Operation Rimau

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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 Hoehn military MKIII folboats. It was a follow-up to the successful Operation Jaywick which had taken place in September 1943, and was again led by Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Lyon of the Gordon Highlanders, an infantry regiment of the British Army. 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. After the raiding party's discovery by local Malay authorities, a total of thirteen men (including raid commander Lyon) were killed during battles with the Japanese military at a number of island locations or were captured and died of their wounds in Japanese captivity. A group of ten commandos were transported to Outram Road Jail in Singapore after capture by the Japanese, were tried on charges of perfidy and espionage in a Japanese kangaroo court and executed on 7 July 1945. Following the results of Operation Jaywick in September 1943, Lieutenant-Colonel Ivan Lyon started planning for a bigger attack on Japanese-occupied Singapore by early January 1944. 'Rimau' is the Malay word for 'tiger' and Lyon had a large multi-coloured tiger head tattooed on his chest. The plan was to deliver commandoes to enemy waters via submarine with 15 one-man motorised submersible canoes known as "Sleeping Beauties" (SB). The commandoes were to travel to the uninhabited Merapas Island in Indonesia which they would use as a base and place enough supplies for three months. The commandoes would then capture a small local fishing boat, disguised as locals, to sail towards the Singapore Harbour undetected and to reach the Bay of Kepala Jernih (in the Tambelan Archipelago) late on 9 October 1944 for 24 hours to allow an officer to carry out a reconnaissance from Pulau Subar.