"In the centenary year of the birth of the Australian nation and it's Army, it is fitting that another important piece in the proud and fascinating jigsaw of Australian military history be put in its proper and honourable place.

Not many Australians know of the work of the Services Reconnaissance Department and its famous offspring, the Z Specials. These courageous, volunteer and highly skilled warriors underwent the toughest specialist training before being inserted by submarine, parachute drop, or flying boat into heavily occupied Japanese territory, to report on enemy movements, headquarter locations and Allied POW camps.

Lying up close to Japanese positions as a survival tactic and always at high risk of being compromised, they operated mainly in the heat, wet and physically debilitating environment of the jungle from New Guinea to Borneo and Malaya to China.

Organised in small groups of 5 to 25 men, they trained in situ some 6000 local guerrillas and killed 1700 of the enemy for the loss of 112 of their own. Many of the latter died after being captured, interrogated under torture and then executed by beheading.

" Blood on Borneo" is a terrific read, because it is not only about brave men doing brave things, it is also full of delightful human interest stories, including a number of those courageous local people, Malay and Chinese, who supported the Z Specials at huge risk to themselves, where retribution if caught was swift, brutal and often final.

It is a book that displays the young Sergeant Sue's deep love of nature in the vivid descriptions of Borneo flora, fauna and undersea life.

The author is a man of many parts; a former merchant seaman, an accomplished underwater diver, a decorated war veteran, a businessman, a family man and an astute observer of the human condition and the environment in which we all live.

It is a book that should be read by all Australians"

Major General Michael Jeffery AC CVO MC KStJ CitWA