They are known as the second-second, but the men of the 2nd Independent Company were Australia's first commandos, and in 1942 they became our first troops to stop the Japanese juggernaut.

With the support of Timorese villagers, they tied down thousands of Japanese troops in a year-long guerrilla war on the island of Timor, diverting the enemy from New Guinea.

Keith Hayes in uniform during World War II ( Supplied )

Only a few members of the unit are alive today, and one of them, 95-year-old Keith Hayes, tells an incredible story of survival thanks to the aid of Timorese woman.

Twelve hours after the Japanese bombed Darwin, they landed 5,000 troops on the island of Timor.

The Australian commandos, who were already in Timor based in the mountains outside Dili, had no idea the Japanese troops had arrived.

The morning after the Japanese landed, 20-year-old Mr Hayes was one of 15 men who drove down to Dili in a truck to pick up supplies.

Even though his mountain base was only 11 kilometres from Dili, a heavy fog had prevented a signaller from getting a message through.

Signaller Bryant Gannon died in vain as he flashed a Lucas lamp to alert the base.

The fifteen Australians fell into an ambush and were captured.

Surviving an execution

Mr Hayes was one of four men lined up for execution. Eleven other commandos were executed later that day.

But the bullet and a subsequent bayonet did not kill him.

"I don't know how long I lay there but when I went out they were turning blue, they were gone, the others," Mr Hayes said.

He somehow survived and managed to make it to the edge of the jungle.

"I saw two little kids. They took me up to dear old Berta (Martins), and from then on she was in charge," he said.

Berta Martins nursed Keith Hayes back to health under the noses of Japanese soldiers on Timor. ( Supplied )

Ms Martins knew a thing or two about traditional medicine, and she knew how to hide him from the Japanese.

"She made up some paste to stop the bleeding, a green mixture, some herbs crushed up. She did that every day, even fed me, every day I went down a tunnel, stayed down there all day," Mr Hayes said.

"At night-time if there was any noise she'd wrap me up in a cane mat.

"People in the village must have known, but not a word was said about it.

"Anyone wanting a spare bob could have put me in."

Mr Hayes was being hidden just a few hundred metres from the Japanese, who were guarding the airfield.

Ms Martins lived in a village next to the Dili mosque, which the commandos called the Arab village.

After about a week, she arranged for two men to put Mr Hayes on a pony and take him back to his unit in the mountains.

As a parting gesture, Ms Martins gave Mr Hayes a pink handkerchief and a big hug.

When the company doctor saw the way she had treated Mr Hayes's wounds, he said he could not have done a better job.

'Here was little group of Australians that stopped them'

At the time of his return, Mr Hayes' company was embroiled in an effective guerilla war against the Japanese, even though they lacked supplies and radio contact with Australia.

But Joe Loveless, an ABC radio technician from Hobart, led a small team that worked day and night to build a radio set out of bits and pieces to reach Australia after 10 weeks of isolation.

The other surviving second-second member, Fred Otway, said the news about his company's guerilla war provided a huge morale boost to Australia during its darkest hour.

Fred Otway says the Australian soldiers in Timor had no choice, they had to fight or die.

"When we made contact they didn't believe it, they thought we were all wiped out," he said.

"[US General Douglas] MacArthur made us an object of morale to the rest of Australia.

"This Japanese juggernaut had come through Hong Kong, Singapore, Ambon, they were unstoppable — here was a little group of Australians that stopped them.

"We were the only ones that stopped them.

"Why were we so successful was we made friends with the natives."

In August 1942, the Japanese launched an all-out offensive to wipe out the Australians but they took just three casualties.

"We had to fight or die. They had us pretty well surrounded," Mr Otway said.

"We only had 275 fighting men, the rest were sick, malaria, dysentery. We killed about 700-800 of them.

"The reason the Japs pulled out [of the offensive was] because of so many casualties."

'You could never repay them'

World War II veteran Keith Hayes talks about his time battling the Japanese in Timor.

Mr Hayes tracked down Ms Martins after the war and the two exchanged letters.

She wanted nothing for having saved his life.

Mr Hayes said all the men in the second-second believed they owed their lives to the Timorese.

"You could never repay them," he said.

"If it hadn't been for them none of them would have come back.

"At any moment, if they had turned, we would not have lasted a week up there.

"They were so much with us, we had a unit to come back with.

"If they'd have really wanted to, none would have come back."

Post script:

Following the publication of this story, 7.30 was contacted by the family of Jack Hanson, who is another survivor of the 2nd Independent Company in Timor.

This is his story.

WWII veteran Jack Hanson is one of the few survivors of the fight against the Japanese in Timor ( Supplied )

WWII veteran Jack Hanson says he and his brother were continuing a family tradition when they enlisted in Australia's first special forces units.

As Australia's first commandos, Jack and his brother Lesley started with the rank of trooper, which is the same rank their father John was given when he joined the Australian Light Horse Regiment.

John Hanson fought at Gallipoli, including the battle of the Nek, and then afterwards at the battle of Beersheba.

When WWII started, John told Jack to join the air force rather than the army, but Jack defied the advice and joined the 2nd Independent Company, or the second-second, in 1941.

Hanson suffered from malaria throughout his year of fighting in Timor and was seriously unwell when he came back to Australia in December 1942.

He was so unwell that he left the second-second and worked as an instructor at the new jungle warfare centre at Canungra.

Later in the war, he joined another commando unit, the 2/12, and served overseas again.

His brother Lesley joined the 2/9 Commando Squadron.

Now aged 95, Mr Hanson recently completed a memoir about his time in Timor, and he is now working on another one about his service with the 2/12 unit.

Mr Hanson called his memoir The White Ghost, a name that refers to the way the Australian commandos would appear from nowhere, and then disappear, when they engaged the Japanese.

The memoir was written by former Fairfax journalist, the late Toni McRae, and Mr Hanson's nephew Martin Morris.

"The Timorese used to say now you see them, they're here, they talk to you, then they're gone," Mr Hanson said in the memoir.

Hanson admits that despite the incredible experience in Timor, he lost contact with his mates in the second-second.

He drifted around for the first three decades after the war, working in all sorts of jobs, and didn't marry until late in life.

"I drifted away from the unit. I wanted to put my head down and get on with my life," he said.

The memoir says that the second-second, which was later renamed the 2/2 Commando Squadron, "spent longer in contact with the enemy than any other unit in the Australian Army and their success and much of their training was later used as a model for our SAS training".