Z Force

Z Special Unit, or Z Force (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, operating on Borneo and the islands of the former Netherlands East Indies.

The unit carried out a total of 81 covert operations in the Southwest Pacific theatre, with parties inserted by parachute or submarine to provide intelligence and conduct guerrilla 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 guerrilla operations to this day.

The Unit was brought back as Z Force in the 80s to be "The infantry backbone of Action Force, well supported by heavy armour and artillery."

History

The unit has distinctive green and black camouflage (notwithstanding their occasional deployment in desert and other terrain) with a red 'Z' insignia (in military-style stencil typeface) and occasional other red detail.

Z Force fights alongside their fellow Action Force units SAS Force, Q Force and Space Force most often against their Red Shadows enemy but also, on occasions, other terrorist or para-military factions including Cobra and various neo-Nazi groups.

As the unit evolved in the early 1980s Z Force operated alongside the more prevalent G.I. Joe against the new enemy Cobra.