Operation Jaywick
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Operation Jaywick was a special operation undertaken 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 opposin ...
. In September 1943, 14
commando Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operativ ...
s and
sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the s ...
s from the
Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
Z Special Unit Z Special Unit () was a joint Allied special forces unit formed during the Second World War to operate behind Japanese lines in South East Asia. Predominantly Australian, Z Special Unit was a specialist reconnaissance and sabotage unit that i ...
raided
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
shipping in
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, borde ...
Harbour, sinking six ships.


Background

Special Operations Australia Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD), also known as Special Operations Australia (SOA) and previously known as Inter-Allied Services Department (ISD), was an Australian military intelligence and special reconnaissance unit, during World War II. ...
(SOA), a combined Allied
military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
organisation, was established in March 1942. SOA operated under the cover name Inter-Allied Services Department (IASD). It contained several British SOE officers who had escaped from Japanese occupied Singapore, and they formed the nucleus of the IASD, which was based in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
. In June 1942, a commando arm was organised as
Z Special Unit Z Special Unit () was a joint Allied special forces unit formed during the Second World War to operate behind Japanese lines in South East Asia. Predominantly Australian, Z Special Unit was a specialist reconnaissance and sabotage unit that i ...
(which was later commonly known as Z Force). It drew its personnel primarily from the
Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...
and
Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...
. In 1943, a 28-year-old British officer, Captain (later Major)
Ivan Lyon Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Lyon, (17 August 1915 – 16 October 1944) was a British soldier and military intelligence agent during the Second World War. As a member of Z Special Unit Lyon took part in a number of commando operations against the J ...
(of the
Allied Intelligence Bureau The Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB) was a joint United States, Australian, Dutch and British intelligence and special operations agency during World War II. It was responsible for operating parties of spies and commandos behind Japanese lines ...
and
Gordon Highlanders Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Clan Gord ...
), and a 61-year-old Australian civilian, Bill Reynolds, devised a plan to attack Japanese shipping in
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, borde ...
Harbour. Commandos would travel to the harbour in a vessel disguised as an Asian fishing boat. They would then use folboats (collapsible canoes) to attach limpet mines to Japanese ships. Initial training for the raid was organised and carried out by Major Lyon and Captain Davidson at Refuge Bay. The site selected was a remote, inaccessible area along the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales and named 'Camp X' for the purpose. Folboats were essential for training the prospective operatives, however only two; a one-man and a two-man were found to be suitable after a thorough search in Australia by Military personnel. These were bought on the spot from the folboat builder Walter Hoehn after a test run on the Yarra River, Alphington by the head of the Inter Allied Services Department Colonel Mott and Major Moneypenny. A wooden rigid canoe was also built for Camp-X by trainees under the supervision of Davidson. Reynolds was in possession of a Japanese coastal fish carrier, ''Kofuku Maru'' 幸福丸, which he had used to evacuate refugees from Singapore. Lyon ordered that the boat be shipped from
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
to Australia. Upon its arrival, he renamed the vessel ''Krait'', after the small but deadly Asian snake.


The attack

In mid-1943, ''Krait'' travelled from a training camp at Broken Bay,
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
to
Thursday Island Thursday Island, colloquially known as TI, or in the Kawrareg dialect, Waiben or Waibene, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait. TI is located approximately north of Cape ...
. Aboard was a complement from Z Special Unit of three British and eleven Australian personnel, comprising: * Major Ivan Lyon (Mission Commander) * Lieutenant Hubert Edward Carse (''Krait''s captain) * Lieutenant Donald Montague Noel Davidson * Lieutenant Robert Charles Page * Corporal Andrew Anthony Crilly * Corporal R.G. Morris * Leading Seaman Kevin Patrick Cain * Leading Stoker James Patrick McDowell * Leading Telegraphist Horace Stewart Young * Able Seaman Walter Gordon Falls * Able Seaman Mostyn Berryman * Able Seaman Frederick Walter Lota Marsh * Able Seaman Arthur Walter Jones * Able Seaman Andrew William George Huston On 13 August 1943, ''Krait'' left Thursday Island for
Exmouth Gulf Exmouth Gulf is a gulf in the north-west of Western Australia. It lies between North West Cape and the main coastline of Western Australia. It is considered to be part of the Pilbara Coast and Northwest Shelf, and the Carnarvon Basin geolog ...
,
Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
, where it was refuelled and repairs were undertaken. Not only did the repairs cause delays in departure, but the folboats, manufactured by Harris Lebus and designated as model MKI**, which had been specially ordered for the attack by Lyon from England only arrived at the last minute. They were found to be faulty, lacked some important parts and were not according to the design that Davidson had specified. They had to undergo many on-the-spot changes simply to make each framework fit together and then fit correctly into the outer skins. This left the crew little time to get accustomed to them before being loaded on to ''Krait''. On 2 September 1943, ''Krait'' left Exmouth Gulf and departed for Singapore. The team's safety depended on maintaining the disguise of a local fishing boat. The men stained their skin brown with dye to appear more Asiatic and were meticulous in what sort of rubbish they threw overboard, lest a trail of European garbage arouse suspicion. After a relatively uneventful voyage, ''Krait'' arrived off Singapore on 24 September. That night, six men left the boat and paddled with folboats (collapsible canoes) to establish a forward base in a cave on a small island near the harbour. On the night of 26 September 1943, they paddled into the harbour and placed limpet mines on several Japanese ships before returning to their hiding spot. In the resulting explosions, the limpet mines allegedly sank or seriously damaged seven Japanese ships, comprising over 39,000 tons between them. The commandos waited until the commotion over the attack had subsided and then returned to ''Krait'', which they reached on 2 October. Their return to Australia was mostly uneventful, except for a tense incident in the
Lombok Strait The Lombok Strait ( id, Selat Lombok), is a strait connecting the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean, and is located between the islands of Bali and Lombok in Indonesia. The Gili Islands are on the Lombok side. Its narrowest point is at its southern ...
when the ship was closely approached by a Japanese auxiliary minesweeper Wa-102 on patrol; however ''Krait'' was not challenged. On 19 October, the ship and crew arrived safely back at Exmouth Gulf.


