Operation Sabre was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

military operation in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. It involved cutting the Japanese submarine communications cable linking Saigon and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. operating from an X-Craft

midget submarine A midget submarine (also called a mini submarine) is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to six or nine, with little or no on-board living accommodation. They normally work with mother ships, ...

in the

Saigon River The Saigon River ( vi, Sông Sài Gòn) is a river located in southern Vietnam that rises near Phum Daung in southeastern Cambodia, flows south and south-southeast for about and empties into the Soài Rạp, which in its turn empties into the ...

delta on 31 July 1945. Operation ''Sabre'' was directed at the Hong Kong to Saigon telephone cable, and carried out by ''XE4'' , which was towed to within of the Mekong Delta by the submarine HMS ''Spearhead''. Steered by Vernon ''Ginger'' Coles ''XE4'' looked for the two telephone cables by using a towed

grapnel A grappling hook or grapnel is a device that typically has multiple hooks (known as ''claws'' or ''flukes'') attached to a rope; it is thrown, dropped, sunk, projected, or fastened directly by hand to where at least one hook may catch and hol ...

. She eventually snagged the first cable, and managed to haul it about off the seabed. ''XE4's'' diver, Sub-Lieutenant K.M. Briggs, used the net/cable cutter to sever it. The second cable was soon found as well, and was severed by the second diver, Sub-Lieutenant A. Bergius. Two divers were carried due to the operating rule that a diver should not spend more than 20 minutes in depths over and no more than 10 minutes over . ''XE4'' and ''Spearhead'' returned to Labuan on 3 August 1945. Lieutenant Maxwell H. Shean, DSO and bar,

Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RANVR) was a reserve force of the Royal Australian Navy. Formation In late 1920, the Navy Board proposed the creation of an Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve scheme, with approaches made to yac ...

, was awarded the American Bronze Star Medal in March 1947 for meritorious achievement as the commanding officer of the midget submarine '' HMS XE4''.

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