|
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 MKIII folboats. It was a follow-up to the successful ''Operation Jaywick'', which had taken place in 1943, and ''Rimau'', a shortened version of the word Harimau (which is Malay for tiger). It was again led by Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Lyon of the Gordon Highlanders. Originally part of a much larger operation called ''Operation Hornbill'', the aim of Rimau was to sink Japanese shipping by paddling the folboats in the dark and placing limpet mines on ships. It was originally intended that motorised semi-submersible canoes, known as Sleeping Beauties, would be used to gain access to the harbour, however, they resorted to folboats. Thirteen men, including Lyon, were killed. The ten captured commandos were tried with 'perfidy and espionage' in a Japanese court and executed on 7 July 1945. ==Planning== After the success of Operation Jaywick, Ivan Lyon started preparing for Operation Rimau. 'Rimau' is the Malay word for 'tiger' and Lyon had a large multi-coloured tiger head tattooed on his chest. The mission consisted of 22 men with an additional two performing the duties of "conducting officers". The plan was to: *deliver commandoes to enemy waters via submarine with 15 one-man, motorised submersible canoes known as "Sleeping Beauties" (SBs) (these could be used on the surface or travel semi-submerged, with the operator’s head above the water or fully submerged similar to a small submarine); *travel to the uninhabited Merapas Island which they would use as a base and place enough supplies for three months; *have the commandoes capture a small fishing boat; *sail the boat towards Singapore Harbour undetected, disguising the commandos as locals; *reach the Bay of Kepala Jernih late on 9 October for 24 hours to allow an officer to carry out a reconnaissance from Pulau Subar; *the officer was to spend the observing targets and later rendezvous with the junk to participate in the attack; *two canoes would travel north to the vicinity of Labon Island to secure a hide for the junk and for another canoe to proceed to Subar; *after darkness, the crew was to move the junk to an attack base at Labon *using the ‘Sleeping Beauties’, the party was to attach limpet mines to Japanese ships, sink thirty of them, damage another thirty, and escape to their base on Merapas Island by paddling their way back in two-man folboat canoes, seventy miles to the east of Singapore; *return to a rendezvous with the submarine on 7/8 November at Merapas Island; *if the submarine failed to make contact with them then it would stay in the area, returning to the designated point every night until 8 December. The main differences from Operation Jaywick were: *delivering mines by special one-man motorised submersible canoes (called ‘Sleeping Beauties’, or SBs); *a larger team (24 as opposed to 14); *capturing a boat rather than sailing in one from Australia; *the boat captured did not have an engine. The members of the team were: *Corporal Archie Campbell, *Sergeant Colin Cameron – Maintenance Technician; *Lieutenant Walter Carey – conducting officer, *Lt Walter Chapman – conducting officer *Corporal Colin Craft – signaller; *Lieutenant Commander Donald Davidson, RNVR *; *Able Seaman Walter Falls *; *Corporal Roland Fletcher – Infantry and Maintenance; *Sergeant David Gooley – Maintenance Technician; *Lance Corporal John Hardy – Infantry and Maintenance; *Able Seaman Andrew Huston, *Major Reginald Ingleton, RM; *Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Lyon *; *Able Seaman Frederick Marsh *; *Corporal Hugo Pace – Infantry and Maintenance; *Captain Robert Page *; *Lieutenant Bruno Reymond, RANR *Sub-Lieutenant Gregor Riggs, RNVR *Lieutenant Robert Ross, *Lieutenant Albert Sargent, *Corporal Clair Stewart – signaller; *Private Douglas Warne – Infantry and Maintenance; *Warrant Officer Alfred Warren; *Warrant Officer Jeffrey Willersdorf – Maintenance Technician. ( * means participated in Operation Jaywick) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Operation Rimau」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|