Against All Odds – Survival of Australian Z-Special Unit Commando ‘Mick’ Dennis behind enemy lines

Title: Against All Odds – the Survival of Australian Z-Special Unit Commando ‘Mick’ Dennis behind enemy lines

Author: Black, Geoff

Condition: Near Mint

Edition: 1st Edition (4th impression)

Publication Date: 2006

ISBN: 0646440977

Cover: Hard Cover without Dust Jacket – 214 pages – Limited Edition of 20 copies.

Comments: The story of ‘Mick’ Dennis who was a member of ‘Z’ Force Commandos – An exceptionally rare book with less than 100 copies published over several editions.

Z Special Unit (also known as Special Operations Executive (SOE), Special Operations Australia (SOA) or the Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD)) was a joint Allied special forces unit formed during the Second World War to operate behind Japanese lines in South East Asia. Predominantly Australian, Z Special Unit was a specialist reconnaissance and sabotage unit that included British, Dutch, New Zealand, Timorese and Indonesian members, predominantly operating on Borneo and the islands of the former Netherlands East Indies.

The unit carried out a total of 81 covert operations in the South West Pacific theatre, with parties inserted by parachute or submarine to provide intelligence and conduct guerilla warfare. The best known of these missions were Operation Jaywick and Operation Rimau, both of which involved raids on Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour; the latter of which resulted in the deaths of twenty-three commandos either in action or by execution after capture.

Although the unit was disbanded after the war, many of the training techniques and operational procedures employed were later used during the formation of other Australian Army special forces units and they remain a model for guerilla operations to this day.

Signed by Mick Dennis on the front end paper.