WERE JAPANESE SUPPLIES
PLACED IN A CAVE
NEAR YANCHEP, WA
IN AUSTRALIA DURING WWII??

I was contacted by Graham Hill in September 2021. He told me that his father Charles Albert Hill (WX32681) was in the 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment during WWII. Their role was to patrol the coastline north of Perth up to Geraldton. Charles told his son Graham, that on one patrol they fired shots at persons who they believed to be Japanese military who were in a small craft heading back to their submarine after hiding supplies in the back of a cave near Yanchep. The men of the 10th Light Horse Regiment were ordered to burn the supplies and to tell nobody what they had found, presumably so as not to scare the Australian public.

Some years later in about 1956 whilst at Yanchep, Graham asked his father where the cave was that he had told him about. His father took him to the cave and there were still some destroyed remnants of the Japanese supplies visible at the back of the cave. A friend of his father who was in the same unit had some photos of these supplies but Graham cannot remember who he was nor did Graham's father have any copies of the photos.

10th Australian Light Horse Regiment was located south of Perth when Charles Hill enlisted.  The 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment was at Gingin from March 1943 to September 1943 with a troop around Yanchep. The unit was disbanded in June 1944. Yanchep is now a suburban area and there are unlikely to be many undiscovered caves.

There were only a few Japanese Submarines that operated in Western Australian waters during WWII.  Submarines I-1, I-2 and I-3 operated off Western Australia in March 1942 which was before Charles Hill enlisted in September 1942. Submarine I-165 also operated in Western Australian waters in January 1943, September 1943 and from May to July 1943. There is no evidence that any of these submarines operated near Yanchep.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank Graham Hill for his assistance with this web page.
 

Can anyone help me with more information?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 3 September 2021

This page last updated 12 September 2021