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 .
