grendel
09-23-2003, 12:31 PM
On September 1943, British & Australian commandos dealt a tremendous blow on Axis shipping in Singapore and Norway...
Operation Source
http://www.mm.wa.gov.au/Museum/mhist/sub/resource/xcraft.jpg
This picture shows an X-craft like X24 which in terms of tonnage sunk would compare with her more successful big sisters. X24's CO Max Shean's book 'Corvette and Submarine' discribes well the the operations these craft were used for and the men that fought in them.
Unsung heroes in midget subs
IT seems like a suicide mission.
Squeezed into a midget submarine with explosives strapped to its hull, you have to cut your way through underwater nets, negotiate a minefield, then attack the most heavily guarded battleship in the world.
Welcome to the heroics performed by Australians 60 years ago.
Tomorrow is the 60th anniversary of the top-secret raid on Adolf Hitler's feared Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord in World War II.
Britain's Royal Navy was given the job of putting the 52,000-tonne battleship out of action when bombing attacks failed, but the mission could not have completed without the daring of a handful of Australian officers.
They damaged the German monster, after which it was never again a threat to Allied convoys.
"It was cold, it was wet, but they gave us a job and we did our best with it," Max Shean said.
Mr Shean is the only surviving Australian member of the group trained to take the experimental midget submarines behind enemy lines.
He was a diver when selected for service in X-craft, the little submarines built to go in harm's way before they were fully proven.
Volunteers had to be under 24, unmarried and good swimmers. They trained in Scotland before setting out on their mission to cripple Tirpitz, sister ship to Bismarck which had been sunk in 1941 in a costly sea battle.
Melbourne author Jeff Maynard, whose new book, Divers in Time, explores Australia's contribution to underwater exploits, believes their courage is not properly recognised.
"Many books have been written about the Tirpitz attack, but none points out three of the commanding officers were Australians," Maynard said. "Much has also been written about the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour, but very little about Australia's role in midget submarines against the Japanese."
Six of the submarines, each with a crew of four, were committed to the attack in occupied Norway, where Tirpitz had evaded air raids.
Manned by transit crews, they were towed across the North Sea by conventional submarines.
But Mr Shean's boat, X-9, never made it. The towing line broke and X-9 disappeared with its transit crew. X-8 was damaged. That left four midget submarines for the attack.
X-10, commanded by Hobart's Ken Hudspeth, made it through the anti-submarine nets and minefields, but could not go on because of mechanical problems.
Heroically, the men in X-10 took their sub to the floor of the fjord so as not to give away the mission, retreating only when explosions told them the others had made it.
X-6 laid its charges under the keel of the Tirpitz but was caught up in anti-torpedo nets. Its four crewmen were captured.
X-7 also tangled in the nets and was fired upon when surfacing. Two crew were taken prisoner and two died when the little boat sank.
X-5 surfaced briefly 700m from Tirpitz and submerged again when shot at. It was never seen again, taking to the bottom its crew, including skipper Henty Henty-Creer, a descendant of Victoria's pioneering Henty brothers.
Mr Shean, who displayed great courage en route to Norway in diving into the sea in the Arctic Circle to free a towing cable, was disappointed he did not attack the battleship. But he was part of a team effort that saw Tirpitz rendered ineffective.
Damaged by the explosives from the midget submarines, the huge grey ship was laid up for repairs for months before succumbing to blockbuster bombs in 1944, having taken little part in Germany's war effort.
"Hitler did his block over the attack," Mr Shean said. "The little X-craft were amazing. They were designed and built one year, and they were crippling battleships the next."
The late Mr Hudspeth took part in the D-Day landings at Normandy, commanding a midget submarine that went in ahead of the invasion force to mark the approaches.
Mr Shean also stayed with the midget force, taking part in dangerous missions against the Germans and later the Japanese, including the disruption of communications in South-East Asia.
Retired in Perth, he will not attend a reunion in England of X-craft crews this year, claiming he is too old to "go gadding about the world".
But he paid tribute to fallen comrades and to another Australian hero of the operation, Sir Ian McIntosh, formerly of Geelong, who died last month.