Recent analysis of results

Recent analysis of Japanese records and radio decrypts have identified only 6 ships sunk or damaged. Japanese radio messages only reference six ships attacked, and it is highly probable the attack on the seventh failed. The often repeated claim that the saboteurs sank the large high speed tanker ''Shinkoku Maru'' (Sinkoku Maru in kokutai spelling) is not supported by Japanese records that clearly show the ship leaving Truk (Chuuk), Carolines Islands on the day of the attack.


Raid repercussions

The raid took the Japanese authorities in Singapore completely by surprise. Never suspecting such an attack could be mounted from Australia, they assumed it had been carried out by local saboteurs, most likely pro-
Communist Chinese , anthem = "The Internationale" , seats1_title = National People's Congress (13th) , seats1 = , seats2_title = NPC Standing Committee , seats2 = , flag = Flag of the Chinese Communist Pa ...
guerillas. In their efforts to uncover the perpetrators, a wave of arrests, torture and executions began. Local Chinese and Malays, as well as interned POWs and European civilians were targeted in this programme. The incident became known as the Double Tenth, for 10 October, the day that Japanese secret police began the mass arrests. Given the effects inflicted upon the local population by the Japanese, criticism has arisen as to whether Operation Jaywick was justified, especially with its relatively limited strategic results. In the aftermath of the raid, the Allies never claimed responsibility for the attack on shipping, most likely because they wanted to preserve the secret of ''Krait'' for future similar missions. Therefore, the Japanese did not divert significant military resources to defending against such attacks, instead just using their secret police to enact reprisals against civilians. Operation Jaywick was followed by
Operation Rimau Operation Rimau was an attack on Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour, carried out by an Allied commando unit Z Special Unit, during World War II using Australian built Hoehn military MKIII folboats. It was a follow-up to the successful ''Ope ...
. Although three ships are sometimes claimed as sunk in this raid, no corroboration of this has ever been found and in all likelihood no vessels were sunk; but the participants, including Lyon, were either killed in action or captured and executed.


Popular culture

Australian novelist
Ronald McKie Ronald Cecil Hamlyn McKie (11 December 1909 – 8 May 1991) was an Australian novelist. He was born on 11 May 1909 in Toowoomba, Queensland. After receiving his education at the Brisbane Grammar School and the University of Queensland, he ...
wrote an account of the operation in 1961 titled "The Heroes". In 1989, a British/Australian miniseries dramatized McKie's book. '' The Heroes'' was directed by
Donald Crombie Donald Charles Crombie (born 5 July 1942) is an Australian film and television director and screenwriter. Born in Brisbane, Crombie was educated at the Anglican Church Grammar School and studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Cr ...
, with the cast including
Paul Rhys Paul Rhys (born 19 December 1963) is a Welsh theatre, television and film actor. Early life Rhys was born in Neath to working class Catholic parents, Kathryn Ivory and her husband Richard Charles Rhys, a labourer. At fourteen, he bred and train ...
as Ivan Lyon,
John Bach John Bach (born 5 June 1946) is a British-born New Zealand actor who has acted on stage, television and film over a period of more than four decades. Though born in the United Kingdom, he has spent most of his career living and working in New Z ...
as Donald Davidson and Jason Donovan as 'Happy' Houston.


See also

*
Operation Frankton Operation Frankton was a commando raid on ships in the German occupied French port of Bordeaux in southwest France during the Second World War. The raid was carried out by a small unit of Royal Marines known as the Royal Marines Boom Patrol ...


References


Bibliography

* Cundall, Peter (2018) "Operation Jaywick: A Reassessment of Results", ''The Log: Quarterly Journal of Nautical Association of Australia'', Vol 51, No.2, Issue 212, p.68. Also published a
"Operation Jaywick: A Reassessment of Results"
on Combined Fleet website *Hoehn, John. (2011). ''Commando Kayak: The Role of Australian Folboats in the Pacific Campaign''. Hirsch Publishing. *National Archives of Australia, ''A3269, E2A'', 1944, p. 34. *Silver, Lynette Ramsay. (2001). ''Krait: The Fishing Boat that Went to War''. Cultured Lotus. . *Wynyard, Noel. (1947). "Winning Hazard". Sampson Low, Marston & Co.


External links

*

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070928073912/http://www.australiansatwarfilmarchive.gov.au/aawfa/interviews/318.aspx Interview with Horrie Young in the Australians At War Film Archive
HNSA Ship Page: Krait

Operation Jaywick, Australian War Memorial
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaywick, Operation Conflicts in 1943 Battles and operations of World War II British rule in Singapore Japanese occupation of Singapore Military operations of World War II involving Australia Special forces of Australia Military history of Singapore 1943 in Singapore World War II British Commando raids Military history of Malaya during World War II