page_title: Donald Stott
section_title: Z Special Unit
hierarchical_section_title: Donald Stott / Second World War / Special Operations Executive / Z Special Unit
caption_attribution_description: USS_Perch; http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08313.htm Perch (ASSP-313), surface view, 45 degrees off centerline, at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, CA., 11 Sept. 1956. Courtesy of http://usssubvetsofwwii.org
context_page_description: Major Donald John Stott, DSO & Bar was a New Zealand soldier and military intelligence agent during the Second World War.
  Born in Auckland, Stott volunteered for the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War. Serving with an artillery unit, Stott took part in the Battle of Greece, and the subsequent Battle of Crete. Captured by the Germans on Crete, he successfully escaped from a prisoner of war camp after several months of internment. Making his way back to Egypt, he joined the Special Operations Executive in 1942 and was dispatched to Greece to support the local resistance efforts against the Germans. In 1944, he transferred to the Z Special Unit, which was based in Melbourne, Australia as part of the Services Reconnaissance Department. Appointed commander of Robin 1, a small team formed to collect intelligence in the Southwest Pacific, he disappeared, presumed drowned, on 20 March 1945 while leading his team on a reconnaissance mission to Balikpapan Bay, Indonesia.
context_section_description: Stott was not allowed to return to Greece following his recent exploits in the country.  Instead, after being offered a staff job which was declined, he opted to be seconded to the Australian equivalent of the SOE, the Services Reconnaissance Department, to undertake operations in the Far East. Stott briefly returned to New Zealand where he married Mary Snow in June 1944.
  The following month, Stott commenced intensive training at various bases around Australia, including receiving instructions in small boat handling and submarine insertion.  In 1945, and by now promoted to major, he was appointed commander of Operation Robin 1 and tasked with conducting sabotage and intelligence missions in Southeast Borneo. A submarine, the USS Perch, transported Stott and his twelve-man team to Japanese occupied Balikpapan Bay. Arriving in the bay on 20 March 1945, Stott was to lead an initial party of four ashore in a pair of two-man folboats. This was to be followed by the remainder of his team two days later.
  Launching at night in heavy swells, Stott had trouble with the motor of his folboat, and he and his companion were forced to use paddles to try to get to shore.  En route, the party was detected by the Japanese and were ordered by Stott to seek an alternative landing site. While the second folboat successfully made it to shore, Stott and his companion were never seen again, and were presumed to have drowned.
caption: The USS Perch, from which Stott launched his final mission
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