Operation Jaywick

Operation Jaywick was a special operation undertaken in the Second World War. 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 more using limpet mines.

Operation Jaywick was a special operation undertaken in the Second World War. 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 more using limpet mines.

Aftermath

Casualties

Day 1964 the MV Krait was dedicated a War Memorial; this plaque was affixed to its wheelhouse.]] The raid took the Japanese authorities in Singapore by surprise. Not suspecting such an attack could be mounted from Australia, they assumed it had been carried out by local saboteurs, most likely pro-Communist Chinese guerillas. In their efforts to uncover the perpetrators, a wave of arrests, torture and executions began. Local Chinese and Malays, interned POWs and European civilians were attacked. 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. After the raid the Allies never claimed responsibility for the attack on shipping, most likely because they wanted to preserve the secret of Krait for similar missions. The Japanese did not divert significant military resources to defending against such attacks, instead used the secret police to inflict reprisals on civilians. Recent analysis of Japanese records and radio decrypts have identified only six ships sunk or damaged. Japanese radio messages reference only six ships attacked and it is highly probable the attack on the seventh failed. The oft-repeated claim that the saboteurs sank the large high speed tanker Shinkoku Maru (Sinkoku Maru in kokutai spelling) is not supported by Japanese records which clearly show the ship leaving Truk (Chuuk), Carolines Islands on the day of the attack.

Subsequent operations

Operation Jaywick was followed by Operation Rimau. Although three ships are sometimes claimed as sunk in this raid, no corroboration of this has been found and in all likelihood no vessels were sunk; the participants, including Lyon, were either killed in action or captured and executed.

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