On February 15, 1942, the port of Singapore fell to the Japanese. It was a terrible blow to the British Empire as 80,000 British, Indian, and Australian soldiers were taken prisoner. Naturally, the Allies wanted revenge. In walked a civilian named Bill Reynolds. The 61-year-old had used a Japanese boat named the Kofuku Maru to evacuate civilians from Malaya and had an idea. Wherever the boat sailed, the Japanese ignored it. He proposed to 28-year-old Capt. Ivan Lyon that a raid be made on Singapore. The two men got the mission green-lit by Z Special Unit (better known as Z Force), a special forces unit that was part of Special Operations Australia (SOA). The idea was to sail the rechristened Krait (named after a small, but deadly snake) to Singapore. Commandoes using collapsible canoes would paddle into the harbor to place limpet mines on ships. They left on Sept. 2, 1943 and arrived off Singapore on Sept. 24. Six men in three canoes paddled to an island with a cave for hiding. On the night of Sept. 26, they snuck into the harbor. The mission went off without much of a hitch, although one canoe was spotted (but ignored) and another was almost rammed by a tug boat. They then egressed and soon after, explosions sank or damaged seven merchant ships. The commandos hid in the cave for several days before rejoining the Krail and sailing uneventfully back to Australia. So, a spectacular success, right? Maybe, if you disregard the collateral damages. Because the Allies decided to not claim responsibility, the Japanese assumed local civilians and prisoners of war had done it. Thousands were tortured and killed. Was it worth it? No.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Jaywick
https://www.sea.museum/2019/01/09/operation-jaywick
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