Intriguing information has been received as a result of this blog's post dealing with a Townsville connection with the WWll episode in which an intercepted coded radio message enabled the American Army to shoot down the bomber in which Admiral Yamamoto was travelling in 1943, extracting revenge for his planning of the attack on Pearl Harbour.
After reading the item , Darwin agronomist Robert Wesley-Smith said the late Sam Kruger, a Russian Polish Jew , claimed to have to have been personally involved in the Yamamoto affair when he worked for the US as a radio engineer on Guadalcanal .
Kruger, somewhat of a mystery man , was present at the dramatic event in Dili, East Timor , when a home-made flag produced overnight by Rosa Buonaparte , she killed by invading Indonesians , was bravely flown at the declaration of the Democratic Republic of East Timor on November 28, 1975.
Near the leaders , just in from the left , obscured, in the above photo , Kruger is shown side on looking like a Darwin public servant at that historic event in shorts, long white socks, with a Portuguese military cap. In the throng was Australian journalist Roger East , who had worked in Darwin, shot dead by the invading Indonesians and thrown into the sea soon after . (This killing was re-enacted in Darwin , Wesley-Smith , a major campaigner for East Timor freedom from the very first , his arms tied behind his back , playing the part of East.)
Kruger, somewhat of a mystery man , was present at the dramatic event in Dili, East Timor , when a home-made flag produced overnight by Rosa Buonaparte , she killed by invading Indonesians , was bravely flown at the declaration of the Democratic Republic of East Timor on November 28, 1975.
Near the leaders , just in from the left , obscured, in the above photo , Kruger is shown side on looking like a Darwin public servant at that historic event in shorts, long white socks, with a Portuguese military cap. In the throng was Australian journalist Roger East , who had worked in Darwin, shot dead by the invading Indonesians and thrown into the sea soon after . (This killing was re-enacted in Darwin , Wesley-Smith , a major campaigner for East Timor freedom from the very first , his arms tied behind his back , playing the part of East.)
Because of Kruger's stated connection with the dramatic Yamamoto event , Wesley-Smith became interested in the episode , carrying out research , reading much about the shooting down of the Admiral's plane . He and Kruger even sat together in Darwin watching the screening of the Japanese -American movie, Tora!Tora! Tora !, about the attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbour on December 7 , l941 .
Kruger , a man of action , had an interesting background , supplied by Wesley-Smith . Born on January 1, 1912 , in Lodz, Poland , he was present at Saint Petersburg , Russia , when the Czar's troops fired on people, his father pushing him into the gutter . To escape the revolution , his father brought the family to Australia. Sam was brought up in Melbourne and studied radio engineering .
Kruger , a man of action , had an interesting background , supplied by Wesley-Smith . Born on January 1, 1912 , in Lodz, Poland , he was present at Saint Petersburg , Russia , when the Czar's troops fired on people, his father pushing him into the gutter . To escape the revolution , his father brought the family to Australia. Sam was brought up in Melbourne and studied radio engineering .
With the outbreak of WW11 , Sam Kruger, who wore glasses , was not accepted for military service, so he offered his services to the Americans who snapped him up .
Kruger is said to have been at Broome, West Australia , when the Japanese raided the town and shot up flying boats, carrying many civilians , which landed there after fleeing from the Dutch East Indies . He forced a port official at gunpoint to go to the rescue of passengers in the burning planes in a boat .
In dramatic detail , he told of there being little freeboard because of people dragged aboard, when a woman was spotted at the door of a flying boat with a child in her arms . He shouted at her to throw the baby out , which she did , but she went back in and the plane exploded . Kruger told Wesley-Smith the heat scorched the back of his hands and that was why there was no hair on them .
There are many tantalising gaps in the Kruger story . He emphatically claimed to have been on Guadalcanal , from whence the attack to get Admiral Yamamoto was planned and launched , specially fitted out planes with long range tanks from there hunting him down . Kruger told how he had seen the coded Japanese message with details of Admiral Yamamoto's fateful flight from Rabaul to an island off Bougainville .
Sensing the message was highly important , he refused to just put it aside , insisted he inform the top brass immediately , which he did .
According to Wesley-Smith , Kruger told him he had the rank of a major and soon after the war was in charge of a US radio station in American Samoa .
At some stage after WWll, Kruger supposedly went to Israel , offered his services and became involved with none other than the famous military leader and politician , Moshe Dayan . The story goes that he and Dayan were personally involved in an operation after fighting on the Golan Heights in which a number of female Israeli soldiers had been killed.
