Qualla: Operation Copper

Operation Copper: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Sapper Mick Dennis had already fought the Japanese across New Guinea when he paddled ashore on Muschu Island on the night of 11 April 1945. Within hours he was one of eight men being hunted across the island by nearly a thousand Japanese soldiers. Nine days later, after fighting his way through patrols, swimming more than three kilometers of open channel to Wewak, and crossing enemy territory on foot, Dennis walked into an Australian patrol. He was the only survivor. The seven other commandos of Operation Copper had been killed. What Dennis carried back helped keep two Japanese naval guns silent during the Wewak landings a month later.

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Operation Copper: Two Guns That Needed Checking

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Operation Copper was one of the last missions run by Z Special Unit in New Guinea. The unit's specialty was clandestine reconnaissance and sabotage behind Japanese lines. By April 1945 the war had moved on to the Philippines and Okinawa, but the Australian 6th Division was prepar...

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Operation Copper: Names on the Roll

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Eight men went in. Special Lieutenant Alan Robert Gubbay led the patrol. Lieutenant Thomas Joseph Barnes was second in command. Sergeant Malcolm Francis Max Weber, Lance Corporal Spencer Henry Walklate, Signaller Michael Scott Hagger, Signaller John Richard Chandler, Private Rona...

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Operation Copper: The Hunt

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At daybreak the patrol began its reconnaissance. It did not know that the Japanese garrison had already found some of the swept-ashore equipment further along the coast and had put the island on alert. Muschu Island is roughly ten kilometers long and two across. Nearly 1,000 Japa...

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Operation Copper: Swimming to Wewak

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Dennis entered the water and began swimming. The channel between Muschu and the mainland near Wewak is over three kilometers wide, and he was being pursued. He made it across, landed in Japanese-held territory on the other side, and spent the next days moving through enemy lines ...

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