Operation Jaywick
Operation Jaywick was a special operation undertaken in World War II. In September 1943, 14 commandos and sailors from the Allied Z Special Unit raided Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour, sinking three ships and damaging three ships. Background Special Operations Australia (SOA), a combined Allied military intelligence 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. In June 1942, a commando arm was organised as Z Special Unit (which was later commonly known as Z Force). It drew its personnel primarily from the Australian Army and Royal Australian Navy. In 1943, a 28-year-old British officer, Captain (later Major) Ivan Lyon (of the Allied Intelligence Bureau and Gordon Highlanders), and a 61-year-old Australian civilian, Bill Reyn ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Japanese Occupation Of Singapore
, officially , was the name for Colony of Singapore, Singapore when it was occupied and ruled by the Empire of Japan, following the fall and surrender of British military forces on 15 February 1942 during World War II. The Japanese military forces occupied Singapore after defeating the combined British Army during the Second World War, British, British Raj, Indian, Australian, British Malaya, Malayan and the Straits Settlements garrison in the Battle of Singapore within 7 days. The occupation was to become a major turning point in the histories of several nations, including those of Japan, Britain, and Singapore. Singapore was renamed Syonan-to, meaning "Light of the South Island" and was also included as part of the . Singapore was officially returned to British colonial rule on 12 September 1945, following the formal signing of the surrender at the Municipal Building, Singapore, Municipal Building, currently known as City Hall. After the return of the British, there was gr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Australian Army
The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia. It is 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 (Australia), Chief of Army (CA), who is subordinate to the Chief of the Defence Force (Australia), Chief of the Defence Force (CDF) who commands the ADF. The CA is also directly responsible to the Minister of Defence (Australia), Minister for Defence, with the Department of Defence (Australia), Department of Defence administering the ADF and the Army. The Australian Army was formed in 1901 as the Commonwealth Military Forces, through the amalgamation of the colonial forces of Australia following the Federation of Australia. Although Australian soldiers have been involved in a number of minor and major conflicts throughout Australia's history, only during the Second World War has Australian territory come under direct attack. The Australia ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Robert Page (soldier)
Robert Charles Page, DSO (21 July 1920 – 7 July 1945) was an Australian soldier who was a member of Z Special Unit during the Second World War. He took part in Operation Jaywick and Operation Rimau, in which he was captured and executed by the Japanese. He was the nephew of Australian prime minister Sir Earle Page, and the son of Harold Page, who died as a Japanese prisoner of war in 1942. Page was played by John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ... in the film '' The Highest Honor'' (1983) and Chris Morsley in '' The Heroes'' (1989) and '' Heroes II: The Return'' (1991). [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thursday Island
Thursday Island, colloquially known as TI, or in the Kalaw Lagaw Ya, 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 York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, Australia. Thursday Island is also the name of the town in the south and west of the island, formerly known as Port Kennedy, and also the name of the Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality which contains the island within the Shire of Torres. The town of Rose Hill (known as Abednego until 7 September 1991) is located on the north-eastern tip of the island (). In the , the locality of Thursday Island had a population of 2,805 people. Geography Thursday Island has an area of about . The highest point on Thursday Island, standing at above sea level, is Milman Hill, a World War II defence facility. While Thursday Island is within the Shire of Torres and is the administrative ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral Sea, Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. The Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay Territory are Enclave and exclave, enclaves within the state. New South Wales' state capital is Sydney, which is also Australia's most populous city. , the population of New South Wales was over 8.3 million, making it Australia's most populous state. Almost two-thirds of the state's population, 5.3 million, live in the Greater Sydney area. The Colony of New South Wales was founded as a British penal colony in 1788. It originally comprised more than half of the Australian mainland with its Western Australia border, western boundary set at 129th meridian east in 1825. The colony then also includ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Broken Bay