It involved flying into Syria in two helicopters to locate the equipment directing shelling of the Golan Heights. It ended mission accomplished , but as Kruger dashed back to get a vital component he was almost blown into the helicopter because a delayed explosive had been placed inside the building .
It involved flying into Syria in two helicopters to locate the equipment directing shelling of the Golan Heights. It ended mission accomplished , but as Kruger dashed back to get a vital component he was almost blown into the helicopter because a delayed explosive had been placed inside the building .
Then , somehow, Kruger, single, turns up in Darwin working as a clerk in Water Resources . On a pension , short of money , he moved to East Timor in 1974 because he figured he could live more cheaply there . During that time he mixed with Portuguese military men in the capital , Dili .
With the collapse of the Portuguese colonial empire and the Timorese asserting themselves , he got involved in attempts to train a defence force when Indonesian was clearly going to invade. In particular , he directed the setting up of their only machine gun, possibly an old German model, placed behind sandbags on top of the airport tower.
During the fighting for supremacy between UDT and Fretilin in Dili in the early breakaway period , Kruger came upon a warehouse in which woman and children of UDT members had been imprisoned . He went to Fretilin and said they should be given water and released .
Then , with the Indonesians sweeping in , Kruger was evacuated back to Darwin and lived in Kurringal Flats , a housing commission block , in Fannie Bay . He joined demonstrations in Darwin against the Indonesian invasion and wrote long letters to the local paper on various subjects , one on the need for a saltwater public pool in Darwin , eventually established years later .
In this photograph from the Wesley-Smith file , it shows Darwin activist Brian Manning , with loudhailer , addressing a protest meeting outside the Indonesian Consulate in Darwin. In a white T-shirt is Wesley- Smith , Sam Kruger on his left. In another demonstration, below, Kruger , holding an attaché case , which he regularly carried about with him, is brandishing a sign calling for the downfall of the Suharto junta .
Australian Intelligence called on Kruger and warned him that Indonesia knew about his involvement in helping the Timorese to fix up the machine gun and that he should not consider travelling overseas, even to Singapore , as they would get him. The same warning applied to Kruger's four eyed mate... "moi", says Robert Wesley-Smith.
Kruger featured in two embarrassing events in the Darwin RSL . In the first , a visiting American told the gathering they were not fit to be in the same room as this man Kruger. In the other, he was asked to leave the RSL because he had served with American forces ; later invited back, he declined the offer . Kruger joined the Parap branch of the Australian Labor Party , Wesley -Smith standing as an ALP candidate in an election , but left after a while .
During his time in Kurringal Flats , since pulled down , he was called upon by visiting Israelis who brought him presents , a shirt passed onto Wesley-Smith. When Wesley-Smith called at the flat , lonely Kruger invariably responded by saying , "You have saved my bloody life!"
Once , while intoxicated, Kruger spoke of Israel's nuclear weapons and put his fingers up to his mouth as if to say do not speak about the subject . When a visiting nuclear powered warship , the Bainbridge , came to Darwin , he was invited aboard , tried to have a look at the power plant.
As he aged , very lonely, the flat, in which he kept many files , became untidy ; there were lots of papers in a cupboard ; he was delighted when a Russian speaking woman was given the job of cleaning the premises. His war medals were stolen when the flat was broken into .
As he aged , very lonely, the flat, in which he kept many files , became untidy ; there were lots of papers in a cupboard ; he was delighted when a Russian speaking woman was given the job of cleaning the premises. His war medals were stolen when the flat was broken into .
In this special photograph from the Wesley-Smith collection , Kruger , left , is next to Jose Ramos Horta , then Wesley-Smith and Warwick Fry , son of Ken Fry , ALP Member of the House of Representatives, awarded the Order of Timor Leste posthumously for his championing of the Timorese . It is signed : To Sam Kruger ...I hereby appoint you Field Marshal of the East Timor Barefoot Army ! Jose Ramos Horta , 24/1/98.
A glimpse inside Kruger's flat is revealed in this photograph which shows him shaking the hand of Ramos Horta , the Nobel Peace Prize recipient . Sam rejoiced at East Timor's Liberation celebrations in 1999 then , on his last legs , moved soon after to Alice Springs , where he had two friends from Darwin , and died August 11, 2000.
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Weathered gravestone of Samuel Kruger in Alice Springs , recently taken by Wesley-Smith.
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