Operation Agas

Both operations combined and relayed their intelligence through the Stallion Project to Australian forces and carried out guerrilla warfare against the Japanese in the region with support of the local population.

[3] To support this, Operation Agas was launched in March 1945 by Australian Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD), utilising Z Special Unit personnel.

The operation had two main objectives: to gather intelligence and to train the indigenous people to undertake a guerrilla campaign against the Japanese.

[5] Planning for covert operations in Borneo by Allied forces had begun in December 1941 when Second Lieutenant P. M. Synge, a British intelligence officer who had undertaken an expedition in Sarawak in 1932, proposed sending a small group of officers into the area to organise a guerrilla force with the aim of disrupting Japanese efforts to exploit the vital oilfields.

Conducted in two phases, the operation was tasked with relaying information about Japanese shipping and supporting Filipino guerrillas who were working in the area under an American officer.

[6][7] In early March 1945, Major F. G. L. Chester, who led the Operation Python 1 previously, landed at the Labuk Bay, Sandakan, along with six other personnel.

Having been carried from Darwin aboard the submarine USS Tuna, the party had paddled 10 miles (16 km) ashore in rubber inflatable craft.

Information such as the train schedule to and from Beaufort, cargo movements, and details of local timber milling and railway operations was collected.

Agas 4 was tasked with collecting information about Japanese troops in the Tawau–Mostyn and Lahad Datu area, ascertaining their strength, movements and combat capability.

[17] Assisted by the Agas and Semut operations, the Australian 9th Division was able to secure north Borneo, with major combat ending largely by July 1945.

Extensive civic actions began even before the end of the war, with efforts being turned to rebuilding the oil facilities and other damaged infrastructure, establishing schools, providing medical care to local civilians and restoring the water supply.

It also provided the crucial information that the Japanese in the area intended to evacuate the coast and move into the North Borneo interior.

This was due to the general "apathy, fear, and the desire to return home" expressed by the local guerrilla units after the failed 1943 Jesselton Revolt.

Nevertheless, intelligence gathered from this region enabled the Allies to avoid a direct assault against the Japanese during Operation Oboe Six (the Battle of North Borneo).

The Agas 1 party with Major F. G. L. Chester