Recently received from the extensive files of Darwin agronomist and activist Robert Wesley -Smith is this cutting of adventurer and something of a mystery man , Sam Kruger.
It is said he played a vital part in the eventual shooting down of the plane in which was travelling the Commander of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto , deeply involved in the planning of the attack on Pearl Harbour.
A radio engineer employed by the Americans during the war, the story goes that Kruger became convinced a swarm of intercepted enemy radio messages were related to some major event . He took his hunch to the top brass at Guadalcanal , commander of the South Pacific area, Admiral "Bull" Halsey .
Decoded , the messages revealed that Yamamoto , flying from Rabaul, was to inspect Japanese bases . The Americans launched Operation Vengeance from Guadalcanal and on April 18,1943 his transport bomber was shot down over Bougainville .
Variously described as a Russian Jew and a German Jew , Kruger, born 1/1/1912, was brought to Australia by his refugee parents .
A radio technician when war broke out, he offered his services to the Army in Australia , but was rejected because he wore glasses. The Americans quickly signed him up .
He eventually came to Darwin after the war , worked in Water Resources , became a close friend of Wesley-Smith. Later he retired to East Timor where he mixed with Portuguese military men .
He was forced back to Darwin in 1975 and became involved with Wesley-Smith in the long campaign to free East Timor from Indonesia .
Another photograph from the extensive Wesley-Smith collection shows Kruger in Darwin , seated, with Jose Ramos Horta on his left, wearing glasses , at a gathering of Timorese . The European in the back row wearing a hat was Warwick Fry,son of ALP MHR Ken Fry.
Kruger, who died on August 11,2000, was buried in Alice Springs , his grave visited by Wes late last year .
In discussing this anomally , Wes said Kruger , somehow, had a French Croix de Guerre , which had disappeared in the Cyclone Tracy aftermath, his flat broken into . In the flat were said to have been souvenirs Kruger took from the wreckage of Yamamoto's plane, including its serial number .
Wearing many medals, Kruger was present at the historic declaration by Fretilin of the Democratic Republic of East Timor on November 28,1975 , not recognised by Portugal, Indonesia and Australia .
A 1998 photograph in the Welsey-Smith Collection shows Horta appointing Kruger a Field Marshal in the East Timor Barefoot Army.
A post in Little Darwin on September 27, 2017 ran details of Kruger's life ,including his involvement in operations with the Israeli leader Moshe Dayan.