Skipper of the conventional submarine Sceptre, which towed X-10, he became known as "Bring 'em back alive McIntosh" after three successful missions involving X-craft. Sir Ian became an admiral in the Royal Navy.
Divers in Time by Jeff Maynard, published by Glenmore Productions, Yarraville.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,7323627%5E662,00.html
Operation Jaywick
http://www.awm.gov.au/images/p01483_002.jpg
The MV Krait was originally restored in 1964 and used for training and recreation purposes by the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol. The vessel is now part of the AWM's collection and is currently on loan to the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney.
http://www.gunplot.net/zforce/kraitcrewb.jpg
Above: Crew of the Krait
Z SPECIAL UNIT Operation 'Jaywick'
The Operation was planned by Australian and British Commando and Intelligence Officers and was to take place at the same time when the Salamaua, Lae and Finschafen operations were taking place against the Japanese in New Guinea. Disorganisation of Japanese shipping was deemed to be an essential factor in the success of these operations. So great was the secrecy of Operation Jaywick that Major Bob Page of Grafton, New South Wales, died in a later operation without even knowing he had been decorated for his part in it. For nine months the party trained at a secret camp on the Queensland coast.
The vessel assigned to them was the 'Krait', a former Japanese fishing boat, 70 feet long, 11 foot Beam with a range of 11,000 miles and a top speed of 6.5 knots. Krait had originally been sailed to India from Singapore, after its fall to the Japanese, where she was commandeered by Military Intelligence for 'possible future use'. Later, she was sent on a perilous voyage across the Indian Ocean to Australia and refitted for her new role.
Krait departed Exmouth in Western Australia laden with weapons, limpet mines and rubber canoes, which were stowed out of sight, and headed north toward the Lombok Strait in the very dangerous occupied waters around Surabaja, Indonesia.
She was sailed to within 21 miles of the 'Singapore Roads' and then the canoes were loaded with rations and water for one week plus operational stores and weapons. The canoe borne raiders arranged their rendezvous with Krait for the night of October 1st at Pompong, 28 miles from the advanced operational post, for which Dongas, eight miles from Singapore Harbour had been selected.
At 8:30 on September 22, the three canoes, with their six raiders a piece reached Dongas. The arduous nature of the long paddle necessitated a day of rest for the canoeists and the next day Singapore Harbour was reconnoitered for likely targets. At no time during their five day observation was there less than 100,000 tons of shipping present in the harbour. On September 24 the three canoes attempted infiltration of the harbour but adverse tides forced abandonment of the mission. All during this period the raiders were under the constant threat of being detected by the numerous and active Japanese water and shore patrols. The next night the base of operations was altered to Palau Sambu where the tides were more favourable and on the night of 26 September the successful raid was launched.
Canoe 1 reached a 10,000 ton tanker and two limpet mines were attached to her hull, one at the place of the engineroom and another on her propeller shaft. Canoe 2 twice crossed the boom of the harbour in search of worthy targets and finally selected three of the most tempting - one 5,000 ton freighter, the 6,000 ton 'Taisyo Maru' and another 5,000 ton tanker. Canoe 3 covertly examined ships and sentries along the lighted wharves before selecting the modern freighters 'Nasusan Maru' and 'Yamataga Maru'. The attacks began soon after 8:00 pm. At dawn, the canoes were back at their operations base camp and there the crews settled back to watch the forthcoming show.
Seven separate explosions were heard between 5:15 am and 5:50 am and both sea and air patrols were observed setting out searching for the attackers. At dusk on 27 September the raiders set out for their rendezvous with Krait which was cruising in the vicinity of Pompong Island and despite the frantic and exhaustive air and sea searches by the enraged Japanese the canoeists slipped through the net and made their rendezvous.
Lieutenant Carse and the seven member crew of Krait had been waiting and playing cat and mouse with Japanese patrols for 16 anxious days when all of the raiders were picked up safely. The Krait then stole away unnoticed bound for Australia where there were one or two close calls along the way - such as being interrogated by an inquisitive enemy destroyer, but she reached Australia without the loss of a single man (a remarkable achievement for such a hazardous mission). The seemingly impossible 'Operation Jaywick' had been a resounding success.
http://www.gunplot.net/zforce/zforce2.html
Photo sources:
http://www.mm.wa.gov.au/Museum/mhist/sub/wcraft.html
http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/krait.htm
Operation Source
http://www.mm.wa.gov.au/Museum/mhist/sub/resource/xcraft.jpg
This picture shows an X-craft like X24 which in terms of tonnage sunk would compare with her more successful big sisters. X24's CO Max Shean's book 'Corvette and Submarine' discribes well the the operations these craft were used for and the men that fought in them.
