Fake Japanese naval war ensign : Sub Lieutenant M Hordern, Fairmile Launch HMAML 814, RANVR

Simulated Japanese naval war ensign. The flag is made of sixteen strips of white cotton material sewn onto red cotton material. A cotton fabric backing was added post-war.

This imitation Japanese ensign was delivered to the officers of the Fairmile B class patrol boat ML814 in Darwin Harbour in July 1943. Two months earlier the 34 metre high-speed motor launch had been sent to Darwin, to join her sister vessel ML815, for use in the re-supply of guerrilla fighters in Japanese occupied Timor.

In late July the vessels were readied for a clandestine operation to Timor code named 'Operation Mosquito'. The objectives of the operation included the insertion of a specialist Army signaller, the re-supply of the local guerrilla forces and the extraction of Portuguese and other nationals trapped on the island.

Before leaving Darwin an intelligence officer delivered the 'Japanese' flags to both ML 814 and ML 815 to use as a ruse in case they were intercepted by enemy air or sea patrols. On ML814, the flag was handed to Sub-Lieutenant Marsden Hordern who, together with Lieutenant Bernard 'Chips' Wood and Signalman D'Arcy Kelly rejected any suggestion of sailing or fighting under an enemy flag. Kelly was told to dispose of the flag but 'don't put it in with the decent flags', warned Wood, 'stick it in the potato locker'. The crew of ML815 had a similar attitude.

Following an aborted start on 29 July, the two Fairmiles struck out for Timor on 2 August. Arriving at the Timor rendezvous without incident, the crews set about landing the supplies and the signaller before evacuating the refugees to the safety of the ships. Initially estimated to be around 70 civilians, the vessels returned to Darwin with 87 Portuguese, Timorese and Chinese nationals crowded on their decks, many suffering the effects of severe deprivation from their time hiding in the jungles of the island.

Later, Hordern stumbled across the 'Japanese' flag, still sitting in the bottom of the potato locker, and kept it as a souvenir. The fate of ML 815's flag is unknown.