amortiser

I've managed to get a copy of the book.

The fella in question is a Captain Jock McLaren, also a Major Rex Blow. I will add more after I have read it but he was awared the Military Cross twice, apartentley the citation for one was the longest ever written!!

His boat was an adapted whaleboat,armed with a 20mm cannon, two 0.3" machine guns and a 0.5" aft gun. Aptly named "The Bastard"

A quote from the book

"Blow and Mclaren were in enemy territory for more than two and a half years. These two Australlians were raiders who never rested"

And yes he did remove his own appendix!

"All men trained as raiders in Australia were taught how to remove their own appendix should no expert help be available. Unfortunately, however, Jock Mclaren was without the benefits of this training, he had gone straight from a PoW camp into his own type of war. The day came when he knew that his appendix had burst. It it were not removed he would die, but Rex Blow was operating eleswhere and McLaren was alone except for a friendly Moro chief, his Filipino wife and a young native. Furthermore, he had no anaesthetic."

It goes on to describe in some detail how he carried out the operation.

This guy is a legend, you should read his story, I'm not sure why a book/film hasn't been written specifically about his exploits.

I read his story in a small paperback called Australian War Heroes. Before the war McLaren was a vet and so knew how to operate albeit on animals. He removed his appendix using a shaving mirror and a razorblade while hiding from the Japanese in a swamp. He sewed up the wound using banana fibre. While recuperating, he had to escape from an enemy patrol.

After the War he operated a plantation in Papua New Guinea and was killed when a tree fell on him during a rainstorm. He dodged all those bullets in the most trying of circumstances and lost his life almost by chance. An amazing man.