Broken Bay, a semi-mature tide-dominated ria, drowned valley estuary, is a large inlet of the Tasman Sea located about north of Sydney on the Central Coast (New South Wales), Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separate greater Metropolitan Sydney from the Central Coast (New South Wales), Central Coast. Broken Bay is the first major bay north of Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour in the state capital of Sydney. Broken Bay has its origin at the confluence of the Hawkesbury River, Pittwater, and Brisbane Water and flows openly into the Tasman Sea. The total surface area of the bay is approximately . Geography The entrance to Broken Bay lies between the northern Box Head, New South Wales, Box Head and Barrenjoey, New South Wales, Barrenjoey Head to the south. Barrenjoey Lighthouse was constructed in 1881 to guide ships away from the prominent headland. The bay comprises three arms, being the prominent estuary of the Hawkesbury River in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Krait
''Bungarus'' (commonly known as kraits ) is a genus of venomous snakes in the Family (biology), family Elapidae. The genus is native to Asia. Often found on the floor of tropical forests in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Southern China, they are medium-sized, highly venomous snakes with a total length (including tail) typically not exceeding . These are nocturnal ophiophagy, ophiophagious predators which prey primarily on other snakes at night, occasionally taking lizards, amphibians and rodents. Most species are with banded patterns acting as a aposematism, warning sign to their predators. Despite being considered as generally docile and timid, kraits are capable of delivering highly potent neurotoxins, neurotoxic venom which is medically significant with potential lethality to humans. The genus currently holds 18 species and 5 subspecies. Distribution Kraits are found in tropical and subtropical South Asia, South and Southeast Asia and Indochina, ranging in the west from Iran, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since 2023; and, since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is near Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago., "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by modern humans originating in Africa. ... Coalescence dates for most non-European populations averag ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fall Of The Riau Islands
The Battle of the Riau Islands (Dutch language, Dutch: Riouw) took place at the beginning of March 1942 during the Pacific War in the Second World War. History The Riau Archipelago is a large group of more or less small islands located east of the island of Sumatra and south of the Malay Peninsula with Singapore at its tip in the Malay Archipelago. The largest islands in the archipelago are Batam Island, Batam and Bintan Island, Bintan with the capital Tanjungpinang, Tanjung Pinang. The islands belonged to the Dutch colony of the Dutch East Indies. In December 1941, several KNIL troops were stationed there for garrison duty only. They were all under the command of Major J. H. de Vries. Units for the Riau islands were segmented in two: * Riouw & Dependencies Territorial Command: KNIL Garrison Battalion in Tanjungpinang ** Mobile Auxiliary First Aid Platoon * ''Landstorm'' Infantry Company in Tanjung Uban, Tanjunguban in Bintan Island * ''Landstorm'' Infantry Company in Sambu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Limpet Mine
A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets. It is so named because of its superficial similarity to the shape of the limpet, a type of sea snail that clings tightly to rocks or other hard surfaces. A swimmer or diver may attach the mine, which is usually designed with hollow compartments to give the mine just slight negative buoyancy, making it easier to handle underwater. Types of fuses Usually limpet mines are set off by a time fuse. They may also have an anti-handling device, making the mine explode if removed from the hull by enemy divers or by explosions. Sometimes limpet mines have been fitted with a small turbine which would detonate the mine after the ship had sailed a certain distance, so that it was likely to sink in navigable channels (to make access difficult for other ships) or deep water (out of reach of easy salvage) and making determination of the cause of the sinking more difficult. Development In December 1938, a new unit was c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Folding Kayak
A folding kayak is a direct descendant of the original Inuit kayak made of animal skins stretched over frames made from wood and bones. A modern folder has a collapsible frame made of some combination of wood, aluminium and plastic, and a skin made of a tough fabric with a waterproof coating. Many have integral air chambers inside the hull, making them virtually unsinkable. History First models The first workable folding kayak was built by in 1905, a German architectural student. Heurich paddled his creation on the Isar River near Munich and took out a patent on the design, called the ''Delphin'' (German: dolphin), the following year. The Delphin had a bamboo frame with a sailcloth hull stretched over it. It could be folded up and carried in three bags, each weighing less than . The folding kayak was made commercially successful by , whose factory was at Rosenheim, Germany. kayaks were very popular for their compact size and ease of transport. Klepper's ''Faltboot'' was intr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |