Greg Tuck

Deep Down Under Greg Tuck

Just after the birth of his second child, Detective Inspector "Sarge" Downs of the Queensland police based in Cairns receives a mysterious parcel. In it he finds various accounts of the role his grandfather, Wilfred, played during the Second World War. Sarge had inherited his middle name from his grandfather and only seen him as a withered old man who didn't seem to be able to do much. However Sarge learns that he was very much mistaken. In his youth his grandfather had volunteered into the armed forces. Such was his talent he was deployed to assist a 'coastwatcher' on a very small Micronesian island near the Equator. The Japanese subsequently set up a base on the island. Wilf was able to get all the islanders and the coastwatcher off the island to safely. The island would draw him back again. He came with group of commandos to investigate what the Japanese were doing there. In doing so a major incident took place that would haunt the young Wilf for the rest of his life. He was then asked to lead another sortie into Burma to see if there was another point that General Slim's army could push the Japanese back into Thailand and Malaya. What happened during that mission threw Wilf into deep depression and he fled to the family farm in outback far north Queensland. All the citations, commendations and medals he refused to accept. Sarge when he finished reading about his grandfather had cause to reflect on what a true unsung hero his grandfather was and that his grandfather who had blamed himself for the events that took place on the island had no reason whatsoever to do so.