfare campaign organised by Special Operations Australia (SOA). This involved two operations; Operation Agas in British North Borneo and Operation Semut in Sarawak. These operations succeeded the unsuccessful Operation Python which had been undertaken between October 1943 and January 1944.
  Five SOA parties were inserted in North Borneo between March and July 1945. The Agas 1 and 2 parties established networks of agents and guerrillas in north-western Borneo. The Agas 4 and 5 parties were landed on the east coast of Borneo, and achieved little. The Agas 3 party investigated the Ranau area on the request of I Corps. The results of Operation Agas were mixed; its parties established control over their areas of operation, provided intelligence of variable quality and killed less than 100 Japanese.
  As part of Operation Semut over 100 Allied personnel organised into four parties were inserted by air into Sarawak from March 1945. Most of these personnel were Australian. The Semut parties were tasked with collecting intelligence and establishing guerilla forces. The inhabitants of Sarawak's interior, who were known as Dayaks, enthusiastically joined the guerilla groups and SOA personnel led small private armies. No. 200 Flight RAAF and the Royal Australian Navy's Snake-class junks played important roles in this campaign by inserting SOA personnel and supplies.
  The guerilla forces launched attacks to gain control of the interior of Sarawak while the 9th Division focused on the coastal area, the oilfields, plantations and the ports in North Borneo. The guerillas operated from patrol bases around Balai, Ridan and Marudi, as well as in the mountains, along several key waterways including the Pandaruan and Limbang Rivers, and along the railway that ran between Beaufort and Tenom. They sought to disrupt the Japanese troops' freedom of movement and interdicted forces as they withdrew from the main combat zone. The RAAF flew air strikes to support the lightly armed guerillas, who at times had to evade better-armed Japanese units. The campaign was highly successful, and it is estimated that over 1,800 Japanese were killed in north Borneo through guerilla actions.
caption: Dayak men armed with Japanese rifles in Brunei during June 1945 before returning to their villages in the interior
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