This section has nothing to do with naval warfare, but the special attack team bombs ships, and the means of transportation are also ships, and it is not too outrageous to return to naval warfare. Moreover, it is not easy to sneak thousands of kilometers in a small boat, and it takes great courage to go deep behind enemy lines, and they clearly know what defeat means, but they have no hesitation.
Such courage is worth jocing down, though not much detail
In July 1940, the Special Operations Executive was established in the United Kingdom to deal with the situation in World War II, the main task is to carry out sabotage behind enemy lines, reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, etc. Its agents are scattered all over the world, even neutral countries, and Singapore as a colony, of course, has branches.
When Singapore fell in February 1942, agents moved to Australia. In March, the Allies established the Inter-Allied Services Department in Australia, whose main purpose and mission were similar to those of the British Special Operations Bureau, whose backbone members were former agents in Singapore.
In June, the agency was renamed Task Force Z.
Ivan Lyon was born in 1915 into a military family and was based in Singapore after graduating from military school in 1935. In the years leading up to the war, one of Lyon's hobbies was boating the islands of the South Sea------- which was one of the foundations of his future actions.
He married in 1939 to a family of Frenchmen who colonized Vietnam. After pearl harbor, Britain declared war on the Japanese Empire, and it was very unfortunate that Lyon's wife and children were trapped in Malaysia and detained by the Japanese army------- which was the basis for his future actions, similar to Gunn who hijacked and killed the enemy in Section 18.4. Pacific Naval Battle No. 18.4: Hijacking kills enemies
At the beginning of the defense of Singapore, Lyon was not a special agent, just an ordinary soldier, but because he was familiar with the nearby sea, he participated in various rescue and evacuation operations. Most of the time, the ship he used was the Kofuku Maru.
The Happiness Maru is a 21-meter-long wooden fishing boat with a displacement of 68 tons, and since it is called "Maru", it is of course Japanese. It was also very unfortunate that when the British declared war, the ship was parked in Singapore, and of course, it was confiscated by the British.
After the fall of Singapore, Lyon retreated to Australia with a large army, while Happiness Maru went to Sri Lanka and India.
As soon as he arrived in Lyon, Australia, he joined the Allied Service, later the Z Special Unit, and as a captain, he led a squad. Leon immediately began planning his own operations behind enemy lines, and by early April at the latest he began recruiting volunteers to train in the river bay north of Sydney.
The team members are very young, mostly 19-year-olds shortly after graduating from high school, and Mostyn Berryman is one of them.
Feeling that the old guys used it well and had their natural advantages, the Happiness Pill was transported from India to Australia by the British army at the request of Lyon. As a task force, the Japanese fishing vessel was renamed the MV Krait.
The digression is that the golden ring snake is a poisonous snake, which I often saw when I was young, as well as silver ring snakes, deflated winds, etc., and also ate snake eggs.
In August 1943, the task force, which had been practicing for more than a year, finally began to move, leaving Sydney and circling the northern coast of Australia to the northwestern port exmouth Gulf. Inside the harbor, after the Allies made a final overhaul of the Golden Ring Snake, on September 2, the Golden Ring Snake disguised as a Malay fishing boat left Australia, with 3 Britons and 11 Australians on board, a total of 14 contingent officers and men.
Only then did the team know their destination: "Go to Singapore and bomb a few Japanese ships." ”。 Although it is easy to say, the equipment they carry is two different things: submachine guns and potassium cyanide capsules.
This is Operation Jaywick.
The team members had makeup on their faces, at least from a distance, and the difference from the Asian race was not visible. The side of the boat is also full of fishing nets, clothes, etc., just a typical small fishing boat------- this is indeed the old line of this boat.
Although there is no regular bunk, sleeping is also very crowded, but the team members have been in this small boat for many months and have become accustomed to it. And the journey to Singapore was smooth, which was enough.
On 24 September, the Golden Ring Snake arrived at the unnamed island 50 kilometres from Singapore------- thanks to Lyon's previous sailing experience. Inside the cave, six task force members put down their rubber boats and hit the road with magnetic time bombs.
On the night of the 26th, 6 members of the team rowed a dinghy into the Port of Singapore, and after a busy time, they left smoothly. Seven Japanese freighters were sunk and injured, with a total tonnage of nearly 40,000 tons.
The return trip is a bit thrilling. On October 11, a Japanese ship in the Lombok Strait was once close to tens of meters above the Golden Ring Snake, but fortunately it was late at night, and the Japanese did not notice the abnormality of the crew on the small boat.
On 19 October, the contingent returned to its starting point in Australia.
The task was successfully completed.
But the risks of activity behind enemy lines are always enormous.
A year later, in October 1944, Lyon acted again, organizing three small boats for 23 people to travel to Singapore. The operation failed, three small boats were sunk near Singapore, Lyon and 13 others were killed, the remaining 10 were captured, and all were beheaded before the Japanese Empire surrendered. The entire army was wiped out, and the catastrophic operation was called Operation Rimau.
However, in the second operation, Lyon did not use the Golden Ring Snake, so the small boat survived, and after several twists and turns, it is now on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum.
Moreover, Beliman, who took part in the first operation, refused the second operation and survived. In 1993, at the fiftieth anniversary of Operation Gervik, Berryman met Lyon's only son, Clive Lyon, and the two embraced and cried.
On August 6, 2020, Berryman passed away at the age of 96.
Thanks for reading
Full text: The Battle of the Pacific: Table of Contents/20200812