Unsung heroes in midget subs
IT seems like a suicide mission.
Squeezed into a midget submarine with explosives strapped to its hull, you have to cut your way through underwater nets, negotiate a minefield, then attack the most heavily guarded battleship in the world.
Welcome to the heroics performed by Australians 60 years ago.
Tomorrow is the 60th anniversary of the top-secret raid on Adolf Hitler's feared Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord in World War II.
Britain's Royal Navy was given the job of putting the 52,000-tonne battleship out of action when bombing attacks failed, but the mission could not have completed without the daring of a handful of Australian officers.
They damaged the German monster, after which it was never again a threat to Allied convoys.
"It was cold, it was wet, but they gave us a job and we did our best with it," Max Shean said.
Mr Shean is the only surviving Australian member of the group trained to take the experimental midget submarines behind enemy lines.
He was a diver when selected for service in X-craft, the little submarines built to go in harm's way before they were fully proven.
Volunteers had to be under 24, unmarried and good swimmers. They trained in Scotland before setting out on their mission to cripple Tirpitz, sister ship to Bismarck which had been sunk in 1941 in a costly sea battle.
Melbourne author Jeff Maynard, whose new book, Divers in Time, explores Australia's contribution to underwater exploits, believes their courage is not properly recognised.
"Many books have been written about the Tirpitz attack, but none points out three of the commanding officers were Australians," Maynard said. "Much has also been written about the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour, but very little about Australia's role in midget submarines against the Japanese."
Six of the submarines, each with a crew of four, were committed to the attack in occupied Norway, where Tirpitz had evaded air raids.
Manned by transit crews, they were towed across the North Sea by conventional submarines.
But Mr Shean's boat, X-9, never made it. The towing line broke and X-9 disappeared with its transit crew. X-8 was damaged. That left four midget submarines for the attack.
X-10, commanded by Hobart's Ken Hudspeth, made it through the anti-submarine nets and minefields, but could not go on because of mechanical problems.
Heroically, the men in X-10 took their sub to the floor of the fjord so as not to give away the mission, retreating only when explosions told them the others had made it.
X-6 laid its charges under the keel of the Tirpitz but was caught up in anti-torpedo nets. Its four crewmen were captured.
X-7 also tangled in the nets and was fired upon when surfacing. Two crew were taken prisoner and two died when the little boat sank.
X-5 surfaced briefly 700m from Tirpitz and submerged again when shot at. It was never seen again, taking to the bottom its crew, including skipper Henty Henty-Creer, a descendant of Victoria's pioneering Henty brothers.
Mr Shean, who displayed great courage en route to Norway in diving into the sea in the Arctic Circle to free a towing cable, was disappointed he did not attack the battleship. But he was part of a team effort that saw Tirpitz rendered ineffective.
Damaged by the explosives from the midget submarines, the huge grey ship was laid up for repairs for months before succumbing to blockbuster bombs in 1944, having taken little part in Germany's war effort.
"Hitler did his block over the attack," Mr Shean said. "The little X-craft were amazing. They were designed and built one year, and they were crippling battleships the next."
The late Mr Hudspeth took part in the D-Day landings at Normandy, commanding a midget submarine that went in ahead of the invasion force to mark the approaches.
Mr Shean also stayed with the midget force, taking part in dangerous missions against the Germans and later the Japanese, including the disruption of communications in South-East Asia.
Retired in Perth, he will not attend a reunion in England of X-craft crews this year, claiming he is too old to "go gadding about the world".
But he paid tribute to fallen comrades and to another Australian hero of the operation, Sir Ian McIntosh, formerly of Geelong, who died last month.
Skipper of the conventional submarine Sceptre, which towed X-10, he became known as "Bring 'em back alive McIntosh" after three successful missions involving X-craft. Sir Ian became an admiral in the Royal Navy.
Divers in Time by Jeff Maynard, published by Glenmore Productions, Yarraville.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,7323627%5E662,00.html
Operation Jaywick
http://www.awm.gov.au/images/p01483_002.jpg
The MV Krait was originally restored in 1964 and used for training and recreation purposes by the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol. The vessel is now part of the AWM's collection and is currently on loan to the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney.
http://www.gunplot.net/zforce/kraitcrewb.jpg
Above: Crew of the Krait
Z SPECIAL UNIT Operation 'Jaywick'
The Operation was planned by Australian and British Commando and Intelligence Officers and was to take place at the same time when the Salamaua, Lae and Finschafen operations were taking place against the Japanese in New Guinea. Disorganisation of Japanese shipping was deemed to be an essential factor in the success of these operations. So great was the secrecy of Operation Jaywick that Major Bob Page of Grafton, New South Wales, died in a later operation without even knowing he had been decorated for his part in it. For nine months the party trained at a secret camp on the Queensland coast.
The vessel assigned to them was the 'Krait', a former Japanese fishing boat, 70 feet long, 11 foot Beam with a range of 11,000 miles and a top speed of 6.5 knots. Krait had originally been sailed to India from Singapore, after its fall to the Japanese, where she was commandeered by Military Intelligence for 'possible future use'. Later, she was sent on a perilous voyage across the Indian Ocean to Australia and refitted for her new role.
Krait departed Exmouth in Western Australia laden with weapons, limpet mines and rubber canoes, which were stowed out of sight, and headed north toward the Lombok Strait in the very dangerous occupied waters around Surabaja, Indonesia.
She was sailed to within 21 miles of the 'Singapore Roads' and then the canoes were loaded with rations and water for one week plus operational stores and weapons. The canoe borne raiders arranged their rendezvous with Krait for the night of October 1st at Pompong, 28 miles from the advanced operational post, for which Dongas, eight miles from Singapore Harbour had been selected.
At 8:30 on September 22, the three canoes, with their six raiders a piece reached Dongas. The arduous nature of the long paddle necessitated a day of rest for the canoeists and the next day Singapore Harbour was reconnoitered for likely targets. At no time during their five day observation was there less than 100,000 tons of shipping present in the harbour. On September 24 the three canoes attempted infiltration of the harbour but adverse tides forced abandonment of the mission. All during this period the raiders were under the constant threat of being detected by the numerous and active Japanese water and shore patrols. The next night the base of operations was altered to Palau Sambu where the tides were more favourable and on the night of 26 September the successful raid was launched.
Canoe 1 reached a 10,000 ton tanker and two limpet mines were attached to her hull, one at the place of the engineroom and another on her propeller shaft. Canoe 2 twice crossed the boom of the harbour in search of worthy targets and finally selected three of the most tempting - one 5,000 ton freighter, the 6,000 ton 'Taisyo Maru' and another 5,000 ton tanker. Canoe 3 covertly examined ships and sentries along the lighted wharves before selecting the modern freighters 'Nasusan Maru' and 'Yamataga Maru'. The attacks began soon after 8:00 pm. At dawn, the canoes were back at their operations base camp and there the crews settled back to watch the forthcoming show.
Seven separate explosions were heard between 5:15 am and 5:50 am and both sea and air patrols were observed setting out searching for the attackers. At dusk on 27 September the raiders set out for their rendezvous with Krait which was cruising in the vicinity of Pompong Island and despite the frantic and exhaustive air and sea searches by the enraged Japanese the canoeists slipped through the net and made their rendezvous.
Lieutenant Carse and the seven member crew of Krait had been waiting and playing cat and mouse with Japanese patrols for 16 anxious days when all of the raiders were picked up safely. The Krait then stole away unnoticed bound for Australia where there were one or two close calls along the way - such as being interrogated by an inquisitive enemy destroyer, but she reached Australia without the loss of a single man (a remarkable achievement for such a hazardous mission). The seemingly impossible 'Operation Jaywick' had been a resounding success.
http://www.gunplot.net/zforce/zforce2.html
Photo sources:
http://www.mm.wa.gov.au/Museum/mhist/sub/wcraft.html
http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/krait.htm