The Mysterious WWII Hero Whose Daring Escape From an Occupied Island Was Dwarfed by His Return as a Spy
Dear Subscribers: Among the many we honor this Memorial Day, some were heroic but complicated individuals whose deeds helped to turn the tide of WWII. With that history in mind, I’d like to share this profile of courage from my Medium archives about a corner of the war that will likely come as a surprise to you. Thanks so much for reading!
Major A. Denis McCarthy was a complicated hero. Before World War II (WWII), as Superintendent of Police for India’s Andaman Islands, he led a brutal attack on the remote archipelago’s indigenous Jarawa tribe. And just days before Japan seized the islands in March 1942, McCarthy and 11 others fled across the Bay of Bengal by motor launch. He managed to navigate 850 miles of shark-and submarine-infested waters rather than face the enemy alongside British officials and Indian troops who remained in the Andaman capital of Port Blair.
But McCarthy had a secret agenda. In the two months after Japanese reconnaissance planes were first spotted over Port Blair, the police commandant had tapped a number of local informants deep in the Andaman forest. After he safely reached the Indian mainland